A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

228

APHRODITE.

Egyptians; but in the course of time, the bull,
like other animals, was regarded as a symbol in
the astronomical and physical systems of the Egyptian priests. How far this was carried may be
seen from what Aelian says about the twenty-nine
marks on the body of Apis, which form a complete
astronomical and physical system. For further
details respecting these late speculations, the reader
is referred to the works on Egyptian mythology
by Jablonsky, Champollion, Pritchard, and others.
The Persians, in their religious intolerance, ridiculed and scorned the Egyptian gods, and more
especially Apis. Cambyses killed Apis with his
own hand (Herod iii. 29), and Ochus had him
slaughtered. (Plut. 1. c. 31.) The Greeks and
Romans, on the other hand, saw nothing repugnant to their feelings in the worship of Apis, and
Alexander the Great gained the good will of the
Egyptians by offering sacrifices to Apis as well as
to their other gods. (Arrian, Anab. iii. 1.) Several
of the Roman emperors visited and paid homage to
Apis, and his worship seems to have maintained
itself nearly down to the extinction of paganism.
(Suet. Aug. 93, Vespas. 5; Tacit. Annal. ii. 59;
Plin. 1. c.; Spartian. 1. c., Sept. Sever. 17.) [L. S.]
APHRODI'TE ('AQpoe8aTI), one of the great
Olympian divinities, was, according to the popular
and poetical notions of the Greeks, the goddess of
love and beauty. Some traditions stated that she
had sprung from the foam (cippo's) of the sea, which
had gathered around the mutilated parts of Uranus,
that had been thrown into the sea by Kronos
after he had unmanned his father. (Hesiod. Theog.
190; compare ANADYOMENE.) With the exception of the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite there is
no trace of this legend in Homer, and according to
him Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
(II. v. 370, &c., xx. 105.) Later traditions call
her a daughter of Kronos and Euonyme, or of
Uranus and Hemera. (Cic. De NOat. Deor. iii. 23;
Natal. Com. iv. 13.) According to Hesiod and
the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite, the goddess
after rising from the foam first approached the
island of Cythera, and thence went to Cyprus, and
as she was walking on the sea-coast flowers sprang
up under her feet, and Eros and Himeros accompanied her to the assembly of the other great gods,
all of whom were struck with admiration and love
when she appeared, and her surpassing beauty made
every one desire to have her for his wife. According to the cosmogonic views of the nature of
Aphrodite, she was the personification of the generative powers of nature, and the mother of all
living beings. A trace of this notion seems to be
contained in the tradition that in the contest of
Typhon with the gods, Aphrodite metamorphosed
herself into a fish, which animal was considered to
possess the greatest generative powers. (Ov. Met..v. 318, &c.; comp. Hygin. Poet. Ashr. 30.) But
according to the popular belief of the Greeks and
their poetical descriptions, she was the goddess of
love, who excited this passion in the hearts of gods
and men, and by this power ruled over all the
living creation. (Hoim. IHymn. in Ven.; Lucret.
15, &c.) Ancient mythology furnishes numerous
instances in which Aphrodite punished those who
neglected her worship or despised her power, as
well as others in which she favoured and protected
those who did homage to her and recognized her
sway. Love and beauty are ideas essentially connected, and Aphrodite was therefore also the god

APHRODITE.
dess of beauty and gracefulness. In these points
she surpassed all other goddesses, and she received
the prize of beauty from' Paris; she had further
the power of granting beauty and invincible charms
to others. Youth is the herald, and Peitho, the
HIorae, and Charites, the attendants and companions of Aphrodite. (Pind. Neme. viii. 1, &c.)
Marriages are called by Zeus her work and the
things about which she ought to busy herself.
(Hom. II. v. 429; comp. Od. xx. 74; Pind. Pytlh.
ix. 16, &c.) As she herself had sprung from the
sea, she is represented by later writers as having
some influence' upon the sea. (Virg. Aen. viii. 800;
Ov. Heroid. xv. 213; comp. Paus. ii. 34. ~ 11.)
During the Trojan war, Aphrodite, the mother
of Aeneas, who had been declared the most beautiful of all the goddesses by a Trojan prince, naturally
sided with the Trojans. She saved Paris from his
contest with Menelaus (II. iii. 380), but when she
endeavoured to rescue her darling Aeneas from the
fight, she was pursued by Diomedes, who wounded
her in her hand. In her fright she abandoned her
son, and was carried by Iris in the chariot of Arcs
to Olympus, where she complained of her misfortune to her mother Dione, but was laughed at by
Hera and Athena. (II. v. 311, &c.) She also
protected the body of Hector, and anointed it with
ambrosia. (II. xxiii. 185.)
According to the most common accounts of the
ancients, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus
(Odyss. viii. 270), who, however, is said in tihe
Iliad (viii. 383) to have married Charis. Her
faithlessness to Hephaestus in her amour with
Ares, and the manner in which she was caught by
the ingenuity of her husband, are beautifully described in the Odyssey. (viii. 266, &c.) By Ares
she became the mother of Phobos, Deimos, Harmonia, and, according to later traditions, of Eros
and Anteros also. (Hesiod. Theog. 934, &c., Scut.
Herc. 195; Hom. II. xiii. 299, iv. 440; Schol. vwl
Apollon. Rhiod. iii. 26; Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 23.)
But Ares was not the only god whom Aphrodite
favoured; Dionysus, Hermes, and Poseidon likewise enjoyed her charms. By the first she was,
according to some traditions, the mother of Priapus
(Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 933) and Bacchue
(Hesych. s. v. BircXov Aidvs), by the second of
Hernaphroditus (Ov. Met. iv. 289, &c.; Diod. iv,
6; Lucian, Dial. Deor. xv. 2), and by Poseidor
she had two children, Rhodos and Herophilus
(Schol. ad Pind. Pythi. viii. 24.) As Aphrodite sc
often kindled in the hearts of the gods a love foa
mortals, Zeus at last resolved to make her pay fo:
her wanton sport by inspiring her too with love
for a mortal man. This was accomplished, anm
Aphrodite conceived an invincible passion for An
chises, by whom she became the mother of Aenea
and Lyrus. [ANCHISES.] Respecting her con
nexions with other mortals see ADONIS and BUTE'
Aphrodite possessed a magic girdle which ha
the power of inspiring love and desire for thoe
who wore it; hence it was borrowed by lHei
when she wished to stimulate the love of Zeu
(Hom. II. xiv. 214, &c.) The arrow is also somn.times mentioned as one of her attributes. (Pins
Pyth. iv. 380; Theocrit. xi. 16.) In the vegetab
kingdom the myrtle, rose, apple, poppy, and other
were sacred to her. (Ov. Fast. iv. 15. 143 Bio:
Idyll. i. 64; Schol. ad Aristoplh. Niub. 993; Pan
ii. 10. ~ 4; Phornut. 23.) The animals sacred
her, which are often mentioned as drawing h