#so a case can be made that her warlike qualities are tangential

[mylittleversaille]

you should check this journal article out:

Graf, F. “Women, War, and Warlike Divinities.” Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik, vol. 55, 1984, pp. 245–54. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20184039. Accessed 26 June 2024.

Thanks for the recommendation! It was an enjoyable and interesting read!

I'm not sure if you were using this article to argue a certain perspective or interpretation of myth or if you thought it was relevant to my post about pop mythology but I'm gonna use this to elaborate on a few points I've been making about the gods. My disclaimer is that I am not a historian or a history major or a classicist; I have fairly limited formal education in the Classics and I am, at best, an amateur. This is my opinion but if someone has additional context or if I'm wrong about something, please let me know.

Aphrodite Areia:

*will probs address Ares and his associations with women in a separate post*

Although that one post I made was lacking in nuance (bc I was ranting), I have gone into further detail in other places; I acknowledge that Aphrodite as a goddess has associations with war, among other things like politics, sailors, marriage, and city defence. I'm not denying that the αρεια epithet exists or that there were not statues of armed Aphrodite. She was absolutely Αφροδιτη 'ωπλισμενη and νικηφορος and εγχειος.

I'm also aware that she was likely an import or at least syncretized with near Eastern goddesses like the Phoenician Aštarte or Babylonian Ishtar, something Graf himself mentions in his article. Interestingly, Aphrodite is not unique in her near Eastern influences though. Graf also writes that "... the old statue of Apollo at Amyclae with its spear derives from the iconography of the Oriental Warrior" (Graf, 1985, p. 251). Does this make Apollo, as he existed to and was worshipped by the Greeks, a war god? I would argue that it makes him warlike, just as Aphrodite can be warLIKE, but they aren't principally gods of war. Or, for example, Zeus was attributed the male equivalent title αρειος, but he's not considered a war god. Just because a god has a certain epithet or is depicted with certain attributes does not mean that they were worshipped as the presiding authority over that particular thing or experience.

Moreover, αρεια as a reference to the statue of armed Aphrodite that existed in Sparta is further robbed of its uniqueness, and thus its ability to set Aphrodite up as a proper goddess of war by the extreme militarization of Spartan society. Plutarch, for example, writes about the Spartans that "They worship Aphrodite in her full armour, and the statues of all the gods, both female and male, they make with spear in hand to indicate that all the gods have the valour which war demands". So all gods have warlike attributes in Sparta which tracks for a society steeped in a warrior culture. Aphrodite, then, is not a distinct war goddess in Sparta, rather that all gods are more warlike including her.

In Corinth, she was the tutelary deity of the city, its divine guardian and patron. This brings with it some association with war and politics. Graf even mentions that she was depicted as armed in at least one instance in Corinth, where once again Middle Eastern influences are evident (Graf, p. 251). Moreover, as all tutelary deities, the people under her protection prayed to her for the defence of the city. However, once again, her military qualities in this regard aren't unique to her. Tutelary deities of other cities (popularly Apollo and Athena but we also see Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and others) would also haven been honoured for the protection of the city and its people as well as success in battle.

My ultimate point is not to deny Aphrodite's warlike attributes. There absolutely are instances, statues, or places where she is referred to as armed and warlike (such as in Sparta, Cyprus, Corinth, etc.) but she isn't principally a goddess of war. She is principally the goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility, etc. These are attributes that are universal to her in place and time. However, a lot of people want to make her a goddess of war first and a goddess of all these other things second. This takes away from the fact that there are existing goddesses who are principally associated with war, such as Athena.

I've also usually heard people using this to somehow make Aphrodite seem "cooler" or more "interesting" which betrays a (probably unconscious) dimension of sexism to the entire argument as it is presented in pop myth takes. If you cannot respect a goddess/woman/character that is presented with traditionally feminine qualities-- and love and beauty absolutely are seen as feminine in our society-- then you value traditional masculinity more than traditional femininity. If the only way you can make someone cooler/more interesting is by giving them traditionally male qualities, such as martial prowess, chances are you see things associated with femininity as inferior.

And this is primarily why the whole Aphrodite Areia thing irritates me so much. People want to hold her up as a goddess of war while ignoring all the other things that she was far more commonly worshipped for by ancient peoples (which is what pop myth does). Sure, she can be warlike in certain circumstances, but she's still predominantly a goddess of sexual union.

At the end of the day, though, stories exist to be told and retold. Change is natural and expected in that process. Still doesn't mean everyone has to agree on everything.