Goddess of Love and Beauty

"Do you not see how mighty is the goddess Aphrodite?  She sows and gives that love from which all we upon this earth are born (Empedocles)." "...Aphrodite was embodied in the brightest star in heaven, the morning and evening star we call by her Roman name of Venus (Baring & Cashford 358)." " Because she came from the sea, sailors prayed to her to calm the wind and the waves (Aphrodite)."

    The Goddess of love and beauty was also known as the Goddess of flowers, and was mostly associated with the pink rose, a pleasantly fragrant flower with soft delicate petals.  It has been noted that this association with flowers represents the sexualness found in nature, as well as in humans.  Flowers are considered to be one of the world's most beautiful sexual organs. The symbolic association of flowers to the sexual organs of a woman can be seen in their delicate nature, and the manner in which a bud blossoms and opens up, making itself vulnerable to the pollination and fertilization of others.  It is no wonder why flowers are the most common gift given to lovers, for they symbolize the beauty of human sexuality.  Unfortunately, along with love comes pain, as one can see in the contrasting thorns found on the stem of the rose, reminding us that with sexual passion and longing comes pain and suffering.

    Aphrodite is commonly associated with gold and the finer things in life.  Quite often she is depicted in golden robes, in Homer's Iliad with a golden apple,  and many have described her as having "golden hair."  Her relationship to gold can be seen as being symbolic of perfection, warmth and love.  Still others see the golden jewelry she wears as being representitive of the seductiveness and aphrodisiacal powers of women (Paris 21).  Her jewelry glistens and sparkles and calls to us just as her sensual nature and flawless beauty catches our eye. 

   One depiction of her birth symbolizes the sexual nature and sensual allure of the Goddess. Similar to the mythological interpretation of Athena, Goddess of wisdom, whose birth from the head of Zeus symbolized her intellectual nature, Aphrodite was born from the part of the anatomy that represents sexual power and energy; the male genitals.  Hesiod, the ancient author, wrote that Aphrodite was created from the violent acts of Cronos, who took a sickle and cut of the genitals of his father Uranus, and threw them into the sea.  The sperm and sea mixed into a soft foam, and from this foam the great goddess Aphrodite emerged (Bolen, 234).  Some writers interpret the birth from the sea itself as being representative of human sexuality.  The ebb and flow of the tide metaphorically mimics the act of lovemaking, as do the salty odors of the sea.  On Paphos, the small beach where Aphrodite is said to have first set foot, the sensuous sea advances and retreats upon the shoreline, producing a very sexual cadence (Paris 13).

    In Homer's epic version of Aphrodite's birth, she was born from a union between Zeus and Dione, a Titan goddess. Aphrodite is thus also referred to as Dionaea, after her mother.  This portrayal of Aphrodite, Aphrodite Pandemos, or Common Aphrodite, is concerned primarily with physical satisfaction.  She is considered a direct opposition to the Aphrodite Urania, who is the goddess of pure and spiritual love (Aphrodite).

  The Birth of Venus; Sandro Botticelli c. 1485  
"In the Neoplatonic tradition in which Botticelli painted the beauty of Aphrodite was an image of the union of the dual nature of love, the sensuous and the chaste, of which her attendants - the passionate Zephyros blowing her to shore, breathing roses upon her, and the modest Hour clothing her - represent the separate aspects (Baring & Cashford 356)."

similar interpretations of the birth of Venus

     Aphrodite was also a symbol of fertility of rebirth.  Myth symbolized this with the annual ritual bathing of the goddess in the spring.  The Hours, who first clothed Aphrodite, were also the goddesses of the season and would bathe and clothe her each spring, with the help of the Graces: Flowering, Growth, Beauty, Joy, and Radiance.

"They crowned her with myrtle and lay a path of rose petals at her feet.  Aphrodite walked into the sea, into the pulsing moon rhythms of the tide.  When she emerged with her spirit renewed, spring blossomed fully and all beings felt her joy (Spretnak 64)."


The Birth of Aphrodite (also known as The Return of the Maiden)
marble, c. 470-460 B.C. Ludovisi Throne

    In this depiction of Aphrodite's birth, "the birth from the sea and the sacred bath are related throughout the wavy folds of the garments, the weight of her arms on the shoulders of the Hours and their covering of her nakedness as she rises (Baring & Cashford 354)."  This depiction can also be seen as a rebirth or renewal, which would help to explain the manner in which this marble sculpture was carved, so as to make her appear like a newly born child, fragile and delicate and wondrous to uphold.

     Aphrodite as a work of art represents all that female sexuality and beauty possess.  Sculptures and painters alike create images of the goddess in loosely draped robes or in the nude, accentuating the sensualness of her body and the exquisiteness of her form.  One of the more well known statues of the Goddess is the Venus de Milo, which is on exhibit in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.



Venus de Milo

    The statue was found on the Greek island of Melos in 1820 by a peasant and was therefore named after the island of its discovery.  For hundreds of years this statue was buried in an underground cavern.  When it was found, it had been broken in two and needed to be restored.  The statue was brought to France by the Marquis de Riviera as a gift for Louis XVIII of France.  The arms and the pedestal on which it originally stood were also found but later lost and never recovered again.  To this day, no one knows  who created the Venus de Milo, although some speculate it could have been Alexandros of Antioch or Praxiteles.  It was sculpted around the second century B.C (Aphrodite of Melos).

The Goddess Loves

    As for the love affairs of the goddess, Aphrodite was married to the God of Craftsmen or God of the Fire of the Forge, Hephaestus. While not handsome and physically crippled, he excelled in metalsmithing skills and created the most beautiful golden jewelry on all of Olympus.  Aphrodite's association with gold and riches is played out in her relationship with Hephaestus.  There is an identifiable connection between beauty and wealth, as well as attractiveness and ugliness.  Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is a prime example of the modern-day attraction between material possessions and attractiveness.  There is a correlation between the sexually attractive woman and the man who is unattractive (or old, boring, or sick) but who pleases his wife or mistress with jewels and gifts, thus seducing her into letting him purchase the right to enjoy her beauty (Paris 22).  Their relationship was one of desire: he desired her sensual nature and physical pleasures, while she desired the golden jewels which he fashioned for her.

        Aphrodite's inability to see past the superficial led her into the arms of Ares, the God of War.  The passion from which their relationship was created is symbolic of the destructive attraction between men and women; love and war.  Aphrodite and Ares are symbolic of the yin and the yang of  universe.  It is this polarity that makes for such a strong and passionate longing for one another.  The attraction of Aphrodite to Ares may be in the belief that with courage comes virility, which gave him the ability to seduce her. The bond between the two divinities expresses the Greek belief that men fight for women and that the origin of war is fundamentally a rivalry for them.  This can be seen in Homer's Iliad, which will be discussed later.  In fact, this belief was so strong that even Herodotus the great historian himself felt that the Trojan War may have been caused by a rivalry for women (Paris 85).  The destructive relationship between Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Ares, God of War, can be seen, therefore, as the polar attraction of opposites or the relationship of the masculine with the feminine. 

  Mars and Venus in tender embrace, while Cupid hovers above  
    The affair between Aphrodite and Ares caused tension amongst the Gods.  It is told that once, when the two lovers slept too late, Helios, the sun, observed them and told Hephaestus, who plotted a trap out of anger.  He positioned a bronze net upon her bed and caught the two in a naked embrace for all to see.

image source

"Because I am lame, she never ceases to do me outrage and give her love to destructive Ares, since he is handsome and sound-footed and I am a cripple from my birth.  But my cunning chains shall hold them both fast till her father Zeus has given me back all the betrothal gifts I bestowed on him for his wanton daughter; beauty she has, but no sense of shame (Paris 22)."

    This affair resulted in the eventual birth of three children: Harmony, Fear and Terror.  Harmony was the oldest daughter of Mars and Venus, while Fear and Terror, the younger boys, followed after their father's footsteps and had a passion for battle.  While Aphrodite bore several children by different fathers, she and Hephaestus never had any children of their own.  Their union was one of beauty and craft out of which art is born (Bolen 234).
 

  Venus, wringing out her hair

 

The Goddess in Ancient Text

    Ancient texts, such as Homer's Iliad and Hesiod's Theogeny, make reference to the great goddess Aphrodite and her powers of persuasion.  One of the most memorable accounts of Aphrodite's charms and allure came to be known as the 'Judgement of Paris.'  As the story goes, Paris was given a golden apple from Zeus and was forced to decide who amongst the goddesses was indeed the fairest.  The three goddesses were Hera, wife of Zeus and Goddess of Marriage; Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and military skill; and Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and feminine charm.  Each offered Paris a gift in return for his affirmation: Hera offered a lavish kingdom; Athena, glory in war; and Aphrodite promised him the hand of the most beautiful mortal woman on earth; Helen of Troy.  Paris chose Aphrodite to be the fairest and so chose Helen to fall in love with him with the help of the goddess.  The most important detail of the story, however, is that Helen was already married to King Menelaus.  It is not known whether she was kidnapped or willfully took the hand of Paris, but nevertheless, her dissappearance prompted the Trojan War.  After all, she had the face that 'launched a thousand ships.'  Some say that her beauty was that of comparison to the great Goddess of Love and Beauty herself.
 

The Goddess Lives On

    The loss of love, the fading of flowers, and the calming of the tide may cause one to feel as though the Goddess of Love and Beauty has disappeared from the earth, like her ancient followers so long ago.  But like gold, Aphrodite is everlasting and eternal.  Each spring, when she returns to the sea to renew her vitality and spirit, she reminds us that the flowers will soon begin to bloom and the pull of the tide will once again spark the magnetism between two lovers.  Is it no wonder then that we use the term "spring fever" to describe the passions that unfold with the melting of the snow and that most people fall in love during this time of the year?  One has only to notice the desiring glances, the blushing faces, and the laughter of two lovers to realize that the goddess has never left us; she lives eternally within us all.

"...Farewell
quick-glancing
Sweet-smiling goddess
Grant me victory
in this contest
Favour my song
and in another song also
I shall remember you
(Baring 351)"
 
 
 
 

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