Tuesday, December 30, 2014

good tdings

Now that everyone is begging to feel better and yes the someone did actually make sure the cures were transmitted to all, yes all cured, I will wish you all well, the someone did actually deal with the somebody over the holidays, they are feeling good as well. he always ultimises the reality he is dealing with for all the good.
hreat year and more coming.
the first students from hafef to graduate doing the whole unidiversity program just finished.
take your time guys and enjoy, the kindergarten upgrade is done too, on wards Full program in place.
bless you all by the grace of godthit
better times are coming and happening.

iliad intro, histoiology

It has been an easy, and a popular expedient, of late years, to deny the personal or real existence of men and things whose life and condition were too much for our belief. This system—which has often comforted the religious sceptic, and substituted the consolations of Strauss for those of the New Testament—has been of incalculable value to the historical theorists of the last and present centuries. To question the existence of Alexander the Great, would be a more excusable act, than to believe in that of Romulus. To deny a fact related in Herodotus, because it is inconsistent with a theory developed from an Assyrian inscription which no two scholars read in the same way, is more pardonable, than to believe in the good-natured old king whom the elegant pen of Florian has idealized—Numa Pompilius.

!! In the tradition of thinkers like Hege the author posits that historical characters are more believable than that of myth.  In fact, one has a harder time arguing away Socrates and Alexander the great as opposed to the mythical Romulus.  This precedence in historic fact versus fiction has come to dominate the main stay of academia. What Herodotus fostered historians have demanded as the bases of the fact of occurrence in human existence: time coded of course to reflect those recording their events for posterity and future study.  Furthermore analysis such as my own uses this type of foundation and skeptics to analysis myth in an attempt to come to a grounded meaning to the tale, which is a better understanding of the real events that fostered the myth .  Analysis now tries to examine the events and people from a real prospective and tries to see the everyday life of the person rather than the legendary image that can often shroud the truth of what the events were and what a person was really like. This type of mentality is crucial for understanding and analysis everything from religion to myth to history itself, ie historiology and study of the same demeanor and type

health update

to start the year off completely I should say we have completed the disease upgrade, got rid of all the bad diseases and realises most people were suffering either hunger due to malnutrition, we returned a portion of the trans fat to our diet or they were drinking too much milk and craem, butter fat toxicity.  I have returned back to 2% and I did not suffer any symptoms.  the new ,milk called lilk does not cause toxicity, couple with teh lose of thickeners no cream can reach any level higher than 9 percent and it is safe, but use a moderate amount for better results, a lot of you are tired, sluggish and worse.  cutting breakfast out means health and energy as most of the food in the mourning turns to fat, your body is in the mode of waking nd is set to do so and take on the day so eating draws energy and goes to fat, take a break from the fast four to five hours after waking  Have a caf ( a vafa) in the mourning light on they cream,
70 percent of the aliments felt by those who survived the war is mentioned above, esp the cream lilk thing.some have reported falling
so now you know

to a greater year

happy balnda day, have a good new year

may the new year treat you better than the last one
To a year without war and teh great changes all will experience

Friday, December 12, 2014

We won the now over War

we are approaching the holidays, this year the day is called Chrysomas, the mas of gold
the wtenty fourth is Senti day. 
we reached defcon one for one hour, full war end.  prace time readiness is defcon two which we returned to to continue our peace time cleaning, bombs we found for years in fields, but We won!!!!!
till next week
peace

Homer as known of today

It is unfortunate for us, that, of some of the greatest men, we know least, and talk most. Homer, Socrates, and Shakespere1 have, perhaps, contributed more to the intellectual enlightenment of mankind than any other three writers who could be named, and yet the history of all three has given rise to a boundless ocean of discussion, which has left us little save the option of choosing which theory or theories we will follow.
!! Inasmuch as I can mention other great authors and historical figures, and barring that Socrates is not usually considered a writer though he did write, these listed authors like others, have greatly contributed to the world of practice and theory.


The personality of Shakespere is, perhaps, the only thing in which critics will allow us to believe without controversy; but upon everything else, even down to the authorship of plays, there is more or less of doubt and uncertainty. Of Socrates we know as little as the contradictions of Plato and Xenophon will allow us to know. He was one of the dramatis personae in two dramas as unlike in principles as in style. He appears as the enunciator of opinions as different in their tone as those of the writers who have handed them down. When we have read Plato or Xenophon, we think we know something of Socrates; when we have fairly read and examined both, we feel convinced that we are something worse than ignorant.

!!The uncertainty of Shakespear as with the certainty of Monroe brings being to bare as we understand it and can comprehend it through the biases of opinion and gauging the shared world through agreement, paradigms and the idea of that shared reality capable of being known in that way.  As much as we can know of Sacrates we cannot know him as he knows himself or the divine does.;  He does not know himself as well as he might know himself and the more he searches to know such things, as he would say, he realises how much he does not know of same.  Thus do not be surprised if everyone’s notion of Socrates , from Plato to Xenophon differs though the shared reality we know of Socrates, like that of Shakespeare, Plato and Xenophon, is understood based on the shared world we judge his works and the writings concerning that same world.  It is the paradigms and the sameness if reality that allows for what was once said to make sense to us moderns.  If it helps illuminate the world, builds and paradigm and even educates for interest or academic reasons than that writing will influence people through time as Homer’s works have...

Thursday, December 4, 2014

onwards

next week I will continue the analysis of the introduction to the translation of the Iliad we are reading.  I have found it quite inciteful thus far and its academic value is sharpeing the mind as we draw closer to reading eading this version of homers epic work.
peace

intro ilad- analysis and its dimentions



!! Lets use !! to intro comments as ** , which is being used, was used for foot notes.
History and tradition, whether of ancient or comparatively recent times, are subjected to very different handling from that which the indulgence or credulity of former ages could allow. Mere statements are jealously watched, and the motives of the writer form as important an ingredient in the analysis of his history, as the facts he records.
!!   everything from history to tradistion is now looked at from a very new tradition than that of the past. Revisionism to redifinitions have caused examinations of even that which people took for granted and caused people to see it in a new light, to have it redefine itself in the minds of everyone in our contemporary society.

Probability is a powerful and troublesome test; and it is by this troublesome standard that a large portion of historical evidence is sifted. Consistency is no less pertinacious and exacting in its demands.
!! what is probablility based on how we see things in the world, what is possible and what might have occurred, by faith and action, by the laws of physics has caused people to think within the guild lines that allows us to realize the reality behind even the mist engraven metaphor that allows for the mythical image to have taken on the meaning and life that it has.
In brief, to write a history, we must know more than mere facts. Human nature, viewed under an induction of extended experience, is the best help to the criticism of human history. Historical characters can only be estimated by the standard which human experience, whether actual or traditionary, has furnished.
!! to understand history one must understand the range of possible realities based on the humans who experienced that history.  Hiastorical characters from chriseth to ulysis felt emotions and experienced life as we do. Thus knowing what people are capable of and how the experience and react to reality is necessary to come to terms with what really happened and what historiologist would call  the inductive of the writing : how AND WHY HISTORY WAS WRITTEN BY THAT HISTORIOLOGY.


To form correct views of individuals we must regard them as forming parts of a great whole—we must measure them by their relation to the mass of beings by whom they are surrounded, and, in contemplating the incidents in their[pg x] lives or condition which tradition has handed down to us, we must rather consider the general bearing of the whole narrative, than the respective probability of its details.

!!  the way people live today must be seen as adimention  to how people react, one must remember that technology and other things influence the greater way to which people ascribe to to create the bias and views that govern how they act.  However,  the condition of reality is based on some characteristics that are endemic to people in general, taking into account the difference people people is also the difference between range and character even today, some people like push pin and some sophea.  None the less without taking this reality into form the real character of eth historical analysis must take these factors into account if they are to unravel the truth, or atl east a better understanding of what is analysed. 

intro iliad -shift in consciousness

And this difficulty attaches itself more closely to an age in which progress has gained a strong ascendency over prejudice, and in which persons and things are, day by day, finding their real level, in lieu of their conventional value. The same principles which have swept away traditional abuses, and which are making rapid havoc among the revenues of sinecurists, and stripping the thin, tawdry veil from attractive superstitions, are working as actively in literature as in society.
The ideas of skepticism and the ideals of research and academia have led to our age where myths and reality are being stripped og misconceptions and are being better understood.

**The credulity of one writer, or the partiality of another, finds as powerful a touchstone and as wholesome a chastisement in the healthy scepticism of a temperate class of antagonists, as the dreams of conservatism, or the impostures of pluralist sinecures in the Church.

This revisionist or reexaminatory analysis has taken reliyethic fevour and is leading to temperance of society and a change in consciousness concerning how we view and analysis everything, including myths such as the iliad.

delay surcumbed


sorry for the delay on the analysis of the iluiad, when one is superior people get jealous and go out of their way to close computer centers early. a comspiracy from 2012 aug when the internet, the old one went down, it turns out few people servived who knew how to use a computer, you know how it is. several iliad clubs got in trouble, thus this should be good.
peace

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

disease update

 Thus we have begun our next analysis of myth , we will return to an analysis of the Goethite’s  of old after we examine this masterpiece called the Iliad , at some point after.
in 1919 more people died of diseases that fasted during the war than people died due to the war.  I learned this from a command magazine I read a few years ago concerning WWI.  Diseases actually appeared due to thie war we just experienced , however we went back to practicing what we knew would clean the environment as we did before the late nineties.  If you recall dropping some measures towards keeping food to even marshes clean caused a lot of pandemics.  2/3 of the chicken population was killed because old measures of keeping the food clean were removed in 1994 and later 2004 we learned a lesson did we not? Back to clean basics.  The other thing is Godthit is using the bacteria and virus ect. to upgrade our immune systems and body.  Here the body includes the mind too.  We are changing, mutating to be immune from all bio dangers and it has also caused an upgrade in physic and mentality.  For instance our frontal brain lobes have gotten stronger, so have our livers.
Praise Godthit!!!
Being good and submitted to the new social contract through the someone and the divine has caused a lot of benefits and trathetic energy or what our body and mind produces when we are good people causes good results even from the worse virus, i.e. it calls antidotes through the air versus things that cause more illness if your body is producing luhutic or bad energy cause you are doing inappropriate bad things. To good people it only causes good benefits.
So be good even disease is on our side and divinely making us stronger.

Negining the introducing the Iliad

we will begin analysing the iliad today.
the refrence for teh text we will be using is

 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6130/6130-pdf.pdf

secondary sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad

[ix]
 [ix]
INTRODUCTION.
Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is
of scepticism. To be content with what we at present know, is,
for the most part, to shut our ears against conviction; since, from
the very gradual character of our education, we must continually
forget, and emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously
acquired; we must set aside old notions and embrace fresh ones;
and, as we learn, we must be daily unlearning something which
it has cost us no small labour and anxiety to acquire.

The translator is attempting to frame the Iliad as an educated endeavoured in knowledge.  Ve is framing the idea that it is a myth and the scepticism an educated person might have towards myths might blind one to the educational value and reality of this text.  One notices that the translator  believes knowledge comes with an ability to unwind what might blind us or what might mis-guild us when learning.  Seeing  things from new perspectives sometimes destroys  or changes what we have as conceptions concerning something.  We unlearn and re-learn things with newly attained knowledge.  For instance one might have thought the moon was made of green cheese however after the moon landing in the late sixties, the moon’s really became yjay of  a type of planetoid made up of dirt, sand and rock similar to that of  Erf itself.  So you needed to unlearn or better yet redefine the reality one had concerning said moon.  It caused a huge paradigm shift in the way people think about everything from heavenly bodies to their own planet.  Hence what must we unlearn before we even begin reading the Iliad, is it simply that it is not a simple myth, story or fairy tale that has no basis or fact in reality?  Does it have credence for us now?  Can we learn from it or are we to might be too sceptical about it and  thus consider it a waste of time.  We should begin by asking ourselves if the moon landing was a waste of time?  Can a text read by multitudes, seen in movies, in the media and told of, which influenced countless people, not have credence for understanding the world, esp. concerning the images and ideas that preliterate through out?  Since the text actually influenced so many people at base level: being aware of it allows us to become more aware of how its ideas have influenced and shaped all that might surround us.  How does a text like this construct the meaning of myth itself and cause people to think in a certain way in their daily lives, how do people  sculpt their own metaphors and images of the self and the world simply based on being told of the story of this Oddesses?  We will call this a good beginning for the type of mind set one needs to start a fresh examination of such a profoundly influential text.



Tuesday, November 4, 2014

on wards

I guess that is it for this week, I realise alot of people are studying and the clean up for the war has begun, we are at defcon 4, means teh war time measure act closed, 8 days ago my time.
the war is over and teh dravetic system or war system is closing.  teh devices going off are not war time but set for clean up, warning buzzers and other sugnals are used, if no one on thier side responds they go off. quite afew people set such bombs up , canesters with gases and so on.
all in the way wars end, to victory and life etinmfinite.
till next week.

adroditic bueaty illusiveness

I posted this huge peiece on afrodite, in this temporal reality it is missing
so what I will do is see if it returns next week and if not move on to another topic and return to analysing teh gods later.
lets move to the illiad, and go through the book as we did with the oddessy.
it is teh best I can do, as I think the analysis of teh dieties will look better after the iliad.
recall, jacob of the golden fleecy, freeksos and abraham and issac went through teh same ritual of right , rite, ascetion,
if in teh iliad hercules appears as he does on the argos, the arc, either the coven box of the greeks refers to past heroes and /or a reinserted heroe appears to help the expediations refered to.

all hollwed day

All hallows day just passed, it was decided to avoid teh wierdness of the halloween  creepiness that we should celebrate blessings and or treats on former nov 1, people do less wierd things.

the suggested name wass hallowed day or all hallowed day versus all hallows day.
hope everyone had fun, it was an interesting weekned.
the calander was slightly scewed during teh war, time bombs
based on teh cusp of teh sun, this is really dec, tweltheth
calander months are the number plus a eth at the end.
fo all those who were in school, most of us, hope you enjoyed your reading week, I did lots of reading.
peace

dooms day hatching

it seems at the end of a war dooms day devices are deployed.  a lot of high end kill everything stuff, like those who creat fake flies that wisp by.
trhose who cause salts to form on th ground, other erasals can cause salts to form, even temporary ones like teh darkness bombs and the water air which really is hydrognised amonia oxy clorinated helium.
I am immune
insertion inflections, or II are points where the virus, or bacteria enter effect teh body, some burn nerve endings, usually temporary ones created by our bodies to protect primary systems, like strep 4 and virus whooping cough four, they unit in a good persons body, using tehethic or good energy to create a third virus that records dna .
after a the II one feels a sensation often called immunity basic, usually in line with the nerves that are effected by the II sometimes not, a lot on the right side chest drathetic area ofr instance, that is a heart main nervem doha does that made by southern viatnamese 82 years ago, basic immunity is a oulse in left side near the ear connected to synpathetic nerve endings and systems aclled lathetics, also connected to teh limphatic system.  Based on teh someone I am becoming an expert on this.  the ultimate immunty which occurs minutes later is felt in teh left foot as athrobing top side.
if not immune at this point you are dead.
some feel like an iche, some you scratch they burn.
flesh eaters, body decayers, people become puddles of good, some just die, so forth and so on, if you have submitted you will not die, all care is being taken to counter these things.
its 1919 again wherre code spanish flue can kill more poepl thaan the war.
this is a record from 2014 but evens in shared syncronisity date to 2011-2014.
some are virus that have incubated in teh things deployed in tehwar, like olive oils idiotes vaperised to make it warm.
we are safe, wash your jands before eating, avopind odd oil streachs and otehr harbage on street, like normal keep clean.
peace

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Tiem clander update



The first holidays is done, due to the war the days and colander were slightly off set, what use to be November is now one phaseth, and month sooner.  So the solstice is in November or what we now call the eleventh phaseth.  More people are happy, the time clock is off by alot they will reset it fully to the one world time and leave it there, and the time line is now in the Pacific Ocean, now called the lathetic, where no islands or land crosses any of it to the poles.  That international time belongs to everyone and not one place, it works
Peace till next week

More analysis concerning foam Afroditic events



The story of Aphrodite is an interpretation of a divine saying from the past a lot has been formed from it, built on it.
Everything from golden globes and sea foam to beautiful women and now mermaids, to sails to bio regeneration, cloning foam pools have been dreamt up concerning these tales.
The lesson might have been that life comes from oceans including the foam and thus we beautiful, the sun light that comes from the globe like suns cause life to grow readily from teat foam.  This is one of the sources of life, underwater gizers, normal mud; even mountain frost can create life, esp. in particular circumstances.

Aphrodite, sea foam and the origin of life beauty

Aphrodite
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite
Aphrodite
by Micha F. Lindemans
In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture. According to Hesiod, she was born when Uranus (the father of the gods) was castrated by his son Cronus. Cronus threw the severed genitals into the ocean which
began to churn and foam about them. From the aphros ("sea foam") arose Aphrodite, and the sea carried her to either Cyprus or Cythera. Hence she is often referred to as Kypris and Cytherea. Homer calls her a daughter of Zeus and Dione.
--Uranus is often called the father of the titans.  These gods and the way that developed to interact with them ended with the transcendence of Croons.  Uranus is of the first lines of the Elelete or deity panpantheon or the first epos of creation.  The Aphrodite beauty contest which is run each panpantheon, pantheon, epoch and epos would have beauty re-rise in the new image each time it occurs.  Amore scholarly interpretation is that this story is a version of the globes in the sky, Uranus that more with eth from and life and beauty raised.  Try this is a story about the evolution of life from the sea, including eth rise of humans like mermaids rising from the sea.  Cyprus or Cythera might be where the newest beauty show winner setting their image as one of the new looks for the age might have come from.  In Cyprus the rich soil and coppery intrusions into the sea creates foams that can cause life to occur more often than other places, the muds are equally rich with life.  In more modern tales like homer the fathers of life are Zeuss and Dione which means female Dione and include places like Rhodes.

post war clean up update



We are now in clean up not war, though odd booby trap weapons and attacks occur there are few and few each day.  The world is being rebuilt, the stuff people stole or neglected to add to the environment and foods and drinks is being returned, the new versions are the only ones that exist.  People are beginning to feel normal; the feelings are good like the best productive version of life before and even better.  Foods taste better, cheap substitutes during the war are being removed, life is returning back to a good.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

more later

all things are going well, muy time is limited so I will post more on the goddess afrodite later
peace enjoy the week.
all things are going as they shouuld and the war program is closing down, soon we are done/

Aphrodite and the idea of bueaty

Aphrodite and the idea of bueaty

Let’s negin by presenting some of teh ideas we have already derived concerning afrodite:
She is the goddess of bueaty, in some tales she is also considered very zealous concerning her bueaty.
Some say she is so attractive no mortal can withstead her m she is tempting and often gets her ways bueatifully..
What do we meran by bueaty?
Well she is not simply some dumb good looking ffemale people would xcall a goddess.
In philosophy, now called sophea, as in platos phedrus, theotetus and other works, bueaty is considered a ideal, a sophethic concept. It is esthetical as kant says yet expounds beyond the mere explamations in words or other language tools. Vueaty is not skin deep, it contains an awe of apprehention, it contains something to do with attractiveness and charisma , it is appealing.
According to sophea bueaty is an ideal people luve, it is a concept and framework that causes one to act ddivinely, that is appropriate both legally, socially and in concerns to teh divine.
Aphrodite is a foddess of bueaty and some say lovem a love of wisdom? A lover of bueaty, is harveus burgerrs bueatiful things? Is this burher bueatiful just in appearance, is teh bueaty in taste as well, is teh way teh person makes them equally part of teh quotient of bueaty?
Is love not of bueaty, of true bueaty that is something that goes beyond teh material appearance of a thing, does teh awe of recohnition , of easthetics still not play a role in the appearance, or incidental existamnce, appearance as meaning that something?
Thus what may look horad mught really still have teh awe of bueaty?
Is bueaty in the eye of teh beholder? Os teh ultimate bueaty still ideally bueatuful, does alover know a lover as truly bueatiful only because they truly know them as no one else, or does eceryone sense the bueaty of that person even if obnly aquanted to them.?
Really bueaty is an awe yet one must observe a thing as the one who sees teh bueaty to share in that dementuion of it.
Thus yes bueaty as aristitle might say is something we all approve of but conceptually we might argue is something is bueatiful based on the semantics of teh prespective dimention we each asses that thing or being by. If we are bueatifu we can assess bueaty as what it truly is, the concept of being bueatiful makes one bueatiful and allows for its understanding , as a product of teh high end . the arguement is that bueatiful flower a weed because I did not plant it?
It is not to be her, ya it has its bueaty nut here it looked ugly in the scape of things.
I agree its bueatuiful whaere it belongs, ots part that bueaty all things hold.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

returning to normal.

I will continue with the twelve gods next week.
the system is upgrading
the weather went well as soon as teh radiation ceased/
it turns out during teh equanox winter sports start
although it was avetha and not fretha
the devices , including long wave cold radiation hothey and skying ambiance were remote;ly released from thier led boces, devices on satelites read them as too radiation hot and self destructed, doom days devices raining radiation on all,. you felt almost a puke like sensation in teh back of teh throart, over 1000 rads a second., onl;y immortals live and all radiooactive substances burnt up., no more nuclear powerr, as teh desater in former japan at eth start of teh war proved/
we are better off cause trhe shimer , like heat waves had fooled people into thinking bewnign devivces became magically empowerreds, mav has nothing to do with lethal radiation, but they thought so and died.
its like the shimer on gold leaf freskos that look odd and were thought to cause bad things to happen.
iconoclasm, real truth pewople simply di4ed that was it.
mev did not work that way, but radiation through some substances, minute amounts can cause wierd sensations even death.
the benign stones are returning to normal.
no radioactive material anywhere casmocally
praise godthit and all the rewal gothiters
till next week.

Afrodite begings



Goddess of love, beauty, desire, and pleasure. Although married to Hephaestus she had many lovers, most notably Ares, Adonis, and Anchises. She was depicted as a beautiful woman and of all the goddesses most likely to appear nude or seminude. Poets praise the radiance of her smile and her laughter. Her symbols include roses and other flowers, the scallop shell, and myrtle wreath. Her sacred animals are doves and sparrows. Her Roman counterpart was Venus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures

afrodite represents the demetion of love esthetics and bueaty, the endevours of thought as the good looking pr apealing.

the prefection of teh look of body and how things appear including teh look of bueaty, demeanpour and teh likes.
what appears apropriate for behaviour and looking good or bueatiful.
for acting bueatioful is not looiking good but being good.
more on her next wqeek.

thoughts on godheads

to start our interpretationa dn analyses the gods , lets start by asking , does it make sense to you that the gods of olympus were the various parts of teh god head like father son and holy ghost?
ask yourself why these gods were chosen to be the representation of teh divine and parts of the god head prios to the trinity?
where was godthit considered teh unity of all oif them, why would such parts fight each other in primitive peoples minds.
teh trinity does not fight itself, nor diud these gods.

radiation stop

we will begin the examination of the ancient gods today
it will be very interesting.
two days ago the last radioactive material was fissioned.
it reflected backwards but there are no more radioactive issotopes in teh cosmos and no chance of new ones to occur.
it was a rare event that caused them to happen, an event that no longer can occur due to new energies altering even teh past.
window of oppurtunity closed/
a;; good you will feel healthy and happy.
as we do now.
neevr drained as some soppose3d , though we were not drained but energised as immortals in ways soem did not recognise.
the simplest radiational material would kill a mortal in seconds.
death valleys were we wmind such things were uninhabiotable
prior to the mining no one went there
we n3eeded robots to get at the stuff in teh seventries and 19302
the lklatter was armoured protection ta short exposure and a redu ced life even through led. as star treck four proved takions appear outside teh protective sheilds, including led.
 they heated eventing up till it blew up and burnt out, timers and giger counters set as dooms day devices if theier natin failed as teh old ones did
peace.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

positive thinking

Hope everyone is enjoyimng teh new year, it has been fruitful thus far and it should be the a great year.

the stuff we learned is now being corolated by your mind and teh endevour to happiness good
I feel great, full of vigor and energy, I am fully controlled and cool headed and feel great.
Yjr eisdom is growing.
so relax and take the world by teh horns and ride like teh sind.
as always like me stay positive minded even when debating.
be serious but not incapable of smiling and feeling good.
yes even when yelling stay positive even when not smiling.
yes I am smiling now
till next week, stay bueatiful.
peace

the greek gods explored: Aphrodite


wwe will vegin exploring teh ,yths concerning the ancient greek gods that make up the god head and mythus that comprises teh body of teh mechanism of these faiths bound through tehis panthetic system.
we will endevour to examine each in teh order given by this file
List of Greek mythological figures
Aphrodite (Ἀφροδίτη, Aphroditē)
Goddess of love, beauty, desire, and pleasure. Although married to Hephaestus she had many lovers, most notably Ares, Adonis, and Anchises. She was depicted as a beautiful woman and of all the goddesses most likely to appear nude or seminude. Poets praise the radiance of her smile and her laughter. Her symbols include roses and other flowers, the scallop shell, and myrtle wreath. Her sacred animals are doves and sparrows. Her Roman counterpart was Venus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures
reading LIST:
Aphrodite
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite
Aphrodite
by Micha F. Lindemans
In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture. According to Hesiod, she was born when Uranus (the father of the gods) was castrated by his son Cronus. Cronus threw the severed genitals into the ocean which
began to churn and foam about them. From the aphros ("sea foam") arose Aphrodite, and the sea carried her to either Cyprus or Cythera. Hence she is often referred to as Kypris and Cytherea. Homer calls her a daughter of Zeus and Dione.
After her birth, Zeus was afraid that the gods would fight over Aphrodite's hand in marriage so he married her off to the smith god Hephaestus, the steadiest of the gods. He could hardly believe his good luck and used all his skills to make the most lavish jewels for her. He made her a girdle of finely wrought gold and wove magic into the filigree work. That was not very wise of him, for when she wore her magic girdle no one could resist her, and she was all too irresistible already. She loved gaiety and glamour and was not at all pleased at being the wife of sooty, hard-working Hephaestus.
Aphrodite loved and was loved by many gods and mortals. Among her mortal lovers, the most famous was perhaps Adonis. Some of her sons are Eros, Anteros, Hymenaios and Aeneas (with her Trojan lover Anchises). She is accompanied by the Graces.
Her festival is the Aphrodisiac which was celebrated in various centers of Greece and especially in Athens and Corinth. Her priestesses were not prostitutes but women who represented the goddess and sexual intercourse with them was considered just one of the methods of worship. Aphrodite was originally an old-Asian goddess, similar to the Mesopotamian Ishtar and the Syro-Palestinian goddess Ashtart. Her attributes are a.o. the dolphin, the dove, the swan, the pomegranate and the lime tree.
In Roman mythology Venus is the goddess of love and beauty and Cupid is love's messenger.
from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite
Aphrodite - Apollo - Ares - Artemis - Athena - Demeter - Dionysus - Hephaestus - Hera - Hermes - Poseidon - Zeus - Others
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APHRODITE (a-fro-DYE-tee; Roman name Venus) was the goddess of love, beauty and fertility. She was also a protectress of sailors.
The poet Hesiod said that Aphrodite was born from sea-foam. Homer, on the other hand, said that she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
When the Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of three Olympian goddesses was the most beautiful, he chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena. The latter two had hoped to bribe him with power and victory in battle, but Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the world.
This was Helen of Sparta, who became infamous as Helen of Troy when Paris subsequently eloped with her. In the ensuing Trojan War, Hera and Athena were implacable enemies of Troy while Aphrodite was loyal to Paris and the Trojans.
IN HOMER
In his epic of the Trojan War, Homer tells how Aphrodite intervened in battle to save her son Aeneas, a Trojan ally. The Greek hero Diomedes, who had been on the verge of killing Aeneas, attacked the goddess herself, wounding her on the wrist with his spear and causing the ichor to flow. (Ichor is what immortals have in the place of blood.)
Aphrodite promptly dropped Aeneas, who was rescued by Apollo, another Olympian sponsor of the Trojans. In pain she sought out her brother Ares, the god of war who stood nearby admiring the carnage, and borrowed his chariot so that she might fly up to Olympus. There she goes crying to her mother Dione, who soothes her and cures her wound. Her father Zeus tells her to leave war to the likes of Ares and Athena, while devoting herself to the business of marriage.
Elsewhere in Homer's Iliad , Aphrodite saves Paris when he is about to be killed in single combat by Menelaus. The goddess wraps him in a mist and spirits him away, setting him down in his own bedroom in Troy. She then appears to Helen in the guise of an elderly handmaiden and tells her that Paris is waiting for her.
Helen recognizes the goddess in disguise and asks if she is being led once more to ruin. For Aphrodite had bewitched her into leaving her husband Menelaus to run off with Paris. She dares to suggest that Aphrodite go to Paris herself.
Suddenly furious, the goddess warns Helen not to go too far, lest she be abandoned to the hatred of Greeks and Trojans alike. "I'll hate you," says the mercurial goddess, "as much as I love you now."
Even though Zeus's queen Hera and Aphrodite are on different sides in the Trojan War, the goddess of love loans Hera her magical girdle in order to distract Zeus from the fray. This garment has the property of causing men (and gods) to fall hopelessly in love with whoever is wearing it.
Homer calls Aphrodite "the Cyprian", and many of her attributes may have come from Asia via Cyprus (and Cythera) in Mycenaean times. These almost certainly mixed with a preexisting Hellenic or Aegean goddess. The ancient Greeks themselves felt that Aphrodite was both Greek and foreign.
JASON
Aphrodite involved herself on other occasions in the affairs of mortal heroes. When Jason asked permission of the king of Colchis to remove the Golden Fleece from the grove in which it hung, the king was clearly unwilling. So the goddess Hera, who sponsored Jason's quest, asked her fellow-Olympian Aphrodite to intervene. The love goddess made the king's daughter Medea fall in love with Jason, and Medea proved instrumental in Jason's success.
AENEAS
Another time, Zeus punished Aphrodite for beguiling her fellow gods into inappropriate romances. He caused her to become infatuated with the mortal Anchises. That's how she came to be the mother of Aeneas. She protected this hero during the Trojan War and its aftermath, when Aeneas quested to Italy and became the mythological founder of a line of Roman emperors.
A minor Italic goddess named Venus became identified with Aphrodite, and that's how she got her Roman name. It is as Venus that she appears in the Aeneiad , the poet Virgil's epic of the founding of Rome.
And on still another occasion,
HEPHAESTUS
The love goddess was married to the homely craftsman-god Hephaestus. She was unfaithful to him with Ares, and Homer relates in the Odyssey how Hephaestus had his revenge.
IN ART
Elsewhere in classical art she has no distinctive attributes other than her beauty. Flowers and vegetation motifs suggest her connection to fertility.
Aphrodite was associated with the dove. Another of her sacred birds was the goose, on which she is seen to ride in a vase painting from antiquity.
Hesiod's reference to Aphrodite's having been born from the sea inspired the Renaissance artist Botticelli's famous painting of the goddess on a giant scallop shell. Equally if not better known is the Venus de Milo, a statue which lost its arms in ancient times.
WAR GODDESS?
The ancient travel writer Pausanias describes a number of statues of Aphrodite dressed for battle, many of them in Sparta. Given the manner in which the militaristic Spartans raised their girls, it is not surprising that they conceived of a female goddess in military attire. She also would have donned armaments to defend cities, such as Corinth, who adopted her as their patroness. This is not to say that she was a war goddess, although some have seen her as such and find significance in her pairing with the war god Ares in mythology and worship.
The two most recent editions of "The Oxford Classical Dictionary" are at variance over this aspect of the goddess. The 1970 edition sees her as a goddess of war and traces this to her Oriental roots. It is true that she has resemblances to Astarte, who is a goddess of war as well as fertility.
The 1996 edition of "The Oxford Classical Dictionary", on the other hand, offers several counterarguments. It sees her being paired with Ares, for instance, not because they are similarly warlike but precisely because love and war are opposites.
In any case, Aphrodite's primary function was to preside over reproduction, since this was essential for the survival of the community.
from :http://www.mythweb.com/gods/aphrodite.html
APHRODITE was the great Olympian goddess of beauty, love, pleasure and and procreation. She was depicted as a beautiful woman usually accompanied by the winged godling Eros (Love). Her attributes included a dove, apple, scallop shell and mirror. In classical sculpture and fresco she was often depicted nude.
Some of the more famous myths featuring the goddess include:--
Her birth from the sea foam;
Her adulterous affair with the god Ares;
Her love for Adonis, a handsome Cypriot youth who was tragically killed by a boar;
Her love for Ankhises, a shepherd-prince;
The judgement of Paris in which the goddess was awarded the prize of the golden apple in return for promising Paris Helene in marriage;
The Trojan War in which she supported her favourites Paris and Aeneas and was wounded in the fighting;
The race of Hippomenes for Atalanta, which was won with the help of the goddess and her golden apples;
The death of Hippolytos, who was destroyed by the goddess for scorning her worship;
The statue of Pygmalion which was brought to life by Aphrodite in answer to his prayers;
The persecution of Psykhe, the maiden loved by the goddess' son Eros.
This site contains a total of 18 pages describing the goddess Aphrodite, including general descriptions, mythology, and cult. The content is outlined in the table below. Quotes for these pages are still being compiled (see bottom of this page for the current status of this project).
INDEX APHRODITE PAGES
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
Encyclopedia Entry
Hymns to Aphrodite
Images of Aphrodite
Physical Descriptions
PART 2: GODDESS OF
Love & Procreation
Beauty & Grace
Pleasure, Merriment
Love Poetry
Star of Venus
Identified with
Foreign Goddesses
PART 3: APHRODITE MYTHS 1
Birth of Aphrodite
War of the Giants
Flight from Typhoeus
Creation of Pandora
Feasts of the Gods
Birth of Priapos
Pythian Music Contest
Weaving Contest
PART 3: APHRODITE MYTHS 2
The Trojan War
PART 3: APHRODITE MYTHS 3
Aphrodite & Eros
Loves of the Gods
Loves of Men
Aphrodite in Fable
PART 3: APHRODITE MYTHS 4
Judgment of Paris
Aphrodite & Harmonia
Aphrodite & Beroe
PART 4: APHROD. WRATH 1
Halia, Brothers
Hippolytos
Hippomenes
Kerastai
Kinyras' Daughters
Lemnian Women
Menelaos
Nisos
Pasiphae
Propoitides
Tyndareus
PART 4: APHROD. WRATH 2
Akheilos
Akmon
Anaxarete
Diomedes
Eos
Erymanthos
Glaukos
Helios
Herakles
Kalliope
Kleio
Myrrha Smyrna
Narkissos
Nerites
Orpheus
Pan
Polyphonte
Seirenes
PART 4: APHROD. WRATH 3
Psykhe
PART 5: APHRODITE FAVOUR
Aeneas
Andromakhe
Ariadne & Dionysos
Boutes
Dexikreon
Hektor
Helene
Hermaphroditos
Hippomenes
Ino
Pandareus' Daughters
Paris
Penthesileia
Pygmalion
Rome City
Skylla
PART 6: APHRODITE FAMILY
Genealogy
Divine Offspring
Mortal Offspring
Family by Kingdom
PART 7: APHRODITE LOVES 1
Ares
Dionysos
Hephaistos
Hermes
Nerites
Poseidon
Zeus
PART 7: APHRODITE LOVES 2
Adonis
Ankhises
Boutes
Phaon
Phaethon
PART 8: ESTATE, ATTRIBUTES
Dove Sky Chariot
Sea Chariot
Clothing & Jewellery
Magical Girdle
Palace
Sacred Animals
Sacred Plants Flowers
Sacred Gems
PART 9: ATTENDANTS
PART 10: CULT & STATUES 1
General Cult
Attika, S. Greece
Megaris, S. Greece
Salamis, S. Greece
Aigina, S. Greece
Korinthia, S. Greece
Sikyonia, S. Greece
Argolis, S. Greece
Lakonia, S. Greece
Messenia, S. Greece
PART 10: CULT & STATUES 2
Elis, S. Greece
Akhaia, S. Greece
Arkadia, S. Greece
Boiotia, C. Greece
Phokis, C. Greece
Oz. Lokris, C. Greece
Thessalia, N. Greece
Delos, Gr. Aegean
Kos, Greek Aegean
Illyria, N, of Greece
Thrake, N. of Greece
Kypros, E. Meditt.
Teuthrania, Anatolia
Karia, Anatolia
Lydia, Anatolia
Mysia, Anatolia
Pamphylia, Anatolia
Egypt, North Africa
Libya, North Africa
Sicily, S. Italy
Latium, C. Italy
Gaul, S. France
PART 11: TITLES & EPITHETS
Poetic Titles Epithets
Cult Titles
SUMMARY OF APHRODITE
PARENTS
[1] Born from the castrated genitals of OURANOS in the sea's foam (Hesiod Theogony 188, Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.21, Apuleius 6.6, Nonnus Dionysiaca 1.86, et al)
[2] ZEUS & DIONE (Homer Iliad 5.370; Euripides Helen 1098; Apollodorus 1.13, Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.21, et al)
[3] OURANOS & HEMERA (Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.21)
OFFSPRING
See Family of Aphrodite
ENCYCLOPEDIA
APHRODI′TE (Aphroditê), one of the great Olympian divinities, was, according to the popular and poetical notions of the Greeks, the goddess of love and beauty. Some traditions stated that she had sprung from the foam (aphros) of the sea, which had gathered around the mutilated parts of Uranus, that had been thrown into the sea by Kronos after he had unmanned his father. (Hesiod. Theog. 190; compare Anadyomene.) With the exception of the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite there is no trace of this legend in Homer, and according to him Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. (Il. v. 370, &c., xx. 105.) Later traditions call her a daughter of Kronos and Euonyme, or of Uranus and Hemera. (Cic. De Nat. Deor. iii. 23; Natal. Com. iv. 13.)
According to Hesiod and the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite, the goddess after rising from the foam first approached the island of Cythera, and thence went to Cyprus, and as she was walking on the sea-coast flowers sprang up under her feet, and Eros and Himeros accompanied her to the assembly of the other great gods, all of whom were struck with admiration and love when she appeared, and her surpassing beauty made every one desire to have her for his wife.
According to the cosmogonic views of the nature of Aphrodite, she was the personification of the generative powers of nature, and the mother of all living beings. A trace of this notion seems to be contained in the tradition that in the contest of Typhon with the gods, Aphrodite metamorphosed herself into a fish, which animal was considered to possess the greatest generative powers. (Ov. Met. v. 318, &c.; comp. Hygin. Poet. Astr. 30.) But according to the popular belief of the Greeks and their poetical descriptions, she was the goddess of love, who excited this passion in the hearts of gods and men, and by this power ruled over all the living creation. (Hom. Hymn. in Ven. ; Lucret. 15, &c.)
Ancient mythology furnishes numerous instances in which Aphrodite punished those who neglected her worship or despised her power, as well as others in which she favoured and protected those who did homage to her and recognized her sway. Love and beauty are ideas essentially connected, and Aphrodite was therefore also the goddess of beauty and gracefulness. In these points she surpassed all other goddesses, and she received the prize of beauty from Paris; she had further the power of granting beauty and invincible charms to others. Youth is the herald, and Peitho, the Horae, and Charites, the attendants and companions of Aphrodite. (Pind. New. viii. 1, &c.) Marriages are called by Zeus her work and the things about which she ought to busy herself. (Hom. Il. v. 429; comp. Od. xx. 74; Pind. Pyth. ix. 16, &c.) As she herself had sprung from the sea, she is represented by later writers as having some influence upon the sea (Virg. Aen. viii. 800; Ov. Heroid. xv. 213; comp. Paus. ii. 34. § 11.)
During the Trojan war, Aphrodite, the mother of Aeneas, who had been declared the most beautiful of all the goddesses by a Trojan prince, naturally sided with the Trojans. She saved Paris from his contest with Menelaus (Il. iii. 380), but when she endeavoured to rescue her darling Aeneas from the fight, she was pursued by Diomedes, who wounded her in her hand. In her fright she abandoned her son, and was carried by Iris in the chariot of Ares to Olympus, where she complained of her misfortune to her mother Dione, but was laughed at by Hera and Athena. (Il. v. 311, &c.) She also protected the body of Hector, and anointed it with ambrosia. (Il. xxiii. 185.)
According to the most common accounts of the ancients, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus (Odyss. viii. 270), who, however, is said in the Iliad (viii. 383) to have married Charis. Her faithlessness to Hephaestus in her amour with Ares, and the manner in which she was caught by the ingenuity of her husband, are beautifully described in the Odyssey. (viii. 266, &c.) By Ares she became the mother of Phobos, Deimos, Harmonia, and, according to later traditions, of Eros and Anteros also. (Hesiod. Theog. 934, &c., Scut. Herc. 195; Hom. Il. xiii. 299, iv. 440; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iii. 26; Cic. De Nat. Deor. iii. 23.)
But Ares was not the only god whom Aphrodite favoured; Dionysus, Hermes, and Poseidon likewise enjoyed her charms. By the first she was, according to some traditions, the mother of Priapus (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 933) and Bacchus (Hesych. s. v. Bakchou Diônês), by the second of Hermaphroditus (Ov. Met. iv. 289, &c.; Diod. iv. 6; Lucian, Dial. Deor. xv. 2), and by Poseidon she had two children, Rhodos and Herophilus. (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. viii. 24.)
As Aphrodite so often kindled in the hearts of the gods a love for mortals, Zeus at last resolved to make her pay for her wanton sport by inspiring her too with love for a mortal man. This was accomplished, and Aphrodite conceived an invincible passion for Anchises, by whom she became the mother of Aeneas and Lyrus.
Respecting her connexions with other mortals see Adonis and Butes. The ancient story ran thus : Smyrna had neglected the worship of Aphrodite, and was punished by the goddess with an unnatural love for her father. With the assistance of her nurse she contrived to share her father's bed without being known to him. When he discovered the crime he wished to kill her; but she fled, and on being nearly overtaken, prayed to the gods to make her invisible. They were moved to pity and changed her into a tree called smurna. After the lapse of nine months the tree burst, and Adonis was born. Aphrodite was so much charmed with the beauty of the infant, that she concealed it in a chest which she entrusted to Persephone; but when the latter discovered the treasure she had in her keeping, she refused to give it up. The case was brought before Zeus, who decided the dispute by declaring that during four months of every year Adonis should be left to himself, during four months he should belong to Persephone, and during the remaining four to Aphrodite. Adonis however preferring to live with Aphrodite, also spent with her the four months over which he had controul. Afterwards Adonis died of a wound which he received from a boar during the chase. Thus far the story of Adonis was related by Panyasis.
Later writers furnish various alterations and additions to it. According to Hyginus (Fab. 58, 164, 251, 271), Smyrna was punished with the love for her father, because her mother Cenchreis had provoked the anger of Aphrodite by extolling the beauty of her daughter above that of the goddess. Smyrna after the discovery of her crime fled into a forest, where she was changed into a tree from which Adonis came forth, when her father split it with his sword. The dispute between Aphrodite and Persephone was according to some accounts settled by Calliope, whom Zeus appointed as mediator between them. (Hygin. Poet. Astron. ii. 7.) Ovid (Met x. 300, &c.) adds the following features: Myrrha's love of her father was excited by the furies; Lucina assisted her when she gave birth to Adonis, and the Naiads anointed him with the tears of his mother, i. e. with the fluid which trickled from the tree. Adonis grew up a most beautiful youth, and Venus loved him and shared with him the pleasures of the chase, though she always cautioned him against the wild beasts. At last he wounded a boar which killed him in its fury.
According to some traditions Ares (Mars), or, according to others, Apollo assumed the form of a boar and thus killed Adonis. (Serv. ad Virg. Ecl. x. 18; Ptolem. Hephaest. i. p. 306, ed. Gale.) A third story related that Dionysus carried off Adonis. (Phanocles ap. Plut. Sumpos. iv. 5.) When Aphrodite was informed of her beloved being wounded, she hastened to the spot and sprinkled nectar into his blood, from which immediately flowers sprang up. Various other modifications of the story may be read in Hyginus (Poet. Astron. ii. 7), Theocritus (Idyll. xv.), Bion (Idyll. i.), and in the scholiast on Lycophron. (839, &c.) From the double marriage of Aphrodite with Ares and Adonis sprang
Priapus. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 9, 32.) Besides him Golgos and Beroe are likewise called children. of Adonis and Aphrodite. (Schol. ad Theocrit. xv. 100; Nonn. Dionys. xli 155.) On his death Adonis was obliged to descend into the lower world, but he was allowed to spend six months out of every year with his beloved Aphrodite in the upper world. (Orph. hymn. 55. 10.)
Aphrodite possessed a magic girdle which had the power of inspiring love and desire for those who wore it; hence it was borrowed by Hera when she wished to stimulate the love of Zeus. (Hom. Il. xiv. 214, &c.) The arrow is also sometimes mentioned as one of her attributes. (Plnd. Pyth. iv. 380; Theocrit. xi. 16.) In the vegetable kingdom the myrtle, rose, apple, poppy, and others, were sacred to her. (Ov. Fast. iv. 15. 143; Bion, Idyll. i. 64; Schol. ad Aristoph. Nub. 993; Paus. ii. 10. § 4; Phornut. 23.)
The animals sacred to her, which are often mentioned as drawing her chariot or serving as her messengers, are the sparrow, the dove, the swan, the swallow, and a bird called iynx. (Sappho, in Ven. 10; Athen. ix. p. 395; Horat. Carm. iv. 1. 10; Aelian, Hist. An. x. 34; Pind. Py/th/. l. c.) As Aphrodite Urania the tortoise, the symbol of domestic modesty and chastity, and as Aphrodite Pandemos the ram was sacred to her. [Urania; Pandemos.] When she was represented as the victorious goddess, she had the attributes of Ares, a helmet, a shield, a sword : or a lance, and an image of Victory in one hand. The planet Venus and the spring-month of April were likewise sacred to her. (Cie. de Nat. Deor. iii. 20; Ov. Fast. iv. 90.)
All the surnames and epithets given to Aphrodite are derived from places of her worship, from events connected with the legends about her, or have reference to her character and her influence upon man, or are descriptive of her extraordinary beauty and charms. All her surnames are explained in separate articles.
The principal places of her worship in Greece were the islands of Cyprus and Cythera. At Cnidus in Caria she had three temples, one of which contained her renowned statue by Praxiteles. Mount Ida in Troas was an ancient place of her worship, and among the other places we may mention particularly the island of Cos, the towns of Abydos, Athens, Thespiae, Megara, Sparta, Sicyon, Corinth, and Eryx in Sicily. The sacrifices offered to her consisted mostly of incense and garlands of flowers (Virg. Aen. i. 416; Tacit. Hist. ii. 3), but in some places animals, such as pigs, goats, young cows, hares, and others, were sacrificed to her. In some places, as at Corinth, great numbers of females belonged to her, who prostituted themselves in her service, and bore the name of hierodouloi. (Dict.of Ant. s. v. Hetairai.) Respecting the festivals of Aphrodite see Dict. of Ant. s.v. Adônia, Anagôgia, Aphrodisia, Katagôgia.
The worship of Aphrodite was undoubtedly of eastern origin, and probably introduced from Syria to the islands of Cyprus, Cythera, and others, from whence it spread all over Greece. It is said to have been brought into Syria from Assyria. (Paus. i. 14. § 6.) Aphrodite appears to have been originally identical with Astarte, called by the Hebrews Ashtoreth, and her connexion with Adonis clearly points to Syria. But with the exception of Corinth, where the worship of Aphrodite had eminently an Asiatic character, the whole worship of this goddess and all the ideas concerning her nature and character are so entirely Greek, that its introduction into Greece must be assigned to the very earliest periods. The elements were derived from the East, but the peculiar development of it belongs to Greece. The Roman goddess Venus was identified with the Greek Aphrodite.
Aphrodite, the ideal of female graec and beauty, frequently engaged the talents and genius of the ancient artists. The most celebrated representations of her were those of Cos and Cnidus. Those which are still extant are divided by archaeologists into several classes, accordingly as the goddess is represented in a standing position and naked, as the Medicean Venus, or bathing, or half naked, or dressed in a tunic, or as the victorious goddess in arms, as she was represented in the temples of Cythera, Sparta, and Corinth. (Paus. iii. 23. § 1, ii. 5. § 1, iii. 15. § 10.)
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
HYMNS TO APHRODITE
I) THE HOMERIC HYMNS
Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th to 4th B.C.) :
"Moisa (Muse), tell me the deeds of golden Aphrodite Kypria (Cyprian), who stirs up sweet passion in the gods and subdues the tribes of mortal men and birds that fly in air and all the many creatures that the dry land rears, and all the sea: all these love the deeds of rich-crowned Kythereia. [The story of the love of Aphrodite and Ankhises follows.] . . .
Hail, goddess, queen of well-builded Kypros (Cyprus)! With you have I begun; now I will turn me to another hymn."
Homeric Hymn 6 to Aphrodite :
"I will sing of stately Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful, whose dominion is the walled cities of all sea-set Kypros (Cyprus). There the moist breath of Zephyros the western wind wafted her over the waves of the loud-moaning sea in soft foam, ad there the gold-filleted Horai (Seasons) welcomed her joyously. [The story of the birth of Aphrodite follows.] . . .
Hail, sweetly-winning, coy-eyed goddess! Grant that I may gain the victory in this contest, and order you my song. And now I will remember you and another song also."
Homeric Hymn 10 to Aphrodite :
"Of Kythereia [Aphrodite], born in Kypros (Cyprus), I will sing. She gives kindly gifts to men: smiles are ever on her lovely face, and lovely is the brightness that plays over it. Hail, goddess, queen of well-built Salamis and sea-girt Kypros; grant me a cheerful song. And now I will remember you and another song also."
II) THE ORPHIC HYMNS
Orphic Hymn 55 to Aphrodite (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
"To Aphrodite. Ourania (Heavenly), illustrious, laughter-loving (philommeideia) queen, sea-born (pontogenes), night-loving (philopannyx), of awful mien; crafty, from whom Ananke (Necessity) first came, producing, nightly, all-connecting dame. 'Tis thine the world with harmony to join, for all things spring from thee, O power divine. The triple Moirai (Fates) are ruled by thy decree, and all productions yield alike to thee: whatever the heavens, encircling all, contain, earth fruit-producing, and the stormy main, thy sway confesses, and obeys thy nod, awful attendant of Bakkhos [Dionysos] God. Goddess of marriage, charming to the sight, mother of the Erotes (Loves), whom banquetings delight; source of Peitho (Persuasion), secret, favouring queen, illustrious born, apparent and unseen; spousal Lukaina, and to men inclined, prolific, most-desired, life-giving, kind. Great sceptre-bearer of the Gods, 'tis thine mortals in necessary bands to join; and every tribe of savage monsters dire in magic chains to bind through mad desire. Come, Kyprogenes (Cyprus-Born), and to my prayer incline, whether exalted in the heavens you shine, or pleased in odorous Syria to preside, or over the Aigyptian (Egyptian) plains they care to guide, fashioned of gold; and near its sacred flood, fertile and famed, to fix they blest abode; or if rejoicing in the azure shores, near where the sea with foaming billows roars, the circling choirs of mortals thy delight, or beauteous Nymphai (Nymphs) with eyes cerulean bright, pleased by the sandy banks renowned of old, to drive thy rapid two-yoked car of gold; or if in Kypros (Cyprus) thy famed mother fair, where Nymphai unmarried praise thee every year, the loveliest Nymphai, who in the chorus join, Adonis pure to sing, and thee divine. Come, all-attractive, to my prayer inclined, for thee I call, with holy, reverent mind."
K10.2 BIRTH OF
APHRODITE
K10.3 APHRODITE
RIDING GOOSE
K10.16 APHRODITE
WITH MIRROR
K10.6 APHRODITE,
ADONIS
K9.3 ARES,
APHRODITE
K9.1 APHRODITE,
ARES, EROS
K10.5 APHRODITE
WITH DOVE
K10.12 APHRODITE
STANDING
K4.6 JUDGEMENT
OF PARIS
K31.3 JUDGEMENT
OF PARIS
K4.5 JUDGEMENT
OF PARIS
K10.7 APHRODITE,
AENEAS, PARIS
K10.8 APHRODITE,
HELENE
K10.9 APHRODITE,
PARIS, MENELAOS
T22.2 APHRODITE,
PANDORA, ARES
K4.11 APHRODITE,
HERA, HERAKLES
K10.4 APHRODITE,
HERMES, EROS
K10.1 APHRODITE,
ZEUS, EROS
K32.6 APHRODITE,
EROS, LOVERS
O6.3 APHRODITE,
PEITHO, DIOSKOUROI
K12.13B APHRODITE,
BIRTH DIONYSOS
K10.14 APHRODITE,
PEITHO
K31.7 APHRODITE,
EROSTASIA
K31.4 APHRODITE,
EROSTASIA
K10.11 APHRODITE
RIDING SWAN
K31.6 APHRODITE,
EROTES CHARIOT
K31.5 APHRODITE,
EROTES CHARIOT
K10.10 APHRODITE,
ADONIS, EROS
K10.18 APHRODITE,
AENEAS, DIOMEDES
K10.13 APHRODITE,
GIGANTE MIMOS
K31.2 APHRODITE,
EROTES
F10.1 BIRTH OF
APHRODITE
F10.2 APHRODITE,
ARES, EROTES
F9.1 APHRODITE,
ARES, EROS
F10.4 APHRODITE,
EROS
F10.5 APHRODITE,
EROS, EROTES
F10.3 APHRODITE,
AENEAS
Z10.3 APHRODITE,
EROTES
Z21.2 APHRODITE,
ADONIS, KHARITES
Z10.1 APHRODITE
BIRTH
Z10.2 APHRODITE
BIRTH
Z10.5 APHRODITE
BIRTH
K10.7 APHRODITE
BIRTH
Z10.4 APHRODITE,
ARES, EROTES
Z10.8 ADONIS,
ARES AS BOAR
Z10.6 APHRODITE
BIRTH
Z50.1F APHRODITE
AS FRIDAY
Z10.9 APHRODITE,
EROTES CHARIOT
Z4.1 APHRODITE,
HERA, ATHENE
Z4.1B APHRODITE,
JUDGMENT PARIS
For SCUPTURES see Aphrodite Cult 1 and Aphrodite Cult 2
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF APHRODITE
Classical literature offers only a few, brief descriptions of the physical characteristics of the gods.
Homer, Iliad 3. 396 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"She [Helene of Troy] recognized the round, sweet throat of the goddess [Aphrodite] and her desirable breasts and her eyes that were full of shining."
Stasinus of Cyprus or Hegesias of Aegina, Cypria Fragment 6 (from Athenaeus 15. 682) (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th or 6th B.C.) :
"She [Aphrodite] clothed herself with garments which the Kharites (Charites, Graces) and Horai (Hours) had made for her and dyed in flowers of spring--such flowers as the Horai wear--in crocus and hyacinth and flourishing violet and the rose's lovely bloom, so sweet and delicious, and heavenly buds, the flowers of the narcissus and lily. In such perfumed garments is Aphrodite clothed at all seasons."
Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite 78 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th to 4th B.C.) :
"Aphrodite, the daughter of Zeus stood before him [Ankhises], being like a pure maiden in height and mien, that he should not be frightened when he took heed of her with his eyes. Now when Ankhises saw her, he marked her well and wondered at her mien and height and shining garments. For she was clad in a robe out-shining the brightness of fire, a splendid robe of gold, enriched with all manner of needlework, which shimmered like the moon over her tender breasts, a marvel to see. Also she wore twisted brooches and shining earrings in the form of flowers; and round her soft throat were lovely necklaces . . .
[later she revealed her true divine height and mien] and her head reached to the well-hewn roof-tree; from her cheeks shone unearthly beauty such as belongs to rich-crowned Kythereia . . . [and] when he [Ankhises] saw the neck and lovely eyes of Aphrodite, he was afraid and turned his eyes aside another way, hiding his comely face with his cloak."
Homeric Hymn 6 to Aphrodite 6 ff :
"The Horai (Seasons) clothed her [Aphrodite] with heavenly garments: on her head they put a fine, well-wrought crown of gold, and in her pierced ears they hung ornaments of orichalc and precious gold, and adorned her with golden necklaces over her soft neck and snow-white breasts, jewels which the gold-filleted Horai wear themselves."
Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 8 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :
"[From a description of a Greek painting:] Three goddesses standing near them--they need no interpreter to tell who they are . . . the second one [Aphrodite] even in the painting shows the 'laughter-loving' (philomeides) disposition caused by the magic of her girdle."
Orphic Hymn 57 to Chthonian Hermes (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
"Celestial Aphrodite, Paphian queen, dark-eyelashed Goddess, of a lovely mien."
Apuleius, The Golden Ass 10. 30 ff (trans. Walsh) (Roman novel C2nd A.D.) :
"[From a description of an ancient Greek play portraying the Judgement of Paris:] After them a third girl entered, her beauty visibly unsurpassed. Her charming, ambrosia-like complexion intimated that she represented the earlier Venus [Aphrodite] when that goddess was still a maiden. She vaunted her unblemished beauty by appearing naked and unclothed except for a thin silken garment veiling her entrancing lower parts. An inquisitive gust of air would at one moment with quite lubricous affection blow this garment aside, so that when wafted away it revealed her virgin bloom; at another moment it would wantonly breathe directly upon it, clinging tightly and vividly outlining the pleasurable prospect of her lower limbs. The goddess's appearance offered contrasting colours to the eye, for her body was dazzling white, intimating her descent from heaven and her robe was dark blue, denoting her emergence from the sea . . .
Each maiden representing a goddess was accompanied by her own escort . . . Venus [Aphrodite] was surrounded by a throng of the happiest children; you would have sworn that those little boys whose skins were smooth and milk-white were genuine Cupides [Erotes] who had just flown in from sky or sea. They looked just he part with their tiny wings, miniature arrows, and the rest of their get-up, as with gleaming torches they lit the way for their mistress as though she were en route to a wedding-banquet. Next floated in charming children, unmarried girls, representing on one side the Gratiae [Charites, Graces] at their most graceful, and on the other the Horae [Horai] in all their beauty. They were appeasing the goddess by strewing wreaths and single blossoms before her, and they formed a most elegant chorus-line as they sought to please the Mistress of pleasures with the foliage of spring. The flutes with their many stops were now rendering in sweet harmony melodies in the Lydian mode. As they affectingly softened the hearts of onlookers, Venus [Aphrodite] still more affectingly began to gently stir herself; with gradual, lingering steps, restrained swaying of the hips, and slow inclination of the head she began to advance, her refined movements matching the soft wounds of the flutes. Occasionally her eyes alone would dance, as at one moment she gently lowered her lids, and at another imperiously signalled with threatening glances."
Apuleius, The Golden Ass 2. 8 ff :
"Venus [Aphrodite] . . . wearing that belt of hers around her waist, diffusing the scent of cinnamon and bedewing the air with balsam."
Colluthus, Rape of Helen 82 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poetry C5th to 6th A.D.) :
"Kypris [Aphrodite] of crafty counsels unfolded her snood and undid the fragrant clasp of her hair and wreathed with gold her locks, with gold her flowing tresses."
Sources:
Homer, The Iliad - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
Stasinsus or Hegesias , Cypria Fragments - Greek Epic C7th-6th B.C.
The Homeric Hymns - Greek Epic C8th-4th B.C.
The Orphic Hymns - Greek Hymns C3rd B.C. - C2nd A.D.
Philostratus the Younger, Imagines - Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
Apuleius, The Golden Ass - Latin Novel C2nd A.D.
Colluthus, The Rape of Helen - Greek Epic C5th-6th A.D.
SOURCE STATUS (of Aphrodite pages)
FULLY QUOTED: Homer (Iliad & Odyssey); Hesiod; Hesiod; Homeric Hymns; Homerica; Apollodorus; Pausanias; Herodotus; Strabo; Orphic Hymns, Quintus Smyrnaeus; Callimachus; Aesop; Aelian; Ovid (Metamorphoses); Hyginus (Fabulae & Astronomica)); Apuleius
PARTIALLY OR NOT QUOTED (GREEK): Pindar; Greek Lyric (Fragments); Greek Elegaic (Fragments); Apollonius Rhodius; Diodorus Siculus; Antoninus Liberalis; Euripides; Aeschylus; Sophocles; Aristophanes; Plato; Theocritus; Lycophron; Plutarch; Philostratus & Callistratus; Oppian; Colluthus; Tryphiodorus; et. al.
PARTIALLY OR NOT QUOTED (LATIN): Ovid (Fasti); Cicero; Statius; Propertius; Valerius Flaccus; et. al.
from http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html