#aphrodite religion

[loverofdoves]

💜 altar update! i cleaned everything and did some organizing, i’m quite happy with how everything turned out 💜

[kytheras-dove]

♥︎𝐴𝑝ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑦𝑠𝑒𝑎 ♥︎

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑛

[starbloggirl]

Nothing will ever prepare a Hellenistic teen to hide her pictures of Aphrodite and Apollo when her mom checks if her room is clean.

[vanillashay]

💞Aphrodite & Ares⚔️

I recently got a Greek mythology book as there are some aspects I am still unaware of.. and one of those were Ares and his myths. After reading the myths, I love him. Like I already thought he was cool, but now it's on a whole different level...

The painting in the center (Alexandre Charles Guillemot, Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, 1827.) has become one of my favorite paintings. It's so beautiful.

[fiasramblings]

my nonreligious friend flipped off my Aphrodite altar as a joke yesterday and when I told her that that was literally an altar for the Goddess of love and beauty right after she had begged for forgiveness the plastic part of my coffee machine—where the filter would go in, I haven’t set it up yet so it was just on top of the coffee machine itself, which was on the shelf to her left—literally fell ON HER?? it wasn’t even on the edge of the coffee machine and it’s never fallen before

[aphroditedevotion]

Worship.

Worshipping the blessed gods is so lovely, praying to them, giving them offerings, lighting up their candles, thinking about them, seeing them in everyday life. It's all so amazing. <3

[patience-and-prayers]

Reminder:

Your Gods are always there. Stressed? Pray. Nervous? Sing a hymn.

Not only has this helped my anxiety, it’s helped me form a closer bond with the gods.

[hellenicvoid]

My altar dedicated to Lady Aphrodite!

It's not much but I did the best I could for now. I hope to get a statue for Her soon.

I had a dream that I offered Her an apple and a orange, so yesterday I did just that! I think she liked it, so I'm keeping it there for a little bit. I really appreciate how patient Aphrodite has been with me 💗

[wooluuna]

"i'll not lose her again... i shall freeze hell in it's entirety if that is what it takes to get her back"

[tinyscaredwitch]

my altar during the day ♡

lady aphrodite ♡

Lady Hekate ♡

Lord Hermes ♡

[olympianbutch]

Some Aphrodite studies! One is a copy of an illustration by Janet & Anne Grahame Johnstone; the other, a sculpture. :)

[zenowitchstuff]

Pinterest has a collage feature now so i’ve been having some fun making some offerings/ devoting some time to the Gods!

[kytheras-dove]

Aphrodite Antheia

The Blooming/Friend of Flowers

[puppy-alythia]

Sometimes being Hellenic is like:

Here is an offering I worked really hard for, I made it/bought it specifically for you because this is something you're associated with. I hope you enjoy it and I pray that you can guide me on the path I need help with

Other times...:

Huh, I really need to give an offering and pray to this deity but I don't know what to give them. *feels compulsive urge to give them an avocado and instinctively knows its the deity* okay, if you want this. This is for you, please help me with what I need. Thank you for all your help

[vanillashay]

I love thrifting for the gods. I got a cute roman/Greek coin bracelet for Hermes and a giant rose quartz for Aphrodite and Freyja. A cute mermaid/ocean plate for Aphrodite and a box for altars.

I also saw a bunch of Apollo and Artemis statues but they were too expensive.

[mask131]

Everybody loves to consider Greek mythology as a world of clear-cut deities with specific roles and defined limits between them, but it isn't true - and looking at how the deities changed, evolved and mixed together throughout the times is always a deeply rewarding experience.

One example I can give you are the "alternate Aphrodites". Aphrodite was one of the main and most important goddesses of Greek religion - as such she existed with many local variations, specific epithets and alternate cults. But many of these alternate deities ended up actually fusing Aphrodite with or having her replace other gods - a confusion between deities reflected by their very myths and legends.

The most famous case is the "Aphroditos" that was honored in Chypria: the "phallic Venus", the "bearded Aphrodite", an Aphrodite with male and female attributes honoring a mix of both female and male sexualities - and which according to records was linked to rituals of genders exchanging clothes, and other ritual crossdressing. It has been attested and confirmed that the "male Aphrodite", "Aphroditos" was the source of "prototype" for the figure of Hermaphrodite, the source of "hermaphrodism", and the male-female androgyne born in legends of the union of Hermes and Aphrodite - while also acting himself as an alternate form of Hermes in some places.

Hermes isn't the only lover of Aphrodite the goddess ended up confused with. Everybody likes to talk of "Aphrodite Areia", "Aphrodite of war", "Aphrodite in arms", the Aphrodite bearing weapons honored in more war-like cities and cultures of Ancient Greece, notably Sparta. This Aphrodite was usually coupled or paired with Ares, and legend does notoriously point out how the two were lovers. But in some areas, Aphrodite Areia was more than just the companion of Ares or an "Ares-influenced Aphrodite" - she was LITERALY the female version of Ares, replacing him. One same idea of a deity, for two genders.

And a last example I will point out is the Aphrodite Thalassa, or Aphrodite Pontia. "Aphrodite from the sea". We all know Aphrodite has a strong connection to the sea, since in the Hesiodic version she is supposed to be born out of it, and in religion she was considered a protector of sailors and ships. But further than that, you can see how deep her connection goes due to how in Greek religious (or non-religious) art, Aphrodite was often paired with Poseidon. It is something attested (you can check the book "The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome", which studies the various depictions of the Twelve Olympians) - among the Olympians, when Aphrodite isn't depicted paired with either Hephaistos or Ares, she was usually paired with Poseidon - and when Aphrodite wasn't among the Twelve, she was replaced by Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife and queen. To the point that in many depictions it is hard to tell them apart - if they weren't fused in one...

Aphrodite's alternate self and "combo fusions" can even go in unexpected ways. Take the local cult, at the Hermione town, of Aphrodite "Nymphia" - Aphrodite the Bride, an Aphrodite of weddings and wives honored both by maiden virgins who were to lose their virginity upon their marriage night, or by widows who prepared themselves for a second union. This marital Aphrodite is the first step in the existence of another alternate self usually described as... "Aphrodite-Hera". And if you recall, back in The Iliad, Homer himself talked of how Aphrodite shared with Hera her belt of seduction to awaken the desire of Zeus... (Plus the fact that Aphrodite was said in the Homeric tradition to be the daughter of Zeus and Dione - Dione herself being literaly just a female verson/counterpart of Zeus ; and by extension later some people called Aphrodite herself "Dione" in reference to her mother, the same Helios in the Homeric traditon is also called "Hyperion" despite Hesiod splitting them in a father-and-son duo)

So yeah, sorry all of you who like neat classifications and little boxes that never get mixed up - but by the real facts, while Greek mythology as quite stable, it was also more fluid than you'd think, and the gods did have a tendency to fuse together...

(Cut to a long post about how Selene, Hekate and Artemis ended up all fused into the "Diana triformis" and the "Triple Moon" by Roman times)