Persuasion in Ancient Greece
Andrew Scholtz, Instructor
Course Readings. . .
Peitho Readings
Click here for map to areas covered in reading; here for study guide to this reading.
Preliminary Notes
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| Helen Relief, Naples. First cent. BCE. From left: Peitho (on column), Helen, Aphrodite, Eros, Paris-Alexander. More here. |
We have in what follows two basic types of evidence:
- Public inscriptions, often fragmentary, in stone:
- on statue bases
- on plaques erected outside temples
- in public squares
- etc.
- Literary evidence in two forms:
- Extracts and quotations culled from preserved literary works
- Fragments, i.e., bits from works that do not survive
complete
- Quotations in other ancient authors (Aristotle quoting from Euripides' lost Telephus)
- The often severely chewed-up remains of ancient papyrus scrolls (i.e., the form ancient books took)
The challenge posed by this evidence is that we have it mostly out of context, so we have to be careful.
In what follows, my notations are set off from primary text using:
- Italics
- (Parentheses)
- * Asterisked notes
An Abbreviations section (bottom of page) provides bibliographical info for abbreviations used below.
Peitho in Cult
The Greek noun peithō means "persuasion," but it seems to have started life as a proper name! In our evidence, Peitho as proper name refers to a minor deity, possibly multiple minor deities, connected somehow to persuasion.
In some cases, Peitho seems to be the byname, or "epithet," of another goddess: Aphrodite (goddess of sex) or Artemis (goddess of the hunt and of young people).
So Peitho (proper name) in such cases will be a personification, and when dealing with personifications, it isn't always easy to tell whether one is dealing with a person, the thing personified, or both at once. But what aspects of persuasion will Peitho personify? It depends. In some cases, there will be reason to think it's all about sexual persuasion. Hence Peitho as goddess of seduction. In other cases, it may something else, for instance, the persuasiveness of a ruler or of a politician or speaker. In any case, Peitho as personification (in art, poetry, or religious cult) represents something held up as important in the cultural system that we're finding her in.
Included below is material relating to Aphrodite Pandemos, who at Athens shared worship with Peitho and seems to have ovedrlapped with her in terms of areas of responsibility.
Peitho as goddess in her own right
From an inscription found on the Aegean island of Thasos; late fifth
cent. BCE (IG XII 8.360):
. . . temple of Peitho . . .
- From Olynthus (northern Greece), probably late second cent. BCE:
Dionysius son of Callistratus, Apollodorus son of Apollodorus, and Heracleides son of Seranbylius, having served out their terms as agoranomoi* [offer this] to Peitho
* The agoranomoi were overseers of the marketplace; this inscription would have accompanied an object dedicated (offered as a gift) to the goddess. Robinson's thought is that Peitho had some connection to the office in question, maybe as some sort of facilitator for these officials.
From David M. Robinson, "A New Greek Inscription from Macedonia," American Journal of Archaeology 37 (1933): 602-604.
- Euripides fragment 170
(in Nauck's collection, from a lost play):
A speaker says: "Peitho has no temple apart from speech, and her altar is to be found in human nature."*
* This Peitho can hardly be distinguished from the thing itself; she "is" persuasion.
- Archippus (comic playwright)
fragment 47 (in the PCG collection):
Peitho has neither altar nor fire — not in women's nature, nor in men's.*
* Does this seem to lampoon Euripides' fragment 170 (above)?
- Demosthenes Sample
Speech Openings (Exordia) #54:
It is just and right and important, men of Athens, that we too should exercise care, just as you are accustomed to do, to make sure that our relations with the gods shall be piously maintained. Therefore our commission has been duly discharged for you, for we have sacrificed to Zeus the Savior and to Athena and to Victory, and these sacrifices have been auspicious and salutary for you. We have also sacrificed to Peitho* and to the Mother of the Gods and to Apollo, and here also we had favorable omens. And the sacrifices made to the other gods portended for you security and stability and prosperity and safety. Do you, therefore, accept the blessings which the gods bestow. (Loeb, with changes)
* Peitho here seems to suggest persuasion as a power central to the city's well being.
- Menander The Arbitration lines 555-6 (third cent. BCE):
HABROTONON: Friendly Peitho, be present as my ally, and grant success to whatever words I say.*
* Habrotonon, a prostitute with a "heart of gold," is about to go into a house to carry out the deception of a young man.
- From the Theater of Dionysus at Athens, Roman Imperial date (IG III 351):
[This seat reserved for] Hymnetria, nurse of Nysa, [priestess of] Peitho
Peitho in association with (and sharing cult with) Aphrodite and others
- Inscription from a statue base from the temple of Aphrodite at Dafni,
outside Athens (IG II 2.1558l, fourth or third cent. BCE):
Callimachus of Soloi dedicated this to Peitho.
- Plutarch Advice to
Bride and Groom (Moralia 138 c-d):
. . . I pray that the Muses assist Aphrodite (in marriage), and be mindful that it is just as much their job to make marriage and family life harmonious through reason, concord, and philosophy as it is their job to keep the strings of the lyre or kithara tuned in melodious accord. Indeed, the ancients established cult to Hermes* in partnership with Aphrodite, for they believed that pleasure in marriage greatly needs to be balanced by reason, and they offered cult to Peitho and the Charites (the "Graces") as well, so that they might attain their goals through persuasion rather than by fighting or quarreling.
* Hermes is the god of, among other things, speech (the Greek word is logos), which is close conceptually to reason (also logos). The Charites are goddesses of physical attractiveness and grace.
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| Site of the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos at Athens. South west base of the Acropolis. Image from Stoa, Ancient City of Athens. |
The following three passages (from Pausanias, Xenophon, and Nicander) present differing views of Aphrodite Pandemos. Aphrodite was the Greek godess of love and other things. Her various epithets (additional names) could suggest specific areas of concern for her, not all of them love-related.
One of those epithets is Pandemos. But what was Aphrodite in her "Pandemos" guise?
- One function possibly suggested by the epithet is political: Aphrodite Pandemos as an apparently political goddess (pan-dēmos, "for all the people," i.e., a goddess concerned with the political well being of Athens and its democracy)
- The other has her a as a distinctly sexual goddess, an Aphrodite "Available to Everyone"
Are these two different Aphrodites? Or might they be one and the same goddess?
- Pausanias Description of Greece 1.22.4:
When Theseus had united into one state the many Athenian demes (= villages of Attica), he established the cult of Aphrodite Pandemos (Aphrodite "of the whole dēmos-people") and of Persuasion (Peitho). The old statues no longer existed in my time, but those I saw were the work of no inferior artists. There is also a sanctuary of Earth, Nurse of Youth; and of Demeter Chloe (Green). You can learn all about their names by conversing with the priests. (Loeb ed.)
- Xenophon Symposium 8.9-10:
The philosopher Socrates addresses the host and other guests at a drinking party:
As for the question of whether Aphrodite is but a single goddess, or is rather two, separate goddesses, Aphrodite Ourania ("Heavenly" Aphrodite) and Aphrodite Pandemos (the "Common" Aphrodite), I am not prepared to say. For even Zeus carries many surnames, though seeming to be one and the same god. What I can tell you is that each Aphrodite has her own separate altar, temple, and sacrifices: more licentious sacrifices for Pandemos, but more chaste for Ourania. You might conclude that Pandemos instills desire for bodies, whereas Ourania instills desire for the soul and for affection and for noble deeds.
- Nicander quoted by Athenaeus:
Nicander of Colophon writes that Solon (early Athenian lawgiver) was the first to authorize the purchase of girls to be established in brothels for the purpose of dealing with youths in their prime. And, says Nicander, Solon used the money earned by the girls to build a temple to Aphrodite Pandemos, whose cult he first established.
- Pausanias Description of Greece 1.43.4-6 (Topography of Megara, city near Athens):
Next after the temple of Dionysus there is a shrine of Aphrodite, and an ivory statue of Aphrodite with the epithet Praxis ("accomplishment," "success," perhaps with sexual meaning). Peitho is also there, as is another deity, "Consoler" (Paregoros), both works by Praxiteles. By Scopas are the Eros ("Desire"), Himeros ("Lust"), and Pothos ("Longing") — if, that is, these last differ in any way but name.
(Praxiteles and Scopas were sculptors.)
- Pausanias Description of Greece 2.7.7-8 (Topography of Sicyon, a Peloponnesian city on the gulf of Corinth):
(7) As you enter the marketplace you encounter a temple of Peitho, though it has no cult image. The cult of Peitho is said to have been established there as follows. When Apollo and Artemis had killed the Python (a monster) they came to Aegialeia (Sicyon and parts to the west) for the purpose of ritual purification. But fear overcame the gods at a place that is today called Terror (Phobos), and so they fled to Crete, to Caramanor.
But the inhabitants of Aegialeia fell victim to plague, and so the seers instructed them to propitiate Apollo and Artemis. (8) And they sent seven youths and the same number of maidens to the river Sythas to supplicate the deities in question. And when they had won over those deities ("when they had persuaded them"), they told those deities (Apollo and Artemis) to go to the acropolis (a high point in a city, with temples etc.). And the first place they came to was the temple of Peitho. And to this day they perform a similar ritual. For the young go to the river Sythas during the festival of Apollo, and though they lead the deities to the temple of Peitho, they say that they lead them back to Apollo's temple.
- Pausanias Description of Greece 5.11.8 (Topography of Olympia, home of the Olympic games) in Elis, in the Peloponnese):
On the pedestal supporting the throne (of the statue of Zeus) and all the other adornments around Zeus — on that pedestal are works of gold, and Helios (the Sun) mounted in his chariot, and Zeus and Hera are there, too, and Hephaistos along with them, and beside him Charis ("Grace"), and Hermes is near her, and next to Hermes is Hestia, and after Hestia is Eros receiving Aphrodite as she emerges from the sea, and Peitho crowns Aphrodite.
(Certain myths have Aphrodite born from the sky god's blood dripping into the sea.)
Peitho as epithet (and aspect) of Aphrodite
- From a tablet found in a private house in Pharsalos, Thessaly (Northern
Greece) (IG X 2.236; fifth cent. BCE):
Dauon [dedicated this] to Aphrodite Peitho.
- From the Aegean port city of Cnidos (east coast of Turkey); late fourth or early third cent.
BCE:
. . . [this has been offered to] Aphrodite Peitho.
G. E. Bean and J. M. Cook, "The Cnidia," Annual of the British School at Athens 47 (1952): 189-190
- Inscription from an altar at Mytilene on the Aegean island of Lesbos, ca. 150 BCE (IG XII 2.73):
Whoever wishes to sacrifice on the altar of Aphrodite Peitho and Hermes, let that person do so.
. . . and of Artemis
- Pausanias Description of Greece 2.20.10-11 (Topography of Argos, on the Peloponnese peninsula):
As you go down from there and turn back to the marketplace, you find the grave of Cerdo, wife of Phoroneus, and there is a temple of Asclepius. And the temple of Artemis with the epithet Peitho is there; Hypermnestra established it when she had won a law suit against her father in the matter concerning Lynceus.(I.e., for failing to obey her father's command to kill her husband Lynceus on their wedding night. Note: That's from mythology — a legend to explain the founding of the temple.)
. . . and as one of the Charites ("Graces," goddesses of beauty)
- Proclus on Hesiod Works
and Days line 73:
The Charites are three: Peitho, Aglaïa, Euphrosyne.
- Scholium (marginal comment in an old manuscript — similar to the notes
modern students take in their books) on Aristophanes Wasps 773:
. . . the three Charites: Peitho, Aglaïa, Thaleia.
- Plutarch Erotic Essay (Moralia 721d):
"Charis" is what the ancients used to call feminine compliance with a man's wishes.*
* Kharis means "grace" or "favor."
Argive Genealogy
Argos is a Greek city located on the Peloponnese peninsula. The stories told below provide a mythological family tree for the city's earliest kings. That certain figures bear the name Peitho could suggest persuasion as something valued by the city and its rulers. Or it could simply refer to the "persuasiveness" (sexiness?) of the individuals in question.
- Pherecydes of Athens,
writer of mythological genealogies, ca. 450 BCE (FGrH 3 F 66):
Argos (#1), son of Zeus, wed Peitho, daughter of Ocean. Argos begat Kriasos; Kriasos begat Ereuthalion, from whom the city of Ereuthalie got its name; Ereuthalie is in the territory of the city of Argos. Ereuthalion begat Arestor; Arestor begat Argos (#2). Hera placed an extra eye in the back of the neck of this last Argos, and prevented him from sleeping; she then set him to watch over Io. Then Hermes killed him.*
- Scholium (marginal comment) on Euripides' Orestes, line 1239:
To Inachus and Melia were born Phoroneus and Phegeus. Of these it was Phoroneus who came to rule over the city now known as Argos, but he called it "Phoroneus-town." Peitho gave birth to his children Aegialeus, Apis, Europs, and Niobe. . . . When Phoroneus died, and his children were scattered apart, Argos, son of Niobe, became king and named the whole region south of the Isthmus the "Argeia," and he renamed "Phoroneus-town" Argos.*
* In Pausanias Description of Greece 2.21.1, the wife of Phoroneus is given as Kerdo, which means "she who profits" or "she who brings profit." In pseudo-Apollodorus Library 2.1.1, it is the nymph Teledike, "Perfection of Justice." For a mythical king, what might be the symbolism of marriage to seeming personifications like these?
* Peitho her is daughter of Ocean and wife of Argos #1. Argos #2 is the many-eyed monster that guarded Io.
Aphrodite, Persuasion, and Trickery
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Hesiod: the story of Pandora from the Works and Days:
The adornment of Pandora. Detail of photo by Sebastià Giralt, Flickr (Excerpted from Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, And Homerica, Hugh G. Evelyn-White, translator, at the Project Gutenberg text archive. Zeus takes revenge on human beings by sending to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother, the first woman: Pandora. The gods, Peitho included, equip her with all sorts of characteristics to render her a "beautiful evil" — Hesiod's term — for men. The poem dates from around 710 BCE.)
(lines 42-53) For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste. But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him (Prometheus hid the good meat in sacrifice so people could eat it); therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men. He hid fire; but that the noble son of Iapetus (i.e., Prometheus) stole again for men from Zeus the counselor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger:
(54-59) 'Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire — a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.'
(60-68) So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and he bade Athena to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature.
(69-82) So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Kronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God (Hephaestus) molded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Kronos intended. And the goddess bright-eyed Athena girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Peitho put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athena bedecked her form with all manners of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus (Hermes), contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods (Hermes) put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora, because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread.
(83-89) But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father (Zeus) sent glorious Argus-Slayer (Hermes), the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus (Prometheus' brother) as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood.
(90-105) For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness which bring the Fates upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus.
Archaic Lyric Poetry
Lyric (i.e., sung) poetry from the archaic through early classical periods (ca. 600-450 BCE).
- Sappho fragment
90 (not Sappho's poetry itself, but a comment on it):
In other poems she (Sappho) has called Peitho a daughter of Aphrodite.
- Alcman fragment 64:
[Fortune] is sister of Good-Law (Eunomia) and Peitho, and daughter of Foresight.
- Pindar Skolion (drinking song) for Xenophon of Corinth (for his Olympic victory):
Young women welcoming many guests, handmaids of Peitho in wealthy Corinth, you who burn the yellow tears of fresh incense, often flying in your thoughts up to Aphrodite, the heavenly mother of loves . . . .
(It is thought that this opening addresses the prostitutes of Corinth, a good number of whom seem to be attending the drinking party at which this poem would have first been sung.)
Persuasion Problematized and Gendered
- Law quoted in pseudo-Demosthenes 46.14:
Any citizen, with the exception of those who had been adopted when Solon entered upon his office, and had thereby become unable either to renounce or to claim an inheritance, shall have the right to dispose of his own property by will as he shall see fit, if he have no male children lawfully born, unless his mind be impaired by one of these things, lunacy or old age or drugs or disease, or unless he is persuaded by a woman (gunaiki peithomenos), or under constraint or deprived of his liberty. (Loeb, with alterations)
(Under Athenian law, a will could be invalidated if it could be shown that a woman had influenced — "persuaded" — the man whose will it was to write or change it a certain way.)
Aphrodite's peitho
"Deception of Zeus" episode, Homer's Iliad (with Aphrodite's magic "girdle" = some sort of seduction utility pouch)
-
Homer Iliad Book 14 lines 153-360:
Zeus and Hera on Mount Ida. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes
(The mythical Trojan War — Greeks versus Trojans, the latter a people of what is now Turkey — has been going on for nine years. Pro-Greek Hera wants to beguile her husband, Zeus, who currently favors the Trojans — that so as to give her beloved Greeks a chance. Slightly altered translation by Samuel Butler, from the Project Gutenberg text archive.)
Hera (queen of the gods) of the golden throne looked down as she stood upon a peak of Olympus (mountain of the gods) and her heart was gladdened at the sight of him who was at once her brother and her brother-in-law (i.e., Poseidon — Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon are siblings, Zeus and Hera are married), hurrying hither and thither amid the fighting. Then she turned her eyes to Zeus (king of the gods) as he sat on the topmost crests of many-fountained Ida (mountain near Troy), and loathed him. She set herself to think how she might hoodwink him, and in the end she deemed that it would be best for her to go to Ida and array herself in rich attire, in the hope that Zeus might become enamored of her, and wish to embrace her. While he was thus engaged a sweet and careless sleep might be made to steal over his eyes and senses.
She went, therefore, to the room which her son Hephaestus (craftsman of the gods) had made her, and the doors of which he had cunningly fastened by means of a secret key so that no other god could open them. Here she entered and closed the doors behind her. She cleansed all the dirt from her fair body with ambrosia, then she anointed herself with olive oil, ambrosial, very soft, and scented specially for herself - if it were so much as shaken in the bronze-floored house of Zeus, the scent pervaded the universe of heaven and earth. With this she anointed her delicate skin, and then she plaited the fair ambrosial locks that flowed in a stream of golden tresses from her immortal head. She put on the wondrous robe which Athena (goddess of war and weaving) had worked for her with consummate art, and had embroidered with manifold devices; she fastened it about her bosom with golden clasps, and she girded herself with a belt that had a hundred tassels: then she fastened her earrings, three brilliant pendants that glistened most beautifully, through the pierced lobes of her ears, and threw a lovely new veil over her head. She bound her sandals on to her feet, and when she had arrayed herself perfectly to her satisfaction, she left her room and called Aphrodite (goddess of love) to come aside and speak to her. "My dear child," said she, "will you do what I am going to ask of you, or will refuse me because you are angry at my being on the Greek side, while you are on the Trojan?"
Zeus's daughter Aphrodite answered, "Hera, august queen of goddesses, daughter of mighty Kronos, say what you want, and I will do it for you at once, if I can, and if it can be done at all."
Then Hera told her a lying tale and said, "I want you to endow me with some of those fascinating charms, the spells of which bring all things mortal and immortal to your feet. I am going to the world's end to visit Oceanus (from whom all we gods proceed) and mother Tethys: they received me in their house, took care of me, and brought me up, having taken me over from Rhea when Zeus imprisoned great Kronos in the depths that are under earth and sea. I must go and see them that I may make peace between them; they have been quarrelling, and are so angry that they have not slept with one another this long while; if I can bring them round and restore them to one another's embraces, they will be grateful to me and love me for ever afterwards."
Thereon laughter-loving Aphrodite said, "I cannot and must not refuse you, for you sleep in the arms of Zeus who is our king."
As she spoke she loosed from her bosom the curiously embroidered girdle into which all her charms had been wrought — love, desire, and that sweet flattery which steals the judgment even of the most prudent. She gave the girdle to Hera and said, "Take this girdle wherein all my charms reside and lay it in your bosom. If you will wear it I promise you that your errand, be it what it may, will not be in vain."
When she heard this Hera smiled, and still smiling she laid the girdle in her bosom.
Aphrodite now went back into the house of Zeus, while Hera darted down from the summits of Olympus. She passed over Pieria and fair Emathia, and went on and on till she came to the snowy ranges of the Thracian horsemen, over whose topmost crests she sped without ever setting foot to ground. When she came to Athos she went on over the waves of the sea till she reached Lemnos, the city of noble Thoas. There she met Sleep, brother of Death, and caught him by the hand, saying, "Sleep, you who lord it alike over mortals and immortals, if you ever did me a service in times past, do one for me now, and I shall be grateful to you ever after. Close Zeus's keen eyes for me in slumber while I hold him clasped in my embrace, and I will give you a beautiful golden seat, that can never fall to pieces; my clubfooted son Hephaestus shall make it for you, and he shall give it a footstool for you to rest your fair feet upon when you are at table."
Then Sleep answered, "Hera, great queen of goddesses, daughter of mighty Kronos, I would lull any other of the gods to sleep without compunction, not even excepting the waters of Oceanus from whom all of them proceed, but I dare not go near Zeus, nor send him to sleep unless he bids me. I have had one lesson already through doing what you asked me, on the day when Zeus's mighty son Heracles set sail from Troy after having sacked the city of the Trojans. At your bidding I suffused my sweet self over the mind of aegis-bearing Zeus, and laid him to rest; meanwhile you hatched a plot against Heracles, and set the blasts of the angry winds beating upon the sea, till you took him to the goodly city of Cos, away from all his friends. Zeus was furious when he awoke, and began hurling the gods about all over the house; he was looking more particularly for myself, and would have flung me down through space into the sea where I should never have been heard of any more, had not Night who cows both men and gods protected me. I fled to her and Zeus left off looking for me in spite of his being so angry, for he did not dare do anything to displease Night. And now you are again asking me to do something on which I cannot venture."
And Hera said, "Sleep, why do you take such notions as those into your head? Do you think Zeus will be as anxious to help the Trojans, as he was about his own son? Come, I will marry you to one of the youngest of the Graces (Greek Kharites, goddesses of beauty), and she shall be your own — Pasithea, whom you have always wanted to marry."
Sleep was pleased when he heard this, and answered, "Then swear it to me by the dread waters of the river Styx; lay one hand on the bounteous earth, and the other on the sheen of the sea, so that all the gods who dwell down below with Kronos may be our witnesses, and see that you really do give me one of the youngest of the Graces — Pasithea, whom I have always wanted to marry."
Hera did as he had said. She swore, and invoked all the gods of the nether world, who are called Titans, to witness. When she had completed her oath, the two enshrouded themselves in a thick mist and sped lightly forward, leaving Lemnos and Imbrus behind them. Presently they reached many-fountained Ida, mother of wild beasts, and Lectum where they left the sea to go on by land, and the tops of the trees of the forest soughed under the going of their feet. Here Sleep halted, and ere Zeus caught sight of him he climbed a lofty pine-tree — the tallest that reared its head towards heaven on all Ida. He hid himself behind the branches and sat there in the semblance of the sweet-singing bird that haunts the mountains and is called Chalcis by the gods, but men call it Cymindis. Hera then went to Gargarus, the topmost peak of Ida, and Zeus, driver of the clouds, set eyes upon her. As soon as he did so he became inflamed with the same passionate desire for her that he had felt when they had first enjoyed each other's embraces, and slept with one another without their dear parents knowing anything about it. He went up to her and said, "What do you want that you have come hither from Olympus — and that too with neither chariot nor horses to convey you?"
Then Hera told him a lying tale and said, "I am going to the world's end, to visit Oceanus, from whom all we gods proceed, and mother Tethys; they received me into their house, took care of me, and brought me up. I must go and see them that I may make peace between them: they have been quarrelling, and are so angry that they have not slept with one another this long time. The horses that will take me over land and sea are stationed on the lowermost spurs of many-fountained Ida, and I have come here from Olympus on purpose to consult you. I was afraid you might be angry with me later on, if I went to the house of Oceanus without letting you know."
And Zeus said, "Hera, you can choose some other time for paying your visit to Oceanus — for the present let us devote ourselves to love and to the enjoyment of one another. Never yet have I been so overpowered by passion neither for goddess nor mortal woman as I am at this moment for yourself — not even when I was in love with the wife of Ixion who bore me Pirithous, peer of gods in counsel, nor yet with Danae the daintily-ankled daughter of Acrisius, who bore me the famed hero Perseus. Then there was the daughter of Phoenix, who bore me Minos and Rhadamanthus: there was Semele, and Alcmena in Thebes by whom I begot my lion-hearted son Heracles, while Semele became mother to Dionysus the comforter of mankind. (Dionysus is the god of wine.) There was queen Demeter again, and lovely Leto, and yourself — but with none of these was I ever so much enamored as I now am with you."
Hera again answered him with a lying tale. "Most dread son of Kronos," she exclaimed, "what are you talking about? Would you have us enjoy one another here on the top of Mount Ida, where everything can be seen? What if one of the ever-living gods should see us sleeping together, and tell the others? It would be such a scandal that when I had risen from your embraces I could never show myself inside your house again; but if you are so minded, there is a room which your son Hephaestus has made me, and he has given it good strong doors; if you would so have it, let us go thither and lie down."
And Zeus answered, "Hera, you need not be afraid that either god or man will see you, for I will enshroud both of us in such a dense golden cloud, that the very sun for all his bright piercing beams shall not see through it."
With this the son of Kronos caught his wife in his embrace; whereon the earth sprouted them a cushion of young grass, with dew-bespangled lotus, crocus, and hyacinth, so soft and thick that it raised them well above the ground. Here they laid themselves down and overhead they were covered by a fair cloud of gold, from which there fell glittering dew-drops.
Thus, then, did the sire of all things repose peacefully on the crest of Ida, overcome at once by sleep and love, and he held his spouse in his arms. Meanwhile Sleep made off to the ships of the Achaeans, to tell earth-encircling Poseidon, lord of the earthquake. When he had found him he said, "Now, Poseidon, you can help the Greeks with a will, and give them victory though it be only for a short time while Zeus is still sleeping. I have sent him into a sweet slumber, and Hera has beguiled him into going to bed with her."
Aphrodite as Erotic Ally
- Sappho (woman poet) fragment 1 (actually, a complete poem. Sappho prays to Aphrodite that the goddess assist her in seducing a girl she, Sappho, loves):
Immortal Aphrodite of the many-colored throne, deceit-weaving child of Zeus, I beseech you, don't let me be overcome with fevers and pains, but come to me here, if ever before you did listen to me from far off, and leave your father's house, and yoke your chariot.
And beautiful, swift sparrows did then draw you over the earth with rapid-whirring wings from the heights of heaven through the midst of the air, and you arrived immediately, and you, O blessed one, with a smile on your immortal face asked what troubled me then, and why I was summoning you, and why in my maddened heart I wished you to come to me.
"Now who is it I'm to persuade (peithein) to bring you back into her heart? Who is it, Sappho, who wrongs you?
"For if she now flees you, soon she will be chasing you. And if she won't accept your gifts, she'll instead be trying to give gifts to you. And if she doesn't love you, soon she will love you whether she likes it or not."
Come to me now again, and free me of this troubling care, and bring to pass all that my heart lusts for. And do yourself be my ally.
Pindar Pythian Ode 4 lines 213-219
Jason and the Argonauts have sailed to Colchis (on the far shores of the Black Sea) to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Jason requires the aid of Medea, a sorceress and the daughter of the local king. To induce her to help him he must "bind" her to him emotionally. That is where Aphrodite gets involved . . . .
And the Lady of the sharpest arrows, the Cyprian-born (i.e., Aphrodite), then for the first time brought the the dappled wryneck, the maddening bird, from Olympus for human beings. [The wryneck was used for love magic.] And she bound it to the unbreakable, four-spoked wheel. And she taught Jason and made him wise in prayers and spells, so that he might make Medea cease to honor her parents, and so that lovely Greece might lash her mind into a burning frenzy with the whip of Persuasion (mastigi Peithous).
I.e., Aphrodite teaches Jason how torments inflicted on the wryneck can be magically transformed into eros felt by Medea for Jason and for his Greek home.
Aphrodite as Cosmic Force
- Empedocles,
fragments B 17, 21 (Philotes-Aphrodite as some sort of creative,
attractive force, but what else?):
. . . At one time they (the four elements) grew to be one alone from being many, and at another they grew apart again to be many from being one. . . . And these never cease their continual change, now coming together by Love (Philotes) all into one, now again all being carried apart by the hatred of Strife (Neikos). . . . Her (i.e., Love, Philotes) you must regard with your mind: do not sit staring with your eyes. She is thought to be innate also in the limbs of mortals, by whom they think thoughts of love and perform deeds of union, calling her Joy by name and Aphrodite. . . .
Aphrodite as Political Force: Civic-Communal Aphrodite and Related Phenomena
- Inscription on an altar from the third cent. BCE sanctuary of Demos
and the Charites (IG II 2.2798):
In the archonship of Dionysius, during the priesthood of Micion, son of Eurycleides, of the deme Cephisius, the council dedicated this to Aphrodite, Guide of the People (hegemone tou demou), and to the Charites. Theoboulus, son of Theophanes, from the Piraeus, oversaw the preparations.
(Possibly commemorates the reestablishment of democracy after the expulsion of the Macedonians from Athens in 230 BCE.)
- Inscription from Thasos (Aegean island), later fourth cent. BCE:
Timarchias son of Pythion . . . the gunaikonomoi (supervisors of women), having been honored with crowns by the demos, made offering to Aphrodite.
(Also on Thasos, mention of an Aphrodite Synarchis, "Aphrodite, Sponsor of Public Officials".)
- Pausanias on the establishment of the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho at Athens. Click here for the passage (above)
- Inscription from Didyma, city in Asia Minor (Turkey):
Theodotus, son of Alexander, . . . serving as prophet [dedicated this] to Aphrodite "Sponsor of Reconciliation" (Aphrodite Katallakteria. Didyma 2)
- Sosicrates FGrH 462 F 7 (mid second-century BCE) quoted in Athenaeus Sophists
at Dinner 561 e-f:
The Spartans sacrifice to Eros before they muster the troops, for they believe that safety and victory depend on friendship among the men being mustered. The Cretans for these reasons also sacrifice to Eros whenever they marshal the handsomest of the citizens in battle formation. So says Sosicrates.
- Zeno of Citium* in Athenaeus Sophists at Dinner 561c (comes soon before the preceding
in Athenaeus):
Pontianus said that Zeno of Citium regarded Eros as god of friendship and freedom, and the provider in addition of concord, but of nothing else. Hence in the Republic Zeno said: "Eros is a god which contributes to the city's security." (A. A. Long, D. S. Sedley, trans.)
* Zeno of Citium, 335-263 BCE, founder of Stoic philosophy; active at Athens.
