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Aphrodite, Cupid’s Mother
February 10, 2013
— Aphrodite, Cupid, Eros, Valentie's Day
Aphrodite
The Greek goddess Aphrodite was born from the sea near Cyprus. Some claim she had parents (Zeus and Dione), others say she sprouted up in the vicinity of the severed genitals of the Titan sky god Uranus. She walked ashore where she encountered the seasons who were beautiful, but had nothing to compare with the loveliness of Aphrodite. She was taken to meet Zeus at Mt Olympus who recognized her striking beauty and the power she wielded with it. He insisted that she marry immediately, and arranged a marriage to his son Hephaestus, blacksmith of the gods. He made her jewelry and even a fabulous girdle that made her even more desirable. She was pure attraction and her husband was busy making all the weapons for the gods, so she had several affairs with gods and mortals.
The Olympian gods took power from the Titan gods. Kronos, the son of Gaia and Uranus (Titans) removed his father’s genitals at his mother’s request and threw them into the sea. The ambiguity about the birth circumstances ( Did she spring up on the scallop shell as an (un?)intended consequence of the disposal of Uranus’ genitals ?) cloud her relationship to the gods of Mt. Olympus. Her full-time job is love, desire, and the attraction that draws people together. This naturally lead her to attract Ares, the god of war, to her bed. She had many children, but none with Hephaestus. Her most well-known child is Eros, also known as Cupid. He too has parentage issues, but some say he is the son of Ares. It reminds me of all those WWII movies in which they are at war, so they fall in love.
Get your red dress out for Valentine’s Day , but give a nod to the mother of all desire. Consider wearing some very sexy sea foam green panties as your foundation.
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Interesting combination of Aphrodite and Valentinday. The latter is somehow related to one or maybe several Christian martyrs and only became “famous” in most Eurpean countries the last decade. Personally, I suspect the florists having pushed Valentine 🙂 And Aphrodite was married to my favourite God: Hephaistos. Of course she cheated on him and attractive Ares was only one of the adventures. It seems to me that she could not master her own skills and fell for them like ordinary people do.
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Hephaistos was an artist as well as a god. I like him too. Mastery is an interesting way to think about her. In America all holidays are sponsored by florists and Hallmark cards, which is why I like to look into history. I don’t think Baptists are allowed to have Valentine’s Day because Valentine was a saint/martyr.
It seems that she, Aphrodite/Venus,is a composite of versions of local preexisting love goddesses (not unlike all those various Virgin Mary ladies) that were lumped into one eventually. I think you, Brigitte, could be accused of looking a lot like Aphrodite.
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Mary, the virgin birth and ancient Gods and Goddesses have certainly a lot in common. Most historians would look at it this way. And even the stories themselves have different plots and endings if compared by scientists. It spoils all the fun as it is not a stringent plot anymore. Which women look like Venus and Aphrodite is in the eye of the beholder and their imagination 😉
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In America the old religions were effectively undermined..somewhere around Salem, MA. We have no 800 year old pharmacies with astrological signs and snake fountains..we mix and match, with no awareness of the origin of the myth…silly really. My fave place at ETH is the medical history museum..have you been? I am always totally alone when I go…
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Old religions have been undermined in entire Europe, too. Most people think that it happened in the High Middle Age (around 1200 to 1300 AC), but the truth is that the worst period with the inquisition and all the rest of it happened in the Renaissance (from about 14th century) when the world began to change. Philosophers love Renaissance because people started thinking freely again – despite the religious dogmas. If you listen to the historians they tell you about religious wars, witch trials and all the horrible things. I think pharmacies and other old things survived because they were tangible. We lost almost everything from the Celtics, the Gothics and other tribes as they maintained an oral culture – just like the Native American (at least to my knowledge they did not write things down, didn’t they?) tribes. Without Homer, Pliny, all the philosophers and other writers we would have lost our roots as well.
I have never been in the medical historian museum of the University of Zurich. My favourite museums are the archaeological collection of the University of Zurich and the graphical collection of ETH. The latter has a lot of their pictures digitalized and put on the web.
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Tribes and religions of Europe were indeed like Native American in that the records were not written, but contained in art and artifacts. American history fixates on 1492 for only one event….the so called discovery of our continent by Columbus. It was not really a coincidence that the Spanish Inquisition started at the very same time. If you skip The Inquisition, you skip way too much. Then Reformation is not all that feminist of a movement itself. You don’t think they would go all over Europe beheading Virgin Mary only to allow her to catch a ride (in any form) to Plymouth and Jamestown to be famous again, do you? That was not what they meant by religious freedom.
She made it intact, and lives right here. Her name is Virgin of Guadalupe, affectionately known as the virg. We love her. She is NOT from Spain….
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I never looked at the fact that the rise of the Spanish Inquisition and Columbus’ discovery happened in the same period of time. And the reformation is only one aspect of the European Renaissance. As I am a real citizen of the Old World, please tell me more of the Virgin of Guadeloupe.
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I live in what was Spain, then Mexico, and 200 years ago, traded to the US. The Franciscans converted The First Nation for fun, profit, and glory. The usual colonial hanky panky ensued, with religion and gold as themes. The Virg appeared to a native, and poor Mexican peasant. The church rejected his claim to this vision, so this Mexican Mary produced roses in the middle of the winter to win her sainthood. She holds all the power in Mexico, as patron saint, and is the logo of the southwestern US as an avatar. She is key in converting all pantheistic native religions into Catholics in Mexico. She rules, so don’t mess with her.
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That is interesting. I knew that I would get an different story than the “official” one, which is as well written in den German Wikipedia. Thanks a lot 🙂
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I think it is impossible to translate virginofguadalupe into German Wiki. Thank you Brigitte for all your insight.
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Thank you, Pamela. Even the English Wiki doesn’t tell the “real flavour” of the Lady.
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That is interesting. I knew that I would get a different story than the “official” one, which is as well written in den German Wikipedia. Thanks a lot 🙂
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I’ve seen the original picture in Florence…it’s stunning…
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I agree, it is worth the trip. The ceiling in that gallery itself is worth the trip..
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So did I. Botticelli is one of the greatest painters of all time. But there are not many works left as the religious fanatic Girolamo Savonarola who wanted to purge the world from all sinful works and arts got is followers to ignite a fire in order to burn these artefacts. As far as history tells us he convinced the artist to trow his own paintings into it. Pitty!
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What a swineherd, this Girolamo dude..Florence is on the way to Saturnia…Saturn being Kronos for Romans, and having the best sulpher spring ever.
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Ha, I love this! The history lesson my teachers always skimmed over in school;-)
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