Aphrodite

Vince

New Member
I really like the part about Aphrodite's contest with Hera and Athena. It's funny how they all tried to bribe Paris. It makes me think of beauty pageants today, and corrupt contests in general. I also think it's great that of the bribe options available, Paris chooses a beautiful woman. Maybe he should've gone with Athena's offer for victory in battle instead, since his decision ultimately led to the onset of the Trojan War.
 

Pegasus

Member
Thank you for the link. I really enjoyed reading about Aphrodite and can understand why you liked this version the best. I found it interesting about Aphrodite's affair with a mortal. It is ashame that Zeus killed him or crippled him with a thunderbolt as it was of Aphrodite's doing. I guess the mortal was punished twice, depending on which version you were following. At first he rejected Aphrodite because of her deity, then on the other hand, the mortal should not have shared that he had such an affair and spoke of it to other mortals. The mortal was right about one thing, deities and mortals do not mix well.
 
how about psyche and cupid? (i think it's roman :p )
but that's cool, too.

and it's kinda cool to see the god of war (Ares) having an affair with the goddess of love (Aphrodite) it's like opposite attracts!
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
how about psyche and cupid? (i think it's roman :p )
but that's cool, too.

and it's kinda cool to see the god of war (Ares) having an affair with the goddess of love (Aphrodite) it's like opposite attracts!
Well, opposites do attract... often enough.
 

Prometheus

New Member
Cupid is called Adonis or Eros is in Greek mythology, the son of none other than Aphrodite, I could be wrong however. I find that while Aphrodite is good for a plot twist in mythology doesn't shine as bright as the other gods when she is the main character.
 

Lorey

New Member
I used to really be into the Greek Mythology when I was younger and had totally forgotten that Venus and Aphrodite were one and the same. Thanks for this link - it's good reading and I really do need to brush up.
 
Athena should have won that...I'm sorry Apherdiote fans but come on! Athen is smart, fierce, tactical. PARIS IS AN IDIOT!!
hehe
~~~~Drago~~~~
 

Olsen

Member
I wonder how Zeus could make Aphrodite fall in love with Anchises... I mean, could gods interfere with each other's free will? And wasn't Eros the one who could make people fall in love? Did Zeus have these kind of powers too? And, if Zeus could make gods fall in love, why didn't he make Aphrodite fall in love with Hephaestus? So much confusion...
 

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
I wonder how Zeus could make Aphrodite fall in love with Anchises... I mean, could gods interfere with each other's free will? And wasn't Eros the one who could make people fall in love? Did Zeus have these kind of powers too? And, if Zeus could make gods fall in love, why didn't he make Aphrodite fall in love with Hephaestus? So much confusion...
Maybe as king of the gods, Zeus could do everything?
 

Olsen

Member
I doubt he could do everything. Otherwise he wouldn't bother raping women and goddesses. He would just make them fall in love with him by altering their free will.

Or was it maybe that Zeus had some sort of rape fetish, cause he sure took a lot of girls by force (Demeter, Callisto, Leda, Deianira, Io, Europa etc.). I read somewhere that there was a list of over 50 women that Zeus supposedly raped in the Greek mythology. They say he also did it to some men as well.

Ha ha... If there were a trial, he would be charged with life sentence for being a psychotic serial rapist. :D
 

Alejandro

Active Member
I wonder how Zeus could make Aphrodite fall in love with Anchises... I mean, could gods interfere with each other's free will? And wasn't Eros the one who could make people fall in love? Did Zeus have these kind of powers too? And, if Zeus could make gods fall in love, why didn't he make Aphrodite fall in love with Hephaestus? So much confusion...
The story about Aphrodite falling for Ankhises [Anchises] comes from
the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, concerning which Diane J Rayor has the following to say:
Aphrodite in this hymn is the daughter of Zeus, as in the Iliad, not the Aphrodite from Hesiod's Theogony, who was born from the castrated genitals of Ouranos (Heaven) mixed with sea foam (aphros). The Hymn to Aphrodite both celebrates the goddess's power of sexuality and shows how Zeus limits that power. Before the story in the hymn takes place, Aphrodite controls the sex life of the great god Zeus by making him, and the other gods, desire and mate with humans. The narrative shows how Zeus puts a stop to that. Zeus weakens Aphrodite's power by infecting her with the same desire with which she has infected the other gods: he makes her long for a human: Anchises. This hymn suggests that their son, Aeneas, is the last of the mortal children born of the gods' unions with humans.

The hymn says that Zeus cast upon [the heart of] the goddess "sweet desire/longing" for Ankhises. If we took this to its logical conclusion in terms of the way in which the Greeks personifed everything, including emotion and intent, then we have the Erotes (love-gods) Himeros and Pothos, both of whom personified yearning, longing or sexual desire, and both of whom are said to have been part of Aphrodite's entourage in addition to being her sons. Perhaps we can guess that Zeus bribed or forced Eros/Himeros and/or Pothos, and maybe even their brother Anteros (Passion) to work against their mother in order to carry out Zeus' scheme against Aphrodite, sort of in the same way that, in the Iliad, Hera bribed the sleep-god Hypnos into lulling Zeus to sleep to that she could perform some shenanigans unhindered. Maybe this represents a period in Zeus' reign when he was able to snap out of his ages-long lifestyle of serial rape and turn the tables on the origin of his desires. Maybe there's a lost myth about a similar thing happening with Zeus overtaking Aphrodite's entourage as that in which Hera knocks uses Sleep himself to knock Zeus out cold. Whatever the case, it would seem as though: yes, indeed, gods could and did, in the myths, interfere with each other's free will, Aphrodite more than anyone else.

There are two different versions I've read about how Aphrodite came to be the wife of Hephaistos [Hephaestus]. The one version I recall only ever seeing in a children's book Myths and Legends, by Anthony Horowitz, in which he says that Zeus forced Aphrodite to marry Hephaistos as a jealous punishment since she, upon her arrival among the Olympians after her birth from the Sea, refused to grant him her "favours." So in this instance making her fall in love with Hephaistos would have run counter to his vengeful reason for forcing the marriage upon her to begin with. The other version, posited by Aaron Atsma on his Theoi Project website, pieced together from ancient vase paintings and fragments of some myths, has it that Aphrodite was a prize to Hephaistos for his having released his mother Hera from a golden throne which was actually a trap he had designed and given to her as a gift because he was angry with how she mistreated him. Both suggestions, I think, have their own narrative problems.
 
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