CLAS104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Myrrh, Cinyras, Pareve

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLAS104
• Professor: Ronald Kroeker

Document Summary

There are two versions of aphrodite"s birth: aphrodite was born from the genitals of ouranos (from the dismembered body parts of ouranos thrown into the sea from hesoid"s version) This story implies that she preceded the olympians and suggests that she is a universal mother goddess: aphrodite was born to zeus and dione. There are not very many stories of this birth, and some greeks felt that this story was created to lessen aphrodite"s power, making her an olympian. There is a suggestion made by plato that aphrodite was actually two goddesses because of her differing stories, and that she inspires two different types of love. Different temples worshiped these two different aphrodite"s: aphrodite pandemos (zeus and dione) Inspires a lower love of sensual pleasure and lust, and desires towards both women and men (if directed towards the male, the male is usually younger in age) Originated because people wanted to draw people together in state: aphrodite urania (ouranos)