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mask131 · 4 months ago

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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)

#greek mythology #aphrodite #ancient greek religion #amphitrite #hera #ares #poseidon #hermaphrodite #hermes

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