135-585: (Redirected from Aphrodision ) Aphrodisium or Aphrodision (Ancient Greek: Ἀφροδίσιον ) may refer to: anything of or related to Aphrodite , a Greek goddess Aphrodisium, a sanctuary of Aphrodite in the modern Port-Vendres , Spain Aphrodisium, the ancient port of Hippo Regius in Africa, now the Algerian city of Annaba Aphrodisium, an ancient port, now
270-541: A strophion ( στρόφιον ) known as the kestos himas ( κεστὸς ἱμάς ), a saltire-shaped undergarment (usually translated as the girdle of Aphrodite ), which accentuated her breasts and made her even more irresistible to men. Such strophia were commonly used in depictions of the Near Eastern goddesses Ishtar and Atargatis . Aphrodite is almost always accompanied by Eros , the god of lust and sexual desire. In his Theogony , Hesiod describes Eros as one of
405-595: A Semitic deity, may have been influenced by the Indo-European dawn goddess. Both Aphrodite and Eos were known for their erotic beauty and aggressive sexuality and both had relationships with mortal lovers. Both goddesses were associated with the colors red, white, and gold. Michael Janda etymologizes Aphrodite's name as an epithet of Eos meaning "she who rises from the foam [of the ocean]" and points to Hesiod's Theogony account of Aphrodite's birth as an archaic reflex of Indo-European myth. Aphrodite rising out of
540-656: A stater (four drachmas), or more, like the Corinthian Lais in her prime did. In the 1st century BC, the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus of Gadara , cited in the Palatine anthology , V 126, mentions a system of subscription of up to five drachma for a dozen visits. In the 2nd century, Lucian in his Dialogue of the Hetaera has the prostitute Ampelis consider five drachma per visit as a mediocre price (8, 3). In
675-670: A suicide note to Theseus telling him that she killed herself because Hippolytus attempted to rape her. Theseus prays to Poseidon to kill Hippolytus for his transgression. Poseidon sends a wild bull to scare Hippolytus's horses as he is riding by the sea in his chariot, causing the horses to bolt and smash the chariot against the cliffs, dragging Hippolytus to a bloody death across the rocky shoreline. The play concludes with Artemis vowing to kill Aphrodite's own mortal beloved (presumably Adonis) in revenge. Glaucus of Corinth angered Aphrodite by refusing to let his horses for chariot racing mate, since doing so would hinder their speed. During
810-525: A Greek folk tale , originally independent of the Odyssey . In a much later interpolated detail, Ares put the young soldier Alectryon by the door to warn of Helios's arrival but Alectryon fell asleep on guard duty. Helios discovered the two and alerted Hephaestus; Ares in rage turned Alectryon into a rooster , which unfailingly crows to announce the sunrise. After exposing them, Hephaestus asks Zeus for his wedding gifts and dowry to be returned to him; by
945-579: A Near Eastern origin argued that Aphrodite originated as an aspect of the Greek dawn goddess Eos and that she was therefore ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess * H a éusōs (properly Greek Eos , Latin Aurora , Sanskrit Ushas ). Most modern scholars have now rejected the notion of a purely Indo-European Aphrodite, but it is possible that Aphrodite, originally
1080-444: A boy who offers his favours for one obolus; again, the mediocrity of this price calls it into some doubt. Straton of Sardis , a writer of epigrams in the 2nd century, recalls a transaction for five drachma ( Palatine anthology , XII, 239). In the forensic speech Against Simon , the prosecutor claimed to have hired a boy's sexual services for the price of 300 drachma, much more than what "middle range" hetaira typically charged. And
1215-611: A comic author, offers these courtesans derision: "plastered over with layers of white lead, … jowls smeared with mulberry juice. And if you go out on a summer's day, two rills of inky water flow from your eyes, and the sweat rolling from your cheeks upon your throat makes a vermilion furrow, while the hairs blown about on your faces look grey, they are so full of white lead ". These prostitutes had various origins: Metic women who could not find other work, poor widows, and older pornai who had succeeded in buying back their freedom (often on credit). In Athens they had to be registered with
1350-455: A different aspect of the same goddess or used by a different local cult. Thus she was also known as Cytherea ( Lady of Cythera ) and Cypris ( Lady of Cyprus ), because both locations claimed to be the place of her birth. Sappho 's Ode to Aphrodite is one of the earliest poems dedicated to the goddess and survives from the Archaic period nearly complete. In Greek mythology , Aphrodite
1485-650: A festival on the anniversary of his death. In one version of the story, Aphrodite injured herself on a thorn from a rose bush and the rose, which had previously been white, was stained red by her blood. According to Lucian 's On the Syrian Goddess , each year during the festival of Adonis, the Adonis River in Lebanon (now known as the Abraham River ) ran red with blood. The myth of Adonis
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#17327719783981620-551: A fine, near invisible net. The next time Ares and Aphrodite had sex together, the net trapped them both. Hephaestus brought all the gods into the bedchamber to laugh at the captured adulterers, but Apollo , Hermes , and Poseidon had sympathy for Ares and Poseidon agreed to pay Hephaestus for Ares's release. Aphrodite returned to her temple in Cyprus, where she was attended by the Charites . This narrative probably originated as
1755-514: A group of friends could purchase exclusivity, with each having part-time rights. Musicians and dancers working at male banquets can also undoubtedly be placed in this category. Aristotle , in his Constitution of the Athenians (L, 2) mentions among the specific directions to the ten city controllers (five from within the city and five from the Piraeus ), the ἀστυνόμοι astynomoi , that "it
1890-401: A handsome mortal shepherd who lived in the foothills beneath Mount Ida near the city of Troy . Aphrodite appears to Anchises in the form of a tall, beautiful, mortal virgin while he is alone in his home. Anchises sees her dressed in bright clothing and gleaming jewelry, with her breasts shining with divine radiance. He asks her if she is Aphrodite and promises to build her an altar on top of
2025-502: A hetaera catches up to her. According to the sources, Aspasia is chosen as concubine or possibly spouse by Pericles. Atheneus remarks that "For when such women change to a life of sobriety they are better than the women who pride themselves on their respectability" (XIII, 38), and cites numerous great Greek men who had been fathered by a citizen and a courtesan, such as the Strategos Timotheus, son of Conon . Finally, there
2160-533: A highly contrived etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos ( ἁβροδίαιτος ), "she who lives delicately", from habrós and díaita . The alteration from b to ph is explained as a "familiar" characteristic of Greek "obvious from the Macedonians ". In the Cypriot syllabary , a syllabic script used on the island of Cyprus from the eleventh until the fourth centuries BC, Aphrodite's name
2295-487: A letter of pseudo-Aeschines (VII, 3) estimates the earnings of one Melanopous at 3,000 drachma; probably through the length of his career. The categories of male prostitution should be so separated: Aeschines, in his The Prosecution of Timarkhos (stanza 29, see above) distinguishes between the prostitute and the kept boy. He adds a little later (stanzas 51–52) that if Timarkhos had been content to stay with his first protector, his conduct would have been less reprehensible. It
2430-595: A male or female metic . In the classical era of ancient Greece , pornai were slaves of barbarian origin; starting in the Hellenistic era the case of young girls abandoned by their citizen fathers could be enslaved. They were considered to be slaves until proven otherwise. Pornai were usually employed in brothels located in "red-light" districts of the period, such as Piraeus ( port of Athens) or Kerameikos in Athens. The classical Athenian politician Solon
2565-516: A period of time, rather than for each individual sex act. Hetaerae were often educated, and free hetaerae were able to control their own finances. Hetairai are described as providing "flattering and skillful conversation" in Athenaeus ' Deipnosophistai. Classical literature describes hetairai as performing similar social functions as intellectual companions. Around the year 2 BC, Strabo (VIII,6,20) in his geographic/historical description of
2700-414: A predominantly male clientele. Simultaneously, extramarital relations with a free woman were severely dealt with. In the case of adultery , the cuckold had the legal right to kill the offender if caught in the act; the same went for rape . Female adulterers, and by extension prostitutes, were forbidden to marry or take part in public ceremonies. The pornai ( πόρναι ) were found at the bottom end of
2835-477: A prostitute. As precious metals increasingly became available to Spartan citizens, it became easier to access prostitutes. In 397, a prostitute at the perioicic village of Aulon was accused of corrupting Spartan men who went there. By the Hellenistic period , there were reputedly sculptures in Sparta dedicated by a hetaera called Cottina. A brothel named after Cottina also seems to have existed in Sparta, near to
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#17327719783982970-434: A public display of grief. In Hesiod's Works and Days , Zeus orders Aphrodite to make Pandora , the first woman, physically beautiful and sexually attractive, so that she may become "an evil men will love to embrace". Aphrodite "spills grace" over Pandora's head and equips her with "painful desire and knee-weakening anguish", thus making her the perfect vessel for evil to enter the world. Aphrodite's attendants, Peitho,
3105-567: A temple to Aphrodite Hathor at Philae . Statuettes of Aphrodite for personal devotion became common in Egypt starting in the early Ptolemaic times and extending until long after Egypt became a Roman province . The ancient Romans identified Aphrodite with their goddess Venus , who was originally a goddess of agricultural fertility, vegetation, and springtime. According to the Roman historian Livy , Aphrodite and Venus were officially identified in
3240-463: A variety of quick-growing plants, such as lettuce and fennel , or even quick-sprouting grains such as wheat and barley . The women would then climb ladders to the roofs of their houses, where they would place the gardens out under the heat of the summer sun. The plants would sprout in the sunlight but wither quickly in the heat. Then the women would mourn and lament loudly over the death of Adonis, tearing their clothes and beating their breasts in
3375-419: A woman is a pleasant armful for a man to embrace, and, even if the beauty of her prime is past, yet "With wiser tongue Experience doth speak than can the young." But the very man who should make attempts on a boy of twenty seems to me to be unnaturally lustful and pursuing an equivocal love. For then the limbs, being large and manly, are hard, the chins that once were soft are rough and covered with bristles, and
3510-482: A young lover who is now jilting her. The vast majority of male prostitutes, however, were for a male clientele. Contrary to female prostitution, which covered all age groups, male prostitution was in essence restricted to adolescents. Pseudo-Lucian, in his Affairs of the Heart (25–26) expressly states: "Thus from maidenhood to middle age, before the time when the last wrinkles of old age finally spread over her face,
3645-547: Is Philommeidḗs ( φιλομμειδής ), which means "smile-loving", but is sometimes mistranslated as "laughter-loving". This epithet occurs throughout both of the Homeric epics and the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite . Hesiod references it once in his Theogony in the context of Aphrodite's birth, but interprets it as "genital-loving" rather than "smile-loving". Monica Cyrino notes that the epithet may relate to
3780-423: Is accused by Timarkhos; to defend himself, Aeschines accuses his accuser of having been a prostitute in his youth. Consequentially, Timarkhos is stripped of civil rights; one of these rights being the ability to file charges against someone. Conversely, prostituting an adolescent, or offering him money for favours, was strictly forbidden as it could lead to the youth's future loss of legal status. The Greek reasoning
3915-403: Is associated with spiritual love, and Pandemos with physical love (desire). A representation of Ourania with her foot resting on a tortoise came to be seen as emblematic of discretion in conjugal love; it was the subject of a chryselephantine sculpture by Phidias for Elis , known only from a parenthetical comment by the geographer Pausanias . One of Aphrodite's most common literary epithets
4050-538: Is associated with the festival of the Adonia , which was celebrated by Greek women every year in midsummer. The festival, which was evidently already celebrated in Lesbos by Sappho's time, seems to have first become popular in Athens in the mid-fifth century BC. At the start of the festival, the women would plant a "garden of Adonis", a small garden planted inside a small basket or a shallow piece of broken pottery containing
4185-509: Is attested in the forms 𐠀𐠡𐠦𐠭𐠃𐠂 (a-po-ro-ta-o-i, read right-to-left), 𐠀𐠡𐠦𐠯𐠭𐠂 (a-po-ro-ti-ta-i, samewise), and finally 𐠀𐠡𐠦𐠯𐠪𐠈 (a-po-ro-ti-si-jo, " Aphrodisian ", "related to Aphrodite", in the context of a month). The cult of Aphrodite in Greece was imported from, or at least influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia , which, in turn, was influenced by
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4320-568: Is credited as being the first to institute legal public brothels. He did this as a public health measure, in order to contain adultery. The poet Philemon praised him for this measure in the following terms: [Solon], seeing Athens full of young men, with both an instinctual compulsion, and a habit of straying in an inappropriate direction, bought women and established them in various places, equipped and common to all. The women stand naked that you not be deceived. Look at everything. Maybe you are not feeling well. You have some sort of pain. Why? The door
4455-539: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Aphrodite Aphrodite ( / ˌ æ f r ə ˈ d aɪ t iː / , AF -rə- DY -tee ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretized Roman goddess counterpart Venus , desire, sex , fertility , prosperity, and victory. Aphrodite's major symbols include seashells, myrtles , roses, doves, sparrows, and swans. The cult of Aphrodite
4590-403: Is explained by Aeschines (stanza 29), as he cites the dokimasia ( δοκιμασία ): the citizen who prostituted himself ( πεπορνευμένος peporneuménos ) or causes himself to be so maintained ( ἡταιρηκώς hētairēkós ) is deprived of making public statements because "he who has sold his own body for the pleasure of others ( ἐφ’ ὕβρει eph’ hybrei ) would not hesitate to sell the interests of
4725-432: Is generally accepted to be of non-Greek (probably Semitic ) origin, but its exact derivation cannot be determined with confidence. Scholars in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, accepting Hesiod's "foam" etymology as genuine, analyzed the second part of Aphrodite's name as * -odítē "wanderer" or as * -dítē "bright". More recently, Michael Janda, also accepting Hesiod's etymology, has argued in favor of
4860-587: Is no known example of a woman of the citizen class voluntarily becoming a hetaera. This is perhaps not surprising, since women of the citizen class would have no incentive whatsoever to do such a thing. During the time of the New Comedy (of ancient Greek comedy), prostitute characters became, after the fashion of slaves, the veritable stars of the comedies. This could be for several reasons: while Old Comedy (of ancient Greek comedy) concerned itself with political subjects, New Comedy dealt with private subjects and
4995-437: Is often seen as Aphrodite's son, but this is actually a comparatively late innovation. A scholion on Theocritus 's Idylls remarks that the sixth-century BC poet Sappho had described Eros as the son of Aphrodite and Uranus, but the first surviving reference to Eros as Aphrodite's son comes from Apollonius of Rhodes 's Argonautica , written in the third century BC, which makes him the son of Aphrodite and Ares. Later,
5130-471: Is open. One obol . Hop in. There is no coyness, no idle talk, nor does she snatch herself away. But straight away, as you wish, in whatever way you wish. You come out. Tell her to go to hell. She is a stranger to you. As Philemon highlights, the Solonian brothels provided a service accessible to all, regardless of income. (One obolus is one sixth of one drachma , the daily salary of a public servant at
5265-693: Is probably derived from the ancient Sumerian legend of Inanna and Dumuzid . The Greek name Ἄδωνις ( Adōnis , Greek pronunciation: [ádɔːnis] ) is derived from the Canaanite word ʼadōn , meaning "lord". The earliest known Greek reference to Adonis comes from a fragment of a poem by the Lesbian poet Sappho ( c. 630 – c. 570 BC ), in which a chorus of young girls asks Aphrodite what they can do to mourn Adonis's death. Aphrodite replies that they must beat their breasts and tear their tunics. Later references flesh out
5400-413: Is the leapfrog —or sodomy ; these two positions being difficult to visually distinguish. The woman is frequently folded in two with her hands flat on the ground. Sodomy was considered degrading for an adult and it seems that the leapfrog position (as opposed to the missionary position ) was considered less gratifying for the woman. Finally, a number of vases represent scenes of abuse, where the prostitute
5535-514: Is the younger of the two goddesses: the common Aphrodite, born from the union of Zeus and Dione, and the inspiration of heterosexual desire and sexual promiscuity, the "lesser" of the two loves. Paphian (Παφία), was one of her epithets, after the Paphos in Cyprus where she had emerged from the sea at her birth. Among the Neoplatonists and, later, their Christian interpreters, Ourania
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5670-588: Is they who supervise the flute-girls and harp-girls and lyre-girls to prevent their receiving fees of more than two drachmas" per night. Sexual services were clearly part of the contract, though the price, in spite of the efforts of the astynomi , tended to increase throughout the period. More expensive and exclusive prostitutes were known as hetaerae , which means "companion". Hetaerae, unlike pornai, engaged in long-term relationships with individual clients, and provided companionship as well as sex. Unlike pornai, hetaerae seem to have been paid for their company over
5805-509: Is threatened with a stick or sandal, and forced to perform acts considered by the Greeks to be degrading: fellatio , sodomy or sex with multiple partners . If the hetaera were undeniably the most liberated women in Greece, it also needs to be said that many of them had a desire to become 'respectable' and find a husband or stable companion. Naeara, whose career is described in a legal discourse, manages to raise three children before her past as
5940-570: Is unmarried and the wife of Hephaestus is Aglaea , the youngest of the three Charites . In Book Eight of the Odyssey , however, the blind singer Demodocus describes Aphrodite as the wife of Hephaestus and tells how she committed adultery with Ares during the Trojan War . The sun-god Helios saw Aphrodite and Ares having sex in Hephaestus's bed and warned Hephaestus, who fashioned
6075-461: The Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus tells how, when the women of the island of Lemnos refused to sacrifice to Aphrodite, the goddess cursed them to stink horribly so that their husbands would never have sex with them. Instead, their husbands started having sex with their Thracian slave-girls . In anger, the women of Lemnos murdered the entire male population of the island, as well as all
6210-589: The Kerameikon , or the Lycabettus , but throughout the city. The most celebrated of these young prostitutes is perhaps Phaedo of Elis . Reduced to slavery during the capture of his city, he was sent to work in a brothel until noticed by Plato , who had his freedom bought. The young man became a follower of Socrates together with his mentor Plato and gave his name to the Phaedo dialogue of Plato, which relates
6345-496: The Church of Aphrodite , Wicca , and Hellenism . Hesiod derives the name Aphrodite from aphrós ( ἀφρός ) "sea-foam", interpreting the name as "risen from the foam", but most modern scholars regard this as a spurious folk etymology . Early-modern scholars of classical mythology attempted to argue that Aphrodite's name was of Greek or Indo-European origin, but these efforts have mostly been abandoned. Aphrodite's name
6480-559: The Garden of the Hesperides and instructed him to toss them in front of Atalanta as he raced her. Hippomenes obeyed Aphrodite's order and Atalanta, seeing the beautiful, golden fruits, bent down to pick up each one, allowing Hippomenes to outrun her. In the version of the story from Ovid's Metamorphoses , Hippomenes forgets to repay Aphrodite for her aid, so she causes the couple to become inflamed with lust while they are staying at
6615-633: The Theogony , Hesiod describes Dione as an Oceanid , but Apollodorus makes her the thirteenth Titan , child of Gaia and Uranus. Aphrodite is consistently portrayed as a nubile, infinitely desirable adult, having had no childhood. She is often depicted nude. In the Iliad , Aphrodite is the apparently unmarried consort of Ares , the god of war, and the wife of Hephaestus is a different goddess named Charis . Likewise, in Hesiod's Theogony , Aphrodite
6750-530: The Vedic deity Ushas . Modern scholars, due to the believed Near Eastern origins of Aphrodite's worship, have since proposed Semitic origins for the name. Some scholars, such as Fritz Hommel , have suggested that Aphrodite's name is a hellenized pronunciation of the name " Astarte "; other scholars, however, reject this as being linguistically untenable. Martin West reconstructs a Cyprian Canaanite form of
6885-561: The Charites, and the Horae, adorn Pandora with gold and jewelry. According to one myth, Aphrodite aided Hippomenes , a noble youth who wished to marry Atalanta , a maiden who was renowned throughout the land for her beauty, but who refused to marry any man unless he could outrun her in a footrace . Atalanta was an exceedingly swift runner and she beheaded all of the men who lost to her. Aphrodite gave Hippomenes three golden apples from
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#17327719783987020-558: The Greeks are not as well known as those of the Romans. Nevertheless, in a treatise attributed to Hippocrates ( Of the Seed , 13), he describes in detail the case of a dancer "who had the habit of going with the men"; he recommends that she "jump up and down, touching her buttocks with her heels at each leap" to dislodge the sperm , and thus avoid risk. Prostitutes were also probably more likely to practice infanticide than citizen women. In
7155-472: The Romans, who saw Venus as a mother goddess, seized on this idea of Eros as Aphrodite's son and popularized it, making it the predominant portrayal in works on mythology until the present day. Aphrodite's main attendants were the three Charites , whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome and names as Aglaea ("Splendor"), Euphrosyne ("Good Cheer"), and Thalia ("Abundance"). The Charites had been worshipped as goddesses in Greece since
7290-519: The Thracian slaves. When Jason and his crew of Argonauts arrived on Lemnos, they mated with the sex-starved women under Aphrodite's approval and repopulated the island. From then on, the women of Lemnos never disrespected Aphrodite again. In Euripides 's tragedy Hippolytus , which was first performed at the City Dionysia in 428 BC, Theseus's son Hippolytus worships only Artemis ,
7425-586: The Tunisian city of Mahdia Aphrodisium, an ancient city in Asia Minor, site of a battle won by Attalus I Aphrodisium (Arcadia) , a town in ancient Arcadia, Greece Aphrodisium (Cyprus) , a town in ancient Cyprus Aphrodisium, a sacred grove near Psophis in Greece Aphrodisium (beetle) , genus of beetles See also [ edit ] Aphrodisius Topics referred to by
7560-429: The attention of the public they were deprived of citizenship rights once come to adulthood. In one of his discourses ( Against Timarkhos , I, 745), Aeschines argues against one such man in court, who in his youth had been a notorious escort. As with its female counterpart, male prostitution in Greece was not an object of scandal. Brothels for slave-boys existed openly, not only in the " red-light district " of Piraeus ,
7695-456: The beginning of Greek history, long before Aphrodite was introduced to the pantheon. Aphrodite's other set of attendants was the three Horae (the "Hours"), whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Themis and names as Eunomia ("Good Order"), Dike ("Justice"), and Eirene ("Peace"). Aphrodite was also sometimes accompanied by Harmonia , her daughter by Ares, and Hebe , the daughter of Zeus and Hera. The fertility god Priapus
7830-411: The case of independent prostitutes the situation is less clear; girls could after all be trained "on the job", succeeding their mothers and supporting them in old age. Greek pottery also provides an insight into the daily life of prostitutes. Their representation can generally be grouped into four categories: banquet scenes, sexual activities, toilet scenes and scenes depicting their maltreatment. In
7965-471: The chariot race at the funeral games of King Pelias , Aphrodite drove his horses mad and they tore him apart. Polyphonte was a young woman who chose a virginal life with Artemis instead of marriage and children, as favoured by Aphrodite. Aphrodite cursed her, causing her to have children by a bear. The resulting bear-like offspring Agrius and Oreius were wild cannibals who incurred the hatred of Zeus for attacking traveling strangers. Ultimately, Ares (who
8100-458: The city and pay a tax. Some of them made a decent fortune plying their trade. In the 1st century, at Qift in Roman Egypt , passage for prostitutes cost 108 drachma, while other women paid 20. Their tariffs are difficult to evaluate: they varied significantly. The average charge for a prostitute in 5th and 4th century ranged from three obols to a drachma. Expensive prostitutes could charge
8235-413: The city. Arsinoe II introduced the cult of Adonis to Alexandria and many of the women there partook in it. The Tessarakonteres , a gigantic catamaran galley designed by Archimedes for Ptolemy IV Philopator , had a circular temple to Aphrodite on it with a marble statue of the goddess herself. In the second century BC, Ptolemy VIII Physcon and his wives Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III dedicated
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#17327719783988370-413: The commercial nature of the activity. The acquisitiveness of prostitutes is a running theme in Greek comedy. The fact that prostitutes were the only Athenian women who handled money may have increased acrimony towards them. An explanation for their behavior is that a prostitute's career tended to be short, and their income decreased with the passage of time: a young and pretty prostitute, across all levels of
8505-463: The community as a whole". According to Polybius (XII, 15, 1), the accusations of Timaeus against Agathocles reprise the same theme: a prostitute is someone who abdicates their own dignity for the desires of another, "a common prostitute ( κοινὸν πόρνον koinòn pórnon ) available to the most dissolute, a jackdaw, a buzzard presenting his behind to whoever wants it." As with female prostitutes, fees varied considerably. Athenaeus (VI, 241) mentions
8640-499: The concept of sacred prostitution as a myth, arguing taxatively that the practices described in the sources were misunderstandings of either non-remunerated ritual sex or non-sexual religious ceremonies, possibly even mere cultural slander. Although popular in modern times, this view has not gone without being criticized in its methodological approach, including accusations of an ideological agenda. In archaic and classical Sparta, Plutarch claims that there were no prostitutes due to
8775-812: The cult of the Mesopotamian goddess known as "Ishtar" to the East Semitic peoples and as " Inanna " to the Sumerians . Pausanias states that the first to establish a cult of Aphrodite were the Assyrians , followed by the Paphians of Cyprus and then the Phoenicians at Ascalon . The Phoenicians, in turn, taught her worship to the people of Cythera . Aphrodite took on Inanna-Ishtar's associations with sexuality and procreation. Furthermore, she
8910-553: The daily life of Athenians. Also, social conventions forbade well-born women from being seen in public, while the plays depicted outside activities. The only women who would normally be seen out in the street were logically the prostitutes. The intrigues of the New Comedy thus often involved prostitutes. Ovid , in his Amores , states "Whil'st Slaves be false, Fathers hard, and Bauds be whorish, Whilst Harlots flatter, shall Menander flourish." (I, 15, 17–18). The courtesan could be
9045-423: The end of the 5th century BC. By the middle of the 4th century BC, this salary was up to a drachma and a half.) In the same light, Solon used taxes he levied on brothels to build a temple to Aphrodite Pandemos (literally "Aphrodite of all the people"). In regards to price, there are numerous allusions to the price of one obolus for a cheap prostitute; no doubt for basic acts. It is difficult to assess whether this
9180-422: The fact that, in many artistic depictions of Aphrodite, she is shown smiling. Other epithets of her include Mechanitis meaning skilled in inventing and Automata because, according to Servius , she was the source of spontaneous love. Common literary epithets of Aphrodite are Cypris and Cythereia , which derive from her associations with the islands of Cyprus and Cythera respectively. On Cyprus, Aphrodite
9315-500: The first-fruits of the young men. It is not meet that tricked-out slaves should rob free-born women of their pleasures. Let the courtesans be free to sleep with the slaves. (v. 716–719). The prostitutes are obviously considered to be unfair competition. In a different genre, Plato , in the Republic , proscribed Corinthian prostitutes in the same way as Attican pastries, both being accused of introducing luxury and discord into
9450-448: The four original primeval forces born at the beginning of time, but, after the birth of Aphrodite from the sea foam, he is joined by Himeros and, together, they become Aphrodite's constant companions. In early Greek art, Eros and Himeros are both shown as idealized handsome youths with wings. The Greek lyric poets regarded the power of Eros and Himeros as dangerous, compulsive, and impossible for anyone to resist. In modern times, Eros
9585-471: The goddess of virginity, and refuses to engage in any form of sexual contact. Aphrodite is infuriated by his prideful behavior and, in the prologue to the play, she declares that, by honoring only Artemis and refusing to venerate her, Hippolytus has directly challenged her authority. Aphrodite therefore causes Hippolytus's stepmother, Phaedra , to fall in love with him, knowing Hippolytus will reject her. After being rejected, Phaedra commits suicide and leaves
9720-405: The goddess of virginity. Aphrodite tells Anchises that she is still a virgin and begs him to take her to his parents. Anchises immediately becomes overcome with mad lust for Aphrodite and swears that he will have sex with her. Anchises takes Aphrodite, with her eyes cast downwards, to his bed, which is covered in the furs of lions and bears. He then strips her naked and makes love to her. After
9855-475: The goddess to claim that Ourania and Pandemos are, in fact, separate goddesses. He asserts that Aphrodite Ourania is the celestial Aphrodite, born from the sea foam after Cronus castrated Uranus, and the older of the two goddesses. According to the Symposium , Aphrodite Ourania is the inspiration of male homosexual desire , specifically the ephebic eros , and pederasty . Aphrodite Pandemos , by contrast,
9990-491: The greedy prostitute, the part of the "whore with a heart of gold" in Dyskolos , where this permits a happy conclusion to the play. Conversely, in the utopian worlds of the Greeks, there was often no place for prostitutes. In Aristophanes' play Assemblywomen , the heroine Praxagora formally bans them from the ideal city: Why, undoubtedly! Furthermore, I propose abolishing the whores … so that, instead of them, we may have
10125-572: The ideal city. The cynic Crates of Thebes , (cited by Diodorus Siculus , II, 55–60) during the Hellenistic period describes a utopian city where, following the example of Plato, prostitution is also banished. The Greeks also had an abundance of male prostitutes, πόρνοι pórnoi . Some of them aimed at a female clientele: the existence of gigolos is confirmed in the classical era. As such, in Aristophanes 's Plutus (v. 960–1095) an old woman complains about having spent all her money on
10260-631: The islands of Cyprus , Cythera , and Sicily . Aphrodite's Mesopotamian precursor Inanna-Ishtar was also closely associated with prostitution. Scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries believed that the cult of Aphrodite may have involved ritual prostitution , an assumption based on ambiguous passages in certain ancient texts, particularly a fragment of a skolion by the Boeotian poet Pindar , which mentions prostitutes in Corinth in association with Aphrodite. Modern scholars now dismiss
10395-412: The lack of precious metals and money, and the strict moral regime introduced by Lycurgus . A 6th century vase from Laconia, which shows a mixed-gender group at what appears to be a symposium, might be interpreted as depicting a hetaira, contradicting Plutarch. However, Sarah Pomeroy argues that the banquet depicted is religious, rather than secular, in nature, and that the woman depicted is not therefore
10530-433: The last hours of Socrates. Males were not exempt from the city tax on prostitutes. The client of such a brothel did not receive reprobation from either the courts or from public opinion. If some portions of society did not have the time or means to practice the interconnected aristocratic rituals (spectating at the gymnasium , courtship, gifting), they could all satisfy their desires with prostitutes. The boys also received
10665-576: The later legends of Hermaphroditus . Aphrodite's main festival, the Aphrodisia , was celebrated across Greece, but particularly in Athens and Corinth . In Athens, the Aphrodisia was celebrated on the fourth day of the month of Hekatombaion in honor of Aphrodite's role in the unification of Attica. During this festival, the priests of Aphrodite would purify the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on
10800-493: The latter of these interpretations and claims the story of a birth from the foam as an Indo-European mytheme . Similarly, Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak proposes an Indo-European compound *abʰor- "very" and *dʰei- "to shine", also referring to Eos , and Daniel Kölligan has interpreted Aphrodite's name as "shining up from the mist/foam". Other scholars have argued that these hypotheses are unlikely, since Aphrodite's attributes are entirely different from those of both Eos and
10935-555: The lovemaking is complete, Aphrodite reveals her true divine form. Anchises is terrified, but Aphrodite consoles him and promises that she will bear him a son. She prophesies that their son will be the demigod Aeneas , who will be raised by the nymphs of the wilderness for five years before going to Troy to become a nobleman like his father. The story of Aeneas's conception is also mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony and in Book II of Homer's Iliad . The myth of Aphrodite and Adonis
11070-529: The many slang terms for prostitutes was khamaitypếs ( χαμαιτυπής ) 'one who hits the ground', suggesting to some literal-minded commentators that their activities took place in the dirt or possibly on all fours from behind. Given the Ancient Greeks' propensity for poetic thinking, it seems just as likely that this term also suggested that there is 'nothing lower', rather than that a significant proportion of prostitutes were reduced to plying their trade in
11205-451: The most famous story, Zeus hastily married Aphrodite to Hephaestus in order to prevent the other gods from fighting over her. In another version of the myth, Hephaestus gave his mother Hera a golden throne, but when she sat on it, she became trapped and he refused to let her go until she agreed to give him Aphrodite's hand in marriage. Hephaestus was overjoyed to be married to the goddess of beauty, and forged her beautiful jewelry, including
11340-641: The mother of the entire Roman nation. Julius Caesar claimed to be directly descended from Aeneas's son Iulus and became a strong proponent of the cult of Venus. This precedent was later followed by his nephew Augustus and the later emperors claiming succession from him. This syncretism greatly impacted Greek worship of Aphrodite. During the Roman era, the cults of Aphrodite in many Greek cities began to emphasize her relationship with Troy and Aeneas. They also began to adopt distinctively Roman elements, portraying Aphrodite as more maternal, more militaristic, and more concerned with administrative bureaucracy. She
11475-464: The mountain if she will bless him and his family. Aphrodite lies and tells him that she is not a goddess, but the daughter of one of the noble families of Phrygia . She claims to be able to understand the Trojan language because she had a Trojan nurse as a child and says that she found herself on the mountainside after she was snatched up by Hermes while dancing in a celebration in honor of Artemis ,
11610-486: The mud. Certain authors have prostitutes talking about themselves: Lucian in his Dialogue of courtesans or Alciphron in his collection of letters; but these are works of fiction. The prostitutes of concern here are either independent or hetaera: the sources here do not concern themselves with the situation of slave-prostitutes, except to consider them as a source of profit. It is quite clear what ancient Greek men thought of prostitutes: primarily, they are reproached for
11745-590: The name as either *ʿAprodît or *ʿAproḏît , and cautiously suggests the latter as being an epithet with the meaning "She of the Villages". Aren Wilson-Wright suggests the Phoenician form *ʾAprodīt as an elative epithet meaning "unique, excellent, sublime". A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have also been suggested. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian barīrītu ,
11880-666: The name of a female demon that appears in Middle Babylonian and Late Babylonian texts. Hammarström looks to Etruscan , comparing (e)prθni "lord", an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις . This would make the theonym in origin an honorific, "the lady". Most scholars reject this etymology as implausible, especially since Aphrodite's name actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru (from Greek Aphrō , clipped form of Aphrodite ). The medieval Etymologicum Magnum ( c. 1150 ) offers
12015-536: The notion of ritual prostitution in Greece as a "historiographic myth" with no factual basis. During the Hellenistic period , the Greeks identified Aphrodite with the ancient Egyptian goddesses Hathor and Isis . Aphrodite was the patron goddess of the Lagid queens and Queen Arsinoe II was identified as her mortal incarnation. Aphrodite was worshipped in Alexandria and had numerous temples in and around
12150-472: The oldest strata of her worship and see it as an indication of her Near Eastern origins. Nineteenth-century classical scholars had a general aversion to the idea that ancient Greek religion was at all influenced by the cultures of the Near East, but, even Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker , who argued that Near Eastern influence on Greek culture was largely confined to material culture, admitted that Aphrodite
12285-403: The riches of the town: for the ship captains frivolously spent their money there, hence the saying: 'The voyage to Corinth is not for every man'. (The story goes of a hetaira being reproached by a woman for not loving her job and not touching wool, and answering her: 'However you may behold me, yet in this short time I have already taken down three pieces'. ) The text in more than one way hints at
12420-486: The same legal protection from assault as their female counterparts. As a consequence, though prostitution was legal, it was still socially shameful. It was generally the domain of slaves or, more generally, non-citizens. In Athens, for a citizen, it had significant political consequences, such as the atimia ( ἀτιμία )- loss of public civil rights. This is demonstrated in The Prosecution of Timarkhos : Aeschines
12555-521: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Aphrodisium . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aphrodisium&oldid=1254070960 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text Short description
12690-416: The same text a young virgin can demand a mina , that is 100 drachma (7,3), or even two minas if the customer is less than appetizing. A young and pretty prostitute could charge a higher price than her in-decline colleague; even if, as iconography on ceramics demonstrates, a specific market existed for older women. The price would change if the client demanded exclusivity. Intermediate arrangements also existed;
12825-547: The scale. They were the property of pimps or pornoboskós ( πορνοβοσκός ) who received a portion of their earnings (the word comes from pernemi πέρνημι "to sell"). This owner could be a citizen, for this activity was considered as a source of income just like any other: one 4th-century BC orator cites two; Theophrastus in Characters (6:5) lists pimp next to cook , innkeeper , and tax collector as an ordinary profession, though disreputable. The owner could also be
12960-406: The sea a long time, and white foam arose from the immortal flesh; with it a girl grew." After Aphrodite was born from the sea-foam, she washed up to shore in the presence of the other gods. Hesiod's account of Aphrodite's birth following Uranus's castration is probably derived from The Song of Kumarbi , an ancient Hittite epic poem in which the god Kumarbi overthrows his father Anu , the god of
13095-466: The sea. In Homer 's Iliad , however, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione . In his Symposium , Plato asserts that these two origins actually belong to separate entities; Aphrodite Urania (a transcendent "Heavenly" Aphrodite) and Aphrodite Pandemos (Aphrodite common to "all the people"). The epithet Aphrodite Areia (the "Warlike") reveals her contrasting nature in ancient Greek religion . Aphrodite had many other epithets, each emphasizing
13230-515: The sexual business of those women. Remarks elsewhere of Strabo (XII,3,36: "women earning money with their bodies") as well as Athenaeus (XIII,574: "in the lovely beds picking the fruits of the mildest bloom") concerning this temple describe this character even more graphically. In 464 BC, a man named Xenophon, a citizen of Corinth who was an acclaimed runner and winner of pentathlon at the Olympic Games , dedicated one hundred young girls to
13365-541: The sky, and bites off his genitals, causing him to become pregnant and give birth to Anu's children, which include Ishtar and her brother Teshub , the Hittite storm god. In the Iliad , Aphrodite is described as the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Dione's name appears to be a feminine cognate to Dios and Dion , which are oblique forms of the name Zeus . Zeus and Dione shared a cult at Dodona in northwestern Greece. In
13500-564: The southwestern slope of the Acropolis with the blood of a sacrificed dove . Next, the altars would be anointed and the cult statues of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho would be escorted in a majestic procession to a place where they would be ritually bathed. Aphrodite was also honored in Athens as part of the Arrhephoria festival. The fourth day of every month was sacred to Aphrodite. Pausanias records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite
13635-410: The story with more details. According to the retelling of the story found in the poem Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17/18 AD), Adonis was the son of Myrrha , who was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus , after Myrrha's mother bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess. Driven out after becoming pregnant, Myrrha
13770-641: The story, the boar was either sent by Ares, who was jealous that Aphrodite was spending so much time with Adonis, or by Artemis, who wanted revenge against Aphrodite for having killed her devoted follower Hippolytus . In another version, Apollo in fury changed himself into a boar and killed Adonis because Aphrodite had blinded his son Erymanthus when he stumbled upon Aphrodite naked as she was bathing after intercourse with Adonis. The story also provides an etiology for Aphrodite's associations with certain flowers. Reportedly, as she mourned Adonis's death, she caused anemones to grow wherever his blood fell and declared
13905-456: The temple of Cybele . The couple desecrate the temple by having sex in it, leading Cybele to turn them into lions as punishment. The myth of Pygmalion is first mentioned by the third-century BC Greek writer Philostephanus of Cyrene , but is first recounted in detail in Ovid's Metamorphoses . According to Ovid, Pygmalion was an exceedingly handsome sculptor from the island of Cyprus, who
14040-517: The temple of Dionysus by Taygetus , at least by the Hellenistic period. The social conditions of prostitutes are difficult to evaluate; as women were already marginalized in Greek society. We know of no direct evidence of either their lives or the brothels in which they worked. It is likely that the Greek brothels were similar to those of Rome , described by numerous authors and preserved at Pompeii ; dark, narrow, and malodorous places. One of
14175-444: The temple of the goddess as a sign of thanksgiving. We know this because of a hymn which Pindar was commissioned to write (fragment 122 Snell), celebrating "the very welcoming girls, servants of Peïtho and luxurious Corinth". The work of gender researchers like Daniel Arnaud , Julia Assante and Stephanie Budin has cast the whole tradition of scholarship that defined the concept of sacred prostitution into doubt. Budin regards
14310-527: The third century BC when the cult of Venus Erycina was introduced to Rome from the Greek sanctuary of Aphrodite on Mount Eryx in Sicily. After this point, Romans adopted Aphrodite's iconography and myths and applied them to Venus. Because Aphrodite was the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas in Greek mythology and Roman tradition claimed Aeneas as the founder of Rome, Venus became venerated as Venus Genetrix ,
14445-706: The time of the Trojan War , he is married to Charis / Aglaea , one of the Graces , apparently divorced from Aphrodite. Afterwards, it was generally Ares who was regarded as the husband or official consort of the goddess; on the François Vase , the two arrive at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis on the same chariot, as do Zeus with Hera and Poseidon with Amphitrite . The poets Pindar and Aeschylus refer to Ares as Aphrodite's husband. Later stories were invented to explain Aphrodite's marriage to Hephaestus. In
14580-405: The toilet scenes the prostitutes are not presented as portraying the physical ideal; sagging breasts, rolls of flesh, etc. There is a kylix showing a prostitute urinating into a chamber pot . In the representation of sexual acts, the presence of a prostitute is often identified by the presence of a purse, which suggests the relationship has a financial component. The position most frequently shown
14715-409: The town of Corinth wrote some remarks concerning female temple servants in the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth, which perhaps should be dated somewhere in the period 700–400 BC: The temple of Aphrodite was so rich that it employed more than a thousand hetairas, whom both men and women had given to the goddess. Many people visited the town on account of them, and thus these hetairas contributed to
14850-433: The trade, could potentially earn more money than her older, less attractive colleagues. To provide for old age, they thus had to acquire as much money as possible in a limited period of time. Medical treatises provide a glimpse—but very partial and incomplete—into the daily life of prostitutes. In order to keep generating revenues, the slave-prostitutes had to avoid pregnancy at any cost. Contraceptive techniques used by
14985-569: The version of her birth recounted by Hesiod in his Theogony , Cronus severed Uranus' genitals and threw them behind him into the sea. The foam from his genitals gave rise to Aphrodite (hence her name, which Hesiod interprets as "foam-arisen"), while the Giants , the Erinyes (furies), and the Meliae emerged from the drops of his blood. Hesiod states that the genitals "were carried over
15120-461: The waters after Cronus defeats Uranus as a mytheme would then be directly cognate to the Rigvedic myth of Indra defeating Vrtra , liberating Ushas . Another key similarity between Aphrodite and the Indo-European dawn goddess is her close kinship to the Greek sky deity, since both of the main claimants to her paternity (Zeus and Uranus) are sky deities. Aphrodite's most common cultic epithet
15255-411: The well-developed thighs are as it were sullied with hairs. " The period during which adolescents were judged as desirable extended from puberty until the appearance of a beard, the hairlessness of youth being an object of marked taste among the Greeks. As such, there were cases of men keeping older boys for lovers, but depilated. However, these kept boys were looked down upon, and if the matter came to
15390-660: The year with Aphrodite, one third with Persephone, and one third with whomever he chose. Adonis chose to spend that time with Aphrodite. Then, one day, while Adonis was hunting, he was wounded by a wild boar and bled to death in Aphrodite's arms. In a semi-mocking work, the Dialogues of the Gods , the satirical author Lucian comedically relates how a frustrated Aphrodite complains to the moon goddess Selene about her son Eros making Persephone fall in love with Adonis and now she has to share him with her. In different versions of
15525-423: The young girl friend of the young first star: in this case, free and virtuous, she is reduced to prostitution after having been abandoned or captured by pirates (e.g. Menander 's Sikyonioi ). Recognized by her real parents because of trinkets left with her, she is freed and can marry. In a secondary role, she can also be the supporting actor's love interest. Menander also created, contrary to the traditional image of
15660-593: Was Ourania , meaning "heavenly", but this epithet almost never occurs in literary texts, indicating a purely cultic significance. Another common name for Aphrodite was Pandemos ("For All the Folk"). In her role as Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite was associated with Peithō ( Πείθω ), meaning "persuasion", and could be prayed to for aid in seduction. The character of Pausanias in Plato 's Symposium , takes differing cult-practices associated with different epithets of
15795-502: Was Polyphonte's grandfather) and Hermes (who was originally dispatched by Zeus to kill them) transformed all Polyphonte, Agrius, and Oreius into birds of ill omen while the servant who begged for mercy was transformed into a woodpecker. According to Apollodorus , a jealous Aphrodite cursed Eos , the goddess of dawn, to be perpetually in love and have insatiable sexual desire because Eos once had lain with Aphrodite's sweetheart Ares. Prostitution in ancient Greece Prostitution
15930-536: Was a common aspect of ancient Greece . In the more important cities , and particularly the many ports, it employed a significant number of people and represented a notable part of economic activity. It was far from being clandestine; cities did not condemn brothels , but rather only instituted regulations on them. In Athens , the legendary lawmaker Solon is credited with having created state brothels with regulated prices. Prostitution involved both sexes differently; women of all ages and young men were prostitutes, for
16065-518: Was a place of pilgrimage in the ancient world for centuries. Other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera , hence another of her names, "Cytherea". Cythera was a stopping place for trade and culture between Crete and the Peloponesus , so these stories may preserve traces of the migration of Aphrodite's cult from the Middle East to mainland Greece . According to
16200-569: Was also the patron goddess of prostitutes , an association which led early scholars to propose the concept of " sacred prostitution " in Greco-Roman culture, an idea which is now generally seen as erroneous. A major goddess in the Greek pantheon, Aphrodite featured prominently in ancient Greek literature . In Hesiod 's Theogony , Aphrodite is born off the coast of Cythera from the foam ( ἀφρός , aphrós ) produced by Uranus 's genitals, which his son Cronus had severed and thrown into
16335-449: Was changed into a myrrh tree, but still gave birth to Adonis. Aphrodite found the baby and took him to the underworld to be fostered by Persephone . She returned for him once he was grown and discovered him to be strikingly handsome. Persephone wanted to keep Adonis, resulting in a custody battle between the two goddesses over whom should rightly possess Adonis. Zeus settled the dispute by decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of
16470-470: Was claimed as a divine guardian by many political magistrates. Appearances of Aphrodite in Greek literature also vastly proliferated, usually showing Aphrodite in a characteristically Roman manner. Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos , on the island of Cyprus , which is why she is sometimes called "Cyprian", especially in the poetic works of Sappho . The Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia , marking her birthplace,
16605-469: Was clearly of Phoenician origin. The significant influence of Near Eastern culture on early Greek religion in general, and on the cult of Aphrodite in particular, is now widely recognized as dating to a period of orientalization during the eighth century BC, when archaic Greece was on the fringes of the Neo-Assyrian Empire . Some early comparative mythologists opposed to the idea of
16740-579: Was horrified to see that the child had a massive, permanently erect penis , a potbelly , and a huge tongue. Aphrodite abandoned the infant to die in the wilderness, but a herdsman found him and raised him, later discovering that Priapus could use his massive penis to aid in the growth of plants. The First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite ( Hymn 5 ), which was probably composed sometime in the mid-seventh century BC, describes how Zeus once became annoyed with Aphrodite for causing deities to fall in love with mortals, so he caused her to fall in love with Anchises ,
16875-462: Was killed by a wild boar . Along with Athena and Hera , Aphrodite was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War and plays a major role throughout the Iliad . Aphrodite has been featured in Western art as a symbol of female beauty and has appeared in numerous works of Western literature . She is a major deity in modern Neopagan religions , including
17010-720: Was known as Ourania (Οὐρανία), which means "heavenly", a title corresponding to Inanna's role as the Queen of Heaven . Early artistic and literary portrayals of Aphrodite are extremely similar on Inanna-Ishtar. Like Inanna-Ishtar, Aphrodite was also a warrior goddess; the second-century AD Greek geographer Pausanias records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshipped as Aphrodite Areia , which means "warlike". He also mentions that Aphrodite's most ancient cult statues in Sparta and on Cythera showed her bearing arms. Modern scholars note that Aphrodite's warrior-goddess aspects appear in
17145-462: Was largely derived from that of the Phoenician goddess Astarte , a cognate of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar , whose cult was based on the Sumerian cult of Inanna . Aphrodite's main cult centers were Cythera , Cyprus , Corinth , and Athens . Her main festival was the Aphrodisia , which was celebrated annually in midsummer. In Laconia , Aphrodite was worshipped as a warrior goddess. She
17280-469: Was married to Hephaestus , the god of fire, blacksmiths and metalworking. Aphrodite was frequently unfaithful to him and had many lovers; in the Odyssey , she is caught in the act of adultery with Ares , the god of war. In the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite , she seduces the mortal shepherd Anchises . Aphrodite was also the surrogate mother and lover of the mortal shepherd Adonis , who
17415-595: Was renowned throughout the ancient world for its many hetairai , who had a widespread reputation for being among the most skilled, but also the most expensive, prostitutes in the Greek world. Corinth also had a major temple to Aphrodite located on the Acrocorinth and was one of the main centers of her cult. Records of numerous dedications to Aphrodite made by successful courtesans have survived in poems and in pottery inscriptions. References to Aphrodite in association with prostitution are found in Corinth as well as on
17550-784: Was so sickened by the immorality of women that he refused to marry. He fell madly and passionately in love with the ivory cult statue he was carving of Aphrodite and longed to marry it. Because Pygmalion was extremely pious and devoted to Aphrodite, the goddess brought the statue to life. Pygmalion married the girl the statue became and they had a son named Paphos, after whom the capital of Cyprus received its name. Pseudo-Apollodorus later mentions "Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus". Aphrodite generously rewarded those who honored her, but also punished those who disrespected her, often quite brutally. A myth described in Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica and later summarized in
17685-785: Was sometimes called Eleemon ("the merciful"). In Athens, she was known as Aphrodite en kēpois (" Aphrodite of the Gardens "). At Cape Colias, a town along the Attic coast, she was venerated as Genetyllis "Mother". The Spartans worshipped her as Potnia "Mistress", Enoplios "Armed", Morpho "Shapely", Ambologera "She who Postpones Old Age". Across the Greek world, she was known under epithets such as Melainis in Corinth "Black or Dark One", Skotia "Dark One", Androphonos "Killer of Men", Anosia "Unholy", and Tymborychos "Gravedigger", all of which indicate her darker, more violent nature. A male version of Aphrodite known as Aphroditus
17820-443: Was the actual price or a proverbial amount designating a "good deal". Independent prostitutes who worked the street were on the next higher level. Besides directly displaying their charms to potential clients they had recourse to publicity; sandals with marked soles have been found which left an imprint that stated ΑΚΟΛΟΥΘΕΙ AKOLOUTHEI ("Follow me") on the ground. They also used makeup , apparently quite outrageously. Eubulus ,
17955-506: Was usually considered to be Aphrodite's son by Dionysus , but he was sometimes also described as her son by Hermes, Adonis, or even Zeus. A scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes 's Argonautica states that, while Aphrodite was pregnant with Priapus, Hera envied her and applied an evil potion to her belly while she was sleeping to ensure that the child would be hideous. In another version, Hera cursed Aphrodite's unborn son because he had been fathered by Zeus. When Aphrodite gave birth, she
18090-684: Was worshipped as Aphrodite Areia , which means "warlike". This epithet stresses Aphrodite's connections to Ares, with whom she had extramarital relations. Pausanias also records that, in Sparta and on Cythera, a number of extremely ancient cult statues of Aphrodite portrayed her bearing arms. Other cult statues showed her bound in chains. Aphrodite was the patron goddess of prostitutes of all varieties, ranging from pornai (cheap street prostitutes typically owned as slaves by wealthy pimps ) to hetairai (expensive, well-educated hired companions, who were usually self-employed and sometimes provided sex to their customers). The city of Corinth
18225-480: Was worshipped in the city of Amathus on Cyprus. Aphroditus was depicted with the figure and dress of a woman, but had a beard , and was shown lifting his dress to reveal an erect phallus . This gesture was believed to be an apotropaic symbol , and was thought to convey good fortune upon the viewer. Eventually, the popularity of Aphroditus waned as the mainstream, fully feminine version of Aphrodite became more popular, but traces of his cult are preserved in
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