Greek Mythology: “Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty”.-

“Venus Verticordia” (“Venus the Changer of Hearts”) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1868).-

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Aphrodite (In ancient greek Ἀφροδίτη”arisen from the foam”. Roman equivalent: Venus) was the goddess of Love, Beauty and Eternal Youth, arousing desire to gods and humans. In addition, she was connected to the death/rebirth of nature and was also considered a protectress of sailors.

Aphrodite’s symbols were the girdle. the seashell and the mirror. Her sacred animal was the dove.

According to Hesiod’s “Theogony”, she was created from the foam of the waters of the sea, in the fragrant island of Cyprus, when the Titan Cronos  slew his father, the major Titan Ouranos, and threw then his genitals into the sea.

Hesiod’s reference to Aphrodite’s having been born from the sea inspired the Renaissance artist Botticelli’s famous painting of the goddess on a giant scallop shell. 

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“The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli (1486).-

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Homer, on the other hand, said that she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.

When the Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of three Olympian goddesses was the most beautiful, he chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena and gave her the Golden Apple which was labeled “To the Fairest”.

The latter two had hoped to bribe him with power and victory in battle, but Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the world.

This was Helen of Sparta, who became infamous as Helen of Troy when Paris subsequently eloped with her. In the ensuing Trojan War, Hera and Athena were implacable enemies of Troy while Aphrodite was loyal to Paris and the Trojans.

In Homer’s “Iliad”, Aphrodite saves Paris when he is about to be killed in single combat by Menelaus. The goddess wraps him in a mist and spirits him away, setting him down in his own bedroom in Troy. She then appears to Helen in the guise of an elderly handmaiden and tells her that Paris is waiting for her.

Helen recognizes the goddess in disguise and asks if she is being led once more to ruin. For Aphrodite had bewitched her into leaving her husband Menelaus to run off with Paris. She dares to suggest that Aphrodite go to Paris herself.

Suddenly furious, the goddess warns Helen not to go too far, lest she be abandoned to the hatred of Greeks and Trojans alike.

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“Venus induces Helen to fall in love with Paris” (detail)  by Angelica Kauffman (1790).-

“The Judgment of Paris” by Luca Giordano (1681-1683).-

”Golden Apple of Discord” by Jacob Jordaens (1633).-

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Another case in which Aphrodite came to the aid of a mortal hero also happened to involve golden apples. When the heroine Atalanta agreed to wed who beat her in a foot race, Aphrodite favored Hippomenes with a peck of golden fruit.

By strewing these apples on the race course, Hippomenes caused Atalanta to become distracted, reason why she lost the race.

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“Atlanta and Hippomenes” by Willem van Herp (1632).-

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In a different ocassion, Zeus punished Aphrodite for beguiling her fellow gods into inappropriate romances.

He caused her to become infatuated with the mortal Anchises. That’s how she came to be the mother of Aeneas. She protected this hero during the Trojan War and its aftermath, when Aeneas quested to Italy and became the mythological founder of a line of Roman emperors.

A minor Italic goddess named Venus became identified with Aphrodite, and that’s how she got her Roman name. It is as Venus that she appears in the “Aeneiad”, Virgil’s epic of the founding of Rome.

In the “Iliad”, Homer tells how Aphrodite intervened in battle to save her son Aeneas, who was obviously,  a Trojan ally. 

The Greek hero Diomedes, who had been on the verge of killing Aeneas, attacked the goddess herself, wounding her on the wrist. Aphrodite promptly dropped Aeneas, who was rescued by Apollo, another Olympian sponsor of the Trojan.

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“Venus with Iapis Tending the Wounded Aeneas” by Francesco Solimena (1695).-

“Venus Presenting Arms to Aeneas” by Nicolas Poussin (1639_.-

“Venus Directing Aeneas and Achates to Carthage” by Angelica Kauffmann. (1768).-

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►”The Aphrodite of Cnidos” by Praxiteles and Other Sculptures of Aphrodite based on it:

Coin from Cnidos showing the Aphrodite of Cnidus, by Praxiteles.

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“The Aphrodite of Cnidos” or “Cnidian Aphrodite” was one of the most famous works of the ancient greek sculptor Praxiteles (4th century BC, Classic Period). 

The statue  became famous for its beauty, meant to be appreciated from every angle, and for being the first life-size representation of the nude female form.  

Praxiteles probably used the courtesan Phryne as a model.

The Cnidian Aphrodite has not survived. Possibly the statue was removed to Constantinople and was lost in a fire.

The original statue supposedly depicted Aphrodite as she prepared for the ritual bath that restored her purity (not virginity), discarding her drapery in her left hand, while modestly shielding herself with her right hand.

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►Slideshare: Most Well Known Variations on “The Aphrodite of Cnidos”:

(Note: Click on any sculpture for further technical details on it)

“Borghese Venus”, 2nd century. Roman marble copy of the Aphrodite of Cnidus (Capitoline Venus subtype). Musée du Louvre. Paris. France.

“Aphrodite of Milos”, better known as the “Venus de Milo” was created during the Hellenistic Period, sometime between 130 and 100 BC, by Alexandros of Antioch. Musée du Louvre. Paris. France.

“The Capitoline Venus” It is an Antonine copy of a late Hellenistic sculpture derived from Praxiteles . “The Capitoline Venus” and her variants are recognisable from the position of the arms, as Venus begins to cover her breasts with her right hand, and her groin with her left hand. Capitoline Museums, Rome. Italy.

“The Colonna Venus” (812) is a Roman marble copy of the lost Aphrodite of Cnidus by Praxiteles, conserved in the Museo Pio-Clementino as a part of the Vatican Museums’ collections. It is now the best-known and perhaps most faithful Roman copy of Praxiteles’ original. Museo Pio-Clementino. Vatican.

“The Venus de Medici” is a Hellenistic sculpture depicting Aphrodite (Roman equivalent: Venus). It is a 1st-century BC marble copy of a bronze original Greek sculpture, following the type of the Aphrodite of Cnidos. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

“Aphrodite of Menophantos” a Venus Pudica signed by Menophantos, 1st century BCE, found at San Gregorio al Celio, Rome Museo Nazionale Romano. Rome. Italy.

“The Venus of Arles” dates to the end of the 1st century BC. Musée du Louvre. Paris. France.

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►Links Post:

http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/aphrodite.html

https://ladysighs.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/greek-9-aphrodite/

http://gogreece.about.com/cs/mythology/a/mythaphrodite.htm

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/p/Aphrodite.htm

http://www.greek-gods.info/greek-gods/aphrodite/aphrodite-paintings.php

https://micromythos.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/the-weirdest-births-of-mythology/

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite_of_Cnidus

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Greek Mythology: “Atalanta, Hippomenes, a Footrace and Three Golden Apples”.-

►Greek Mythology:

“Atalanta, Hippomenes,  a Footrace and Three Golden Apples”:

“The Race between Atalanta and Hippomenes” by Nicolas Colombel (1680).-

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Atalanta was a great Arkadian huntress and a favourite of the goddess Artemis. Shewas exposed by her father in the wilderness at birth, but was suckled by a she-bear and afterwards found and raised by hunters.

She swore to the goddess to defend her virginity and, when Centaurs burst into her grove, destroyed them with her arrows.

Later she participated in the voyage of the Argonauts, and defeated the hero Peleus in wrestling at the funeral games of King Pelias.

When Meleagros gathered heroes to destroy the Kalydonian Boar, Atalanta joined the hunt and was the first to draw blood.

Meleagros awarded her the prize of the skin, and when his uncles tried to take it from her force, he slew them.

After the Calydonian boar hunt, Atalanta was rediscovered by her father. He wanted her to be married, but Atalanta, uninterested in marriage, agreed to marry only if her suitors could outrun her in a footrace. Those who lost would be killed. King Schoeneus agreed, and many young men died in the attempt until Hippomenes came along.

Hippomenes asked the goddess Aphrodite for help, and she gave him three golden apples in order to slow Atalanta down. 

Aphrodite gave him three golden apples – which came rom the Garden of the Hesperides, according to Servius – and told him to drop them one at a time to distract Atalanta. 

These golden apples were planted from the fruited branches that Gaia  gave to Hera as a wedding gift when Hera accepted Zeus.

The golden apples were irresistible, so every time Atalanta got ahead of Hippomenes, he rolled an apple ahead of her, and she would run after it. In this way, Hippomenes won the footrace and came to marry Atalanta. Eventually they had a son Parthenopaios.

Zeus or his mother  Rhea  turned Atalanta and Hippomenes into lions after they made love together in one of his temples.

Other accounts say that Aphrodite changed them into lions because they did not give her proper honor.

The belief at the time was that lions could not mate with their own species, only with leopards; thus Atalanta and Hippomenes would never be able to remain with one another.

►Symbolism and other facts: The Greek word χρυσομηλιά, and Latin “pomum aurantium” both literally describe oranges as “golden apples”.

The unnamed fruit of the Garden of Eden became an apple under the influence of the story of the golden apples  in the Garden of the Hesperides.

As a result, the apple became a symbol for knowledge, inmortality, temptation, sin and the fall of man. Secular art as well made use of the apple as symbol of love and sexuality. 

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“Atlanta and Hippomenes” by Willem van Herp (1632).-

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►”Three Greek Myths related to Golden Apples”:

1) “Atalanta and Hippomenes´Footrace”, 2) “The Garden of Hesperides and Heracles´Eleventh Labor”, 3) “The Judgement of Paris”:

1) Goddess Aphrodite gave Hippomenes three golden apple which he used to beat Atalanta in the footrace, as he rolled them ahead of her while she was running. Hippomenes was also known as Melanion, a name possibly derived from “melon” the Greek word for both “apple” and fruit in general.

2) Heracles´Eleventh Labor was to retrieve the Golden Apples from The Garden of the Hesperides. First, he flattered the Hesperides, but they didn’t give him the apples. Then he found Atlas and convinced him to give him the sky for a little so Atlas went to see his daughters and they gave him a golden apple. Then Atlas gave the apple to Hercules).

3) The chain of events that started the Trojan War all began with a spiteful goddess and a simple apple. Zeus was putting together a wedding banquet for Peleus and Thetis. He planned to invite just about everyone. Everyone except Eris.

However, Eris arrived at the celebration with a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides, which she threw into the proceedings, upon which was the inscription καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, “For the most beautiful one”). Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.

Zeus declared that Paris of Troy would decide who deserved the apple. Paris chose Aphrodite’s offer, so she got the apple and Paris was given Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris abducted her and took her to Troy.

The Greeks’ expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris in Troy is the mythological basis of the Trojan War.

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►Slideshare: “Who was Atlanta?”:

Click above to watch it.-

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►”Read Atalanta and Hippomenes´story on “The Metamorphoses” by Ovid”:

Click on the Image above to read Atalanta and Hippomenes´story (Ovid´s “Metamorphoses”. Book X Verses 560 to 680).-

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►Links Post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atalanta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippomenes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_(symbolism)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_apple#Oranges

http://www.pbase.com/dlcmh/c01_thethreegoldenapples

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/JudgementParis.html

http://camphalfblood.wikia.com/wiki/The_Garden_of_the_Hesperides

https://aquileana.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/greek-mythology-agamemnons-family-and-the-war-of-troy/

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►Last but not Least: ”Three Awards”:

I have been nominated for three Awards.

I) My dear blogger friend Sue Dreamwalker nominated me for an “Angel Award”. Check out her brilliant  site and the nomination both here. Thanks a bunch, Sue 

II) Cool blogger Deimos and Phobos has kindly nominated for the ” Black Wolf Blogger Award”. You can check out nomination and great blog here. Thank you very much.

III) I have been nominated for an Versatile Bloger Award (Trophee Version) coming from Between Sky and Earth. As I already had this award I changed its feature… Check the nomination and the sparkling blog here. Thank You.

►Here are the Awards Rules:

1) The nominee shall display the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award logo on her/his blog.

2) The nominee shall nominate ten (10) Bloggers she/he admires, by linking to their blogs and informing them about it.

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Angel Award.-

►Here are my ten (10) nominees for this award:

1) Aisha´s Oasis 2)  The Tropical Flowering Zone 3) Clanmother 4) Kittykatmandoo 5) The dune mouse (CybeleMoon) 6) Tarot Psychologique 7) Wendy Mac Donald 8) Delvina Lavoie 9) En Humor Arte 10) Rotze Mardini.

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Black Wolf Blogger Award.-

► My ten (10) nominees for this award are:

1) Sue Dreamwalker 2) I lost my lens cap 3) Kev´s blog 4) Chesterton´s Blog 5) Sweet as a picture 6) Marina Kanavaki 7) Inesemjphotography 8)  Between Sky and Earth 9) Todo el Oro del Mundo 10) Dina´s Illustrations.

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Versatile Blogger (Trophee).-

► My ten (10) nominees for this award are:

1) Jeri Walker-Bickett 2) Eternal Atlantis  3) Apollo´s Raven 4) Agustín Ayala 5) Speedy Rabbit 6)  Talker Blogger 7) Deimos and Phobos 8) Poesiaincodice 9) Mario Aguirre 10) Nature Restores Me.

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