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APHP,ODITIBy: Panogiotis

Aphrodite is the clossicol Greek goddess of love, lust and beouty. She was born from thefoam of the seo near Pafos in Cyprus covering a part of Uranus' body (his testicles) that werecut off by his son Kronos. After the testicles fell in the sed neor the island of Kithiro theywere led by the woter to Cyprus ond from the foam covering them the most beautiful womon

of oll made her appearonce, the goddess nomed Aphrodite.

Because of her supernoturol beauty zeus wds frightened that the male gods would quarrelover her creating mdny problems ond conflicts so he got her married with l'lephaestus, thedour and ugly god of fire ond smithing.

Another myth soys that ofter Heto, his mother, hod cast him off Olympus deeming him uglyand deformed he tropped her in o magic throne asking in return for Aphrodite to be his wifeto leave his mother free. l-lephoestus wos overioyed of being married to the goddess of.beauty and forged her beautiful iewellery, including the cestus, o girdle that made her evenmore irresistible to men.

Her unhoppiness with her marrioge coused Aphrodite to seek ouf companionship from others,most frequently Ares, but olso Adonis.

Aphrodite's most fomous son wos Eros, the god of love, who helped her with her work. Atolented orcher, his iob was to shoot orrows dipped in Aphrodite's love potion, hitting herunwitting victims, causing them to foll modly in love with the next person they saw. Many ofthe greot love stories began this woy, but mony respectoble homes were broken up os well.

Although she wos most often loving and generous, Aphrodite could be quite malicious andvindictive as well. She insisted upon being given the honor she felt was due to her and wosquick and harsh in punishing those who weren't sufficiently appreciative of her efforts. Ares,Medeo, Psyche, and Atalanta, to name o few, could ottest thot the 6reek goddessAphrodite's power wos immense.

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STORIES OF tOVE AND TRANSFORMATION

and Death# Aphrodite and Adonis: A Myth of Love

It was not just mortals whose lives and passions were affected by the complications of love

and by the metamorphoses that are such a particular mark of Creek and Roman mythology.

Divine transformations were far from frivolous - in fact, they could have far-reaching

consequences on the gods as well.

The complicated mlth of the love affair belween

Aphrodite and Adonis shows how the Olympians,

too, were r,r-rlnerable to the pain of love. This mov-

ing story contains many of the thematic and narra-

tive elements rypical of classical rnythology. Itpresents a moral lesson and shows the way inwhich metamorphosis was used in the tales toexplain natural phenomena.

The daughter of Cinyras, king of Assyria, was

a beautiful younl; woman called Myrrha; according

to some accollnts she was also the granddaughter

of Pygmalion and his statue-bride (see page 722).

Myrrha was so proud of her appearance that she

refused to pay respect to Aphrodite, the goddess

of beauty. Angry that she was not duly honoured,

Aphrodite caused Myrrha to fall in love with her

own father. This was a desperate fate, since the

taboo on incest was extremely powerfll through-

out the Greek world.Myrrha was unable to contain her h"rst, and

since she knew her father would refect her

advances, she sought the assistance of her nr-rrse

to deceive him. Together the two women made

him so drunk that he had no idea what he

was doing. After twelve nights of illicit pleasure,

Myrrha became pregnant by him.

When Cinyras discovered what had hap-

pened he was so shocked and angry that he could

The Creeks admired male beauty, of which Adonis was an ideal'

Handsome figures were often depicted sensuously, as in this

bronze sculpture of an unknown man, c.4304c.126

Malcolm Day