History _
Aphrodite's Birth
| Aphrodite's Birth Mosaico |
There are a couple of versions of the birth of Aphrodite, which, although they differ, are not necessarily contradictory. According to Homer (Iliad, Book V, 370), the goddess is simply the daughter of Zeus and Dione (a name that is merely the feminine form of Zeus in Greek). However, the poet Hesiod (Theogony, 188-198) provides a much more elaborate explanation for her birth: he claims that the name Aphrodite is derived from aphros or foam, and thus the goddess was born of this substance. The tale states that the Titan Kronos castrated his father Ouranos, and then cast the severed genitals into the sea. From the foam that gathered around the member, Aphrodite emerged, fully formed. Hesiod's description, however gruesome it may seem, does have the advantage of attaching a certain meaning to the birth of the goddess, which I leave to the reader to ascertain. At any rate, this version also lends a poetic quality to Aphrodite's creation, in that as Anadyomene ("she who emerges"), she was depicted by countless artists.
Aphrodite's Birth
| Aphrodite's Birth Mosaico |
There are a couple of versions of the birth of Aphrodite, which, although they differ, are not necessarily contradictory. According to Homer (Iliad, Book V, 370), the goddess is simply the daughter of Zeus and Dione (a name that is merely the feminine form of Zeus in Greek). However, the poet Hesiod (Theogony, 188-198) provides a much more elaborate explanation for her birth: he claims that the name Aphrodite is derived from aphros or foam, and thus the goddess was born of this substance. The tale states that the Titan Kronos castrated his father Ouranos, and then cast the severed genitals into the sea. From the foam that gathered around the member, Aphrodite emerged, fully formed. Hesiod's description, however gruesome it may seem, does have the advantage of attaching a certain meaning to the birth of the goddess, which I leave to the reader to ascertain. At any rate, this version also lends a poetic quality to Aphrodite's creation, in that as Anadyomene ("she who emerges"), she was depicted by countless artists.