In this entry I want to start analysing the relationship between Aphrodite and Zeus. Were they, father and daughter, aunt and nephew, oppressor and rebel or tease and pursuer? From Aphrodite’s birth and marriage, to Zeus’ fatherly instincts and attempted rape, I will look at different examples of the interactions looking into a very complicated relationship between two of the most significant Olympians.
Aphrodite caused the conflict Zeus was trying to avoid when she and Ares were caught in bed. Hephaistos trapped them both in a net of bronze filaments and demanded that the gods come and bear witness to his wife’s lust for Ares. He also demanded that Zeus repay the dowry. According to Cyrino this is an example of Aphrodite being clearly under the parental control of Zeus[ii] but I disagree. The significance of this incident lies in the fact that Zeus tried to be in command of Aphrodite but ultimately she still overcame his demands and defied him. He attempted to oppress Aphrodite by making her conform to the norms of Olympian society by becoming a wife, the possession of one male but Aphrodite’s flagrant disobedience, bringing of conflict amongst the gods and subsequent apparent failure to remarry shows her continued dominance over Zeus.
The birth of Aphrodite is a contentious issue as Homer and Hesiod disagree; either she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione or she was created out of the sea where the castrated genitals of Ouranos had floated. If Homer is to be believed and Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione then how did Zeus and Dione get together sexually? Venus presides over the sexual attraction and actions of individuals. How could Zeus and Dione have sex if Aphrodite as an embodiment of sex and all its characteristics did not exist yet?
Hesiod believed that Aphrodite was Ouranos’ daughter albeit with an unusual birth. [i] If so then it is understandable that Aphrodite would disobey Zeus over incidences such as her marriage to Hephaistos. She was of an older generation, effectively Zeus’ aunt and therefore not strictly under his control. If she was his daughter then her defiance whilst abnormal is a testament to how powerful she was.
The marriage of Aphrodite to Hephaistos, engineered by Zeus is a key example of Zeus’ power over Aphrodite and then her defiance succeeding. Zeus decided to marry Aphrodite to Hephaistos it was to prevent the desire for her causing conflict amongst the gods. As Aphrodite’s father, or at least as king of the god’s her kurios, it was his responsibility to marry her off but as the embodiment of sexual desire it was not in Aphrodite’s nature to be bound by marriage, she was not suitable for this institution.
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| Hendrik van the Elder Balen (1575 - 1632) "Hephaestus and Aphrodite" |
There is no account of Aphrodite remarrying, it seems as though she had a substantial relationship with Ares but no actual wedding and judging by the number of children they had it was more than a casual affair. This would make sense, she was not suited to lifelong fidelity but that does not mean that sexual desire is fleeting; her affair with Ares was very in character. She was never suited to what Zeus had planned.
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Parthenon: E. Pediment: Three Goddesses (most likely Hestia and Aphrodite lying Dione's lap after she was wounded at Troy). c.438-432 B.C |
Zeus also played the fatherly role when Aphrodite was hurt in the battle of Troy whilst rescuing Aeneas. Aphrodite’s wrist was wounded and she fled to Dione. Zeus “teasingly rebukes”[iii] her by calling her his “dear child” and patronizingly tells her to “take care of the pleasures of love and leave the fighting to Ares and Athena”.[iv] Despite seeming weak when running to her parents the fact that she even entered the battle shows her strength and bravery. Zeus displays a caring, fatherly side but his teasing highlights the fact that it would be dangerous for Aphrodite to have access to both love and warfare; she was powerful enough as it is. Jackson says that this scene can be interpreted as Zeus trying to keep Aphrodite away influence in love and war.v]
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| Vase showing Aphrodite and Eros. |
When telling Aphrodite to take care of the pleasures of love Zeus may have been unaware just how powerful Aphrodite was in this respect. There are many examples of Aphrodite and her son Eros causing gods and mortals to fall in love, for example when Phaedra falls in love her stepson. Euripides describes Eros as her winged partner and her agent in her erotic control.[vi] Whether Eros and Aphrodite are active participants in the situation or not as personifications of love and sex they were always responsible for the feelings evoked. Cyrino says that it is the sheer force of Aphrodite’s existence that caused individuals to join together in sexual contact.[vii] In this respect all of Zeus’ extra-marital sexual encounters were a result of the force of Aphrodite. Zeus often had to prevent Hera from finding out about his affairs; hence taking disguises when meeting his partners. His desire to sleep with other individuals stems from Aphrodite; she was a major thorn in his side. Hera’s scorn and jealousy towards the children of these liaisons, Dionysus and Heracles for example was a result of Aphrodite’s effect. All the liaisons between deities (and mortals) inappropriate or not were due to Aphrodite. Her power was immense.
The sexual force emanating from Aphrodite made Zeus want to be with Thetis but either Themis or Prometheus told Zeus that a son born by Thetis would be more powerful than the father and would become the ruler of heaven.[viii] As a result Zeus arranged for Thetis to marry Peleus. Aphrodite made him desire Thetis, a deity that he could not have without risking his reign. An impossible love is a terrible emotion to feel, Aphrodite was unintentionally asserting herself over Zeus. Her power is making him have feelings that could never be acted upon or reciprocated; Thetis was raised by Hera and frowned upon Zeus’ infidelities.
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| Bronze high relief mirror cover Partially clad Aphrodite lifting her veil for Trojan Anchises on Mt. Ida, accompanied by Erotes and Anchises' dog. 320 BCE. London: British Museum |
When Zeus united Aphrodite with mortal Anchises it was in response to her serial habit of uniting gods with mortals and then “mocking them all”[ix] This has been cited as an example of Zeus demonstrating his supremacy over Aphrodite and whilst he succeeded it does not mean that he was always superior to her. This is a rare occasion when Zeus gives Aphrodite a taste of her own medicine, but in mind this is an isolated incident; Aphrodite actively does this to other individuals regularly and inactively to individuals and animals constantly as she represents sexual desire.
Aphrodite also had enough force to make Zeus desire her. Greek poet, Nonnus, tells us in three fragments of his Dionysiaca about the time that Zeus tried to rape Aphrodite.
"once when Kypros [Aphrodite] fled like the wind from the pursuit of her lascivious father [Zeus], that she might not see an unhallowed bedfellow in her own begetter, Zeus the father gave up the chase and left the union unattempted, because unwilling Aphrodite was too fast and he could not catch her: instead of Kypros' bed, he dropt on the ground the love-shower of seed from the generative plow. Gaia (earth) received Kronion’s fruitful dew, and shot up a strange-looking horned generation [the kentauroi or centaurs of the island of kypros]."[x]
It is another example of her power over him that she could captivate his desires and then evade his attempts. Eventually when Aphrodite did allow an affair with Zeus Aphrodite became pregnant with the child Priapus.[xi] Kerenyi talks of Hera’s anger and jealousy due to Aphrodite pregnancy by her husband and she cursed the unborn Priapos to have unnaturally large genital and he was exiled from Olympus.[xii] When Priapus was conceived it was at the discretion of Aphrodite, when she deemed it suitable she then allowed them to sleep together. She teased him with no plan to satisfy him until she was prepared to do so. She was in control of the situation, not Zeus.
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| Fresco of Priapus, House of the Vettii, Pompeii |
The relationship between Zeus and Aphrodite is complex but there is another dimension. Zeus greatly favored Athena over Aphrodite she was the lynch pin in the maintenance of his tyranny and the attempted of dominance over Aphrodite. That I shall discuss in Part Two.
[i] Dalby, A. The Story of Venus. London: The British Museum Press (2005). pp 10-11
[ii] Cyrino, Monica S. Aphrodite. London: Routledge (2010) pp17
[iii] ibid. pp. 32
[iv] Homer, Iliad, Book 5, lines 426-30 (accessed 17/10/11) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D5%3Acard%3D416
[v] Jackson, Kassandra. Father-Daughter Dynamics in the Iliad: the Role of Aphrodite in Defining Zeus’ Regime. Brill’s Companion to Aphrodite. Eds. Smith, Amy C. and Pickup, Sadie. Brill (2010) pp. 156
[vi] Euripides, Hippolytus, 1268-82. trans Svarlien (2007)
[vii] Cyrino pp. 32
[viii] Apollodorus, The Library, trans Robin Hard, Oxford: OUP (2008) pp. 128
[ix] Homer, Hymn to Aphrodite (5), The Homeric Hymns, trans Jules Cashford. London: Penguin (2003)
[x] Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 193 ff , trans. Rouse (accessed 15/10/11) http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/AphroditeLoves.html#Zeus
[xi] "Priapus" The Oxford Companion to World mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t208.e1293
Bibliography
Apollodorus, The Library, trans Robin Hard, Oxford: OUP (2008)
Cyrino, Monica S. Aphrodite. London: Routledge (2010)
Dalby, A. The Story of Venus. London: The British Museum Press (2005)
Euripides, Hippolytus. trans Svarlien (2007)
Homer, Iliad, (accessed 17/10/11) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D5%3Acard%3D416
Homer, The Homeric Hymns, trans Jules Cashford. London: Penguin (2003)
Jackson, Kassandra. Father-Daughter Dynamics in the Iliad: the Role of Aphrodite in Defining Zeus’ Regime. Brill’s Companion to Aphrodite. Eds. Smith, Amy C. and Pickup, Sadie. Brill (2010)
Kerenyi, Carl, Gods of the Greeks, Thames & Hudson (1951)
"Priapus" The Oxford Companion to World mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t208.e1293
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 193 ff , trans. Rouse (accessed 15/10/11) http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/AphroditeLoves.html#Zeus
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