HOMR Stories of the Olympian Gods (part 2 of 2)

   Aphrodite

Aphrodite (goddess of sexual love) emerged asexually from the sea foam on the island of Cytheria or Cyprus. Poseidon is considered her putative father because she emerged from the sea. Because of her importance as goddess of sexual love she just climbed off her clam shell and then right up Mt. Olympus and walked in on the gods uninvited. Zeus and Hera recognized her importance immediately, and despite their distaste for her, they accepted her; they quickly married her off to their least attractive, working-class, son Hephaestus.

Aphrodite although married to Hephaestus had affairs with most of the gods. By Hermes she had a child, Hermaphroditus, a boy of great beauty. Salmacis, a nymph, noticed Hermaphroditus and fell hopelessly in love with him. She tried to seduce him, but being inexperienced Hermaphoditus in confusion ran away. Salmacis secretly followed him. In a spring, in the woods Heraphoditus decided he would bathe and rest. As soon as he got in the water Salmacis jumped in and clung to him, praying that they never be separated. They fused together and thus bisexual Hermaphroditus has a woman's breast and a man's genitals. The moral of this story is that one should always shower and never bathe.

Another child of Aphrodite and Hermes (or Dionysus) was Priapus (a garden god of fertility) whose outstanding characteristic was an enormous erect penis. He appeared in late Hellenistic/early Roman times and was a popular god among the Romans who often had statues of him in their gardens. They would place written jokes hanging from his penis. An erect penis in Roman times was considered a good luck symbol. The bigger the better.

Of course her special love was Aries and their affair is described in the section on Hephaestus.

Proper Goddesses of Mt. Olympus were either virgins or had sex only with their husbands; and having sex with a human was definitely wrong. Aphrodite, of course, promiscuous as she is, had to experiment. As a punishment for her seduction of many gods Zeus makes her fall in love with Anchises, a prince loyal to the Trojan court. This affair results in Aeneas; he is the Trojan hero that leaves the destroyed Troy and migrates to Italy, thus providing Rome's link to the Olympian Gods.

As goddess of sexual love, for Greeks, Aphrodite was the goddess of prostitution. Prostitution was practiced at her temples as a form of worship. Reputable young women voluntarily served in her temples where they had intercourse with men who paid by making offerings to the goddess. Not all Greeks approved, but it was a common practice.

Despite the above, Greeks were highly prudish about women and generally protected them and separated the sexes. In general in Greek art men are considered heroic and shown nude and woman are always represented fully clothed. The major exception to that is Aphrodite. She was initially shown clothed also, but Praxiteles did a statue of her in the nude which was sold to the island of Knidos about 350 BC. It became world famous and statues of Aphrodite after that were characteristically nude. Thus Aphrodite provided both pornography and prostitution for the Greeks.

   Ares

Ares, God of the warrior and the good looking, athletic, brother of Hephaestus. Under the influence of Ares a Greek warrior is fearless, feels no pain, shows no mercy, and thinks only of killing. Ares was not worshiped much in Greece, and played little part in Greek literature except for his dalliance with Aphrodite and it's exposure by Hephaestus.

Ares had four children by Aphrodite: two boys: Phobos and Demos (Fear and Panic), a daughter Harmonia who married Cadmus, king of Thebes. And last, according to later commentators, was the devilish little boy Eros companion of Aphrodite who personified sexual attraction. Eros, more commonly known by his Roman name Cupid, is often shown in art as a little angelic boy with a bow and arrows. He is still recognized commonly today, having left both Aphrodite and Ares behind in the storied past.

    Hephaestus

Hephaestus is the god of smiths; he protects artisans, people who work with their hands or invent useful things. He is the chief promoter of civilization, technology, and city life. In Greek culture people who got their "hands dirty" were beneath notice of the Aristocrats. So he is not a high status god. He is associated with volcanoes and the island of Lemnos. In his temple in the Athenian market place manufactured goods were traded. It still stands and is probably the temple in best shape of all the original Greek temples.

Hephaestus parentage has been variously reported. In one version Hera displeased with Zeus conceiving Athena unaided, created Hephaestus unaided. But he was born misshapen and crippled so she threw him out of Olympus. Other stories attribute Zeus as the father.

The Greek aristocracy admired inventions as much as it disapproved of the techniques involved in its creation. Bronze statues were treasured, the artisans who made them were not. In Greek literature Hephaestus is the creator of all the magic objects, weapons, and oddities that crop up. While he created Pandora from clay, an object of admiration; he, himself, remained an object of ridicule of the gods. Symbolically he was born disfigured, a cripple. He was married to Aphrodite, who as another outsider, was also viewed with a mixture of displeasure and awe.

Hephaestus sided with Hera in an argument with Zeus. Zeus picked up Hephaestus and threw him down to earth. He landed on Lemnos. He was admitted back after a period of exile.

In another story Ares and Aphrodite were involved in an extramarital relationship behind Hephaestus' back. Hephaestus learns of the love affair and drapes his bed with a beautiful and functional golden unbreakable net. He goes off on a trip to sir up a volcano or two on Lemnos. When Aphrodite and Ares make the bed move, the net drops on them capturing them in place without their clothes on. Hephaestus returns and summons the gods to show them what he has caught in his net. They all laugh at him and Poseidon promises to pay what is necessary to free Aphrodite.

So, Hephaestus and Aphrodite didn't get along well. Count that as an understatement. But Aphrodite and Aries had several children.

    Athena

Athena also was born without a mother, it is said Zeus had a headache and Hephaestus offered to help him. As a cure he hit him in the head with an ax and Athena jumped out of the cleavage. Apparently this cleared Zeus's head, and he hasn't complained of a headache since.

Athena is a war god; but she represents intelligence and strategy as opposed to the blood lust of Ares.

   Hermes

Hermes was born of Zeus and Maia (goddess of the earth). He is the practical joker of the gods, the shyster, the crook. Hermes means stone heap. Trails, even today, are marked by stone heaps, in Greek these are called herms. Hermes was the god of travelers (the St. Joseph of his day). In a more civilized version of the pile of stones Greeks would mark property boundaries or milestones along roads with a stylized herm.

Hermes also is the god of thieves, because they tend to travel at night. He is also the god of merchants, a related occupation that tends to travel a lot. He also protects heralds and ambassadors as they are essentially travelers (and shysters too). Today, he would be the god of insurance brokers and advertising copywriters and excutives (all those who travel to give false messages) as well. He is the messenger of Zeus who brings dreams, also he is the god that leads you to Hades after you die.

Hermes was beloved by the middle classes because he was a god who favored the middle (merchant) classes over Apollo, the high class god of the Aristocrats.

Delos: Birthplace of Apollo and Artemis         Artemis and Apollo are twins, born from the Titaness, Leto, Zeus's wife who was furious about the liaison warned everyone to not give her sanctuary because she knew that Leto's children would be greater than her own. Moreover she banned any place upon which the sun shown as a place for Leto to give birth. In the end with the aid of Poseidon she found the cave in Mt. Cynthus on the island of Delos. Both Artemis and Apollo were born there. Delos became an important sacred island and a free trade zone in the Cyclades and remained so until Hellenistic times.   Birthplace of Apollo and Artemis Delos, Cyclades, Greece Clubhouse of the Syrian Shippers Delos, Cyclades, Greece

   Apollo

Apollo is the god of prophecy and divination; he is also the god of the arts especially music, he plays the lyre, and the muses report to him directly. He is also the god of medicine and the bringer of plagues, which he can also withdraw. Usually the sudden natural death of a man was attributed to the anger of Apollo. After the 5th century BC he became associated with the Sun and is often refereed to as Phoebus-Apollo in that role. He was born with his twin sister Artemis on Delos.

Apollo specialized in telling the future and answering questions. He established his center for prophesy at Delphi. However, according to the story, if he wanted it at Delphi he had to kill a dragon, by the name of Python, who had taken up residency there, so it seems a silly place to pick. However Delphi was considered the center of the earth, so maybe that had something to do with it. Zeus determined the center of the earth by sending two Eagles off in opposite directions and when they crossed that was supposed to mark the exact center. Which tells us a bit about Greek navigation and geometry. This place was recorded by placing a conical stone with bee-hive markings at the spot, although someone since then has moved the marker stone into a museum.

Omphalos
Marker Stone for the
Navel of the Universe
about 600 BC
Museum, Delphi, Greece

The tradition at Delphi was that Apollo would speak through a prophetess, called the Pythia, and tell you the answer to your question. The questioner almost never got to see the Pythia directly. He would his sacrifice to the priests, they would consult the Pythia, and her answer would be recast by the priests into poetry and then given back to the questioner.

The Delphi oracle was always noted for the obscure way in which the predictions came true. Seldom could you understand the oracle's pronouncement until after the disaster or success it predicted had occurred. Often what seemed to be a wonderful prediction would come true in some terrible way. These obscure predictions from an oracle are frequently found as an important element in Greek plays.

Short Tour and History of Delphi

  Artemis

Artemis, the goddess of hunting and archery. And oddly enough the defender of wild animals and children (or do I repeat myself). In classical Greek literature she was characterized by a deliberately chosen and forcibly maintained virginity and required the same of all her attendants. Originally she was a mother-earth goddess and a bringer of fertility and protector of the new born. In this role she is associated with the many-breasted Goddess of Ephesus. She and her twin brother Apollo were born on Delos.

Aremis was held to bring sudden natural death to women, a commentary action to Apollo her brother. In art, although not in religion, she is associated with moon, to complement her brother's role as god of the Sun.

Artemis punished many mortals who offended her or failed to perform her rites. Actaeon is a good example. He saw her bathing; because she knew he would boast of seeing her nude. To punish him she turned him into a stag. He was killed by is own hunting dogs. The punishment seem a bit excessive for the crime; but that is pretty characteristic of Artemis and Apollo ... as other stories stories show.

Back to the introduction to Greek Art

2003-02-27