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Seminar Groups: Week 4. Seminar week 4: The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite Tuesday 22nd October Group A: 5-6pm S0.20 Addy-Laverick Group B: 6-7pm S0.19 Learoyd -Hurst-Platt Group C: 7-8pm SO.19 Sharples-Worboys. Sex Goddesses: Aphrodite & Eos. Lecture overview.
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Seminar Groups: Week 4 • Seminar week 4: The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite • Tuesday 22nd October • Group A: 5-6pm S0.20 Addy-Laverick • Group B: 6-7pm S0.19 Learoyd-Hurst-Platt • Group C: 7-8pm SO.19 Sharples-Worboys
Lecture overview • The connection between sex and the sacred – how did goddesses help the Greeks deal with female desire? • Who is Aphrodite? Birth and role in myth • Aphrodite and the sacred – Adonia • Sacred Prostitution – myth or reality? • What is Eos? • Eos is pursuit of love
Birth of Aphrodite • Varied accounts of birth in Hesiod and Homer • Born out of the sea foam and severed testicles of Ouranos – Hesiod • Homer – she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione
Aphrodite’s infidelity Odyssey, 8.306-20 The trap set by Hephaistos for Aphrodite and Ares Hephaistos demands the return of his wooing gifts
Judgement of Paris No details in The Iliad, recorded in Kypria A myth that evolves over time
The Matchmaker • Iliad – 14.188-223 • Hera asks Aphrodite for a loan of strips of material she wears close to her breast • Aphrodite is the matchmaker – makes the gods fall in love with mortals • Her affair with Anchises in Zeus’ revenge
Aphrodite’s other love - Adonis Red-figure hydria, 450-400
The Adonia • Women’s festival – attended by courtesans and citizen women • Celebrations held in private houses • The Gardens of Adonis
Cult of Aphrodite Cults throughout Greece Evidence that Aphrodite acted as a healing goddess Aphrodite worshipped in different epiphets; Aphrodite Hetaria (Companion)
Aphrodite and Prostitutes • Evidence of prostitutes at the temples of Aphrodite – Machon, temple at Corinth • Dedication by hetariai to Aphrodite at Samos, Aphrodite in the reeds, Alexis of Samos
Sacred Prostitution – Myth or reality? • Mistranslation? • False accusation? • A historical reality?
Menelaus and Helen Eos and Tithonos Zeus pursuing a female
Eos pursuing Kephalos Red-figure krater Youth running toward man
The grieving mother Eos carrying her son, Memnon Red-figure pelike
Seminar Groups: Week 4 • Seminar week 4: The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite • Tuesday 22nd October • Group A: 5-6pm S0.20 Addy-Laverick • Group B: 6-7pm S0.19 Learoyd-Hurst-Platt • Group C: 7-8pm SO.19 Sharples-Worboys