08. APHRODITE

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Origin--2 versions

• Hesiod: born from Ouranos' genitals foaming in sea
  • aphros = 'foam'; aetiological
• Homer: daughter of Zeus and Dione
  • more conservative, probably later version

Character--2 sides

• "heavenly Aphrodite": good love; "earthly Aphrodite": popular, lustful
• represents old Near Eastern fertility goddess Ishtar/Astarte ( = 'queen of heaven')
• Near Eastern origin reflected in home--Cyprus
  • n.b., like Apollo she sides with Troy in Trojan War, not Greece
  • takes Adonis as youthful consort; mourns his death
    • adon = 'lord' in Semitic languages
    • reflects old Earth Mother religion--dying god

Iconography; post-classical art

• Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles (4th century B.C.)
• Capitoline Venus--more modest version inspired by above
  • Botticelli, Birth of Venus (1483-1485). H&P color plate 1.
  • Masaccio, Expulsion from Eden (1426)
  • Titian, Venus with the Mirror (1555). H&P fig. 21-12.
  • Parmigianino, Madonna of the Rose (c. 1530)
• statue of Sleeping Ariadne, (3rd century B.C.)
  • Giorgione, Sleeping Venus (c. 1505)
  • Titian, Venus of Urbino (c. 1538). H&P fig. 21-11.
  • Titian, Venus of Pardo
  • Manet, Olympia (1863). H&P fig. 21-16.
  • cf. Titian, Venus with Organist, Venus with Lute Player
• Venus de Milo (Aphrodite of Melos) (2nd century B.C.). H&P fig. 21-10.
  • Dali, Venus de Milo of the Drawers (1936). H&P fig. 21-19.