3/4 Aphrodite and Anchises

Lecture Story

what is the story of Aeneas and Anchises?

• at the end of the 10-year Trojan War, when the Greece used the trojan horses to get into Troy and started burning the city, Anchises’ son, Aeneas, said they have to immediately evacuate

• Anchises said he is not leaving the burning city and does not care if he dies → “useless in my body” → but family tells him that they are not leaving without him

• only until Anchises sees a little flame on the top of his grandson’s head does Anchises realizes the grandson is the chosen one

• Anchises was not only old, but paralyzed due to an injury inflicted by Zeus when he was a young man affiliated with Aphrodite

• Aeneas carries Anchises on his back and they evacuate Troy

Overview of Hymn 5

what are Aphrodite’s responsibilities again?

• anodos → raising out of the sea and creating calm waves

• kosmesis → adornment of beauty

• mexis → sex

Overview of Hymn 5

along with Artemis and Leto, Aphrodite is also a ?

mistress of animals → wild animals are tamed around her

Overview of Hymn 5

what is the sequel of Atalanta and Hippomenes?

• very happy marriage

• went out hunting and running around Arcadia and spontaneously decided to have sex in the woods

• having sex in the woods is risky and dangerous because the woods are full of divine spirits from the gods

• they got transformed into wild lions

• one possible explanation for this was that Aphrodite is fickle and helps/doesn’t help whenever she feels like it, and she turned them into animals

Overview of Hymn 5: Theological aspects

what age does the hymn depict Aphrodite as? what do they keep saying?

generational flip that depicts Aphrodite as an Olympian. thus she is under Zeus’ power so the hymn keeps repeating that she is the daughter of Zeus

as destabilizing her power is, it is ultimately under Zeus’ control so there is no threat to generational conflict

Aphrodite’s pursuit of Anchises

what is Zeus’ revenge on Aphrodite?

• inspire love in Aphrodite of Anchises

• it is seen as humiliating for gods/goddesses to fall in love with mortal people because they are of lower status

Aphrodite’s pursuit of Anchises

who is Anchises?

• a Trojan noble

  • a Trojan stereotype that Trojan men are described to be very hot and attractive

Aphrodite’s pursuit of Anchises

what does Aphrodite do next?

• she undergoes kosmesis where the Graces help her get bathed, dressed, and such to maximize her beauty

• she then disguised herself as a beautiful human woman and goes to Anchises’ mountain hut. although trying to trick Anchises, he knows the second she appeared in the hut that this is not a common occurence and she has to be a goddess

Aphrodite’s pursuit of Anchises

what does Aphrodite cover her disguise?

• she tells him she is a mortal princess and can speak Trojan because she had a Trojan nurse growing up

• she tells him she was just in a circle of maidens for Artemis and Hermes came to her and told her she will marry a man named Anchises

Aphrodite’s pursuit of Anchises

what happens immediately?

• she tells him to quickly tell his family and relatives that they are getting married

• Anchises is so shocked and aroused that he agrees

Aphrodite’s pursuit of Anchises

how are the roles reversed? what is a play on words of one of her powers?

• although Anchises is the hunter, he is the one being hunted here

• Aphrodite waits until he was “all alone, away from the others” and she is now the hunter

• mixis can mean sex or battle on the battlefield (can mean Aphrodite is metaphorically a warrior here)

Sex and its dangers

what happens during the epiphany?

• she appears to Anchises in her true form, and since gods/goddesses are larger than humans, she grew so big that her head touches the ceiling

• Anchises tells her he knew she had to have been a goddess and tells her to pity him and not make him powerless because a mortal man like himself had sex with a divine figure

Sex and its dangers

what is Anchises scared of?

• his fear is living without menos

• menos means fluid in his body that gives him spirit of life and force

• kinda like chi in Chinese

Sex and its dangers

what is Aphrodite’s final speech?

• tells him not to worry because there are past examples where Trojan men had sex with goddesses (but neither examples are reassuring for Anchises)

• she tells him she is pregnant with their child

• she warns him that he will only stay well if he does not tell anyone the mother of the child is Aphrodite or else Zeus will strike him with a thunderbolt

After Hymn 5: the future of Anchises

what happened to him?

• one night, he got drunk with his friends and told them he had sex with Aphrodite

• he immediately got struck with a thunderbolt, and instead of being killed entirely, Aphrodite felt pity and directed the bolt to his legs

From Aphrodite to ____

what are the differecnes?

From Aphrodite to Venus

• differences

  • Venus is the goddess of vegetation / spring

  • “mother Venus” while Aphrodite has nothing maternal about her

  • Venus has a political role among Romans because Julius Caesar said him and his family were descendants of Venus in order to gain power

After Hymn 5: the future of Anchises

who is their son, and what happens?

Aeneas

• escapes from Troy with Anchises

• travels from Troy to Italy

• he was the founder of the Roman people because he found a settlement that became Rome