Talk:Aphrodite/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Gallery

I think Hermaphroditus should be included in the gallery for more awareness & acceptance of hermaphrodites who are still victims in this day & age. I feel very strongly about the matter & I think this is a simple yet somewhat effective way as a step forward & greater understanding in our society. Please whoever is in charge consider this, thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.219.252 (talk) 01:16, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

There is a statue not included on this page that should be. The statue is of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros. You can find it here... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NAMA_Aphrodite_Pan_%26_Eros.jpg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.40.249.137 (talk) 20:57, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Children

Aphrodite's children are known as Eros, Phobos, Deimos, Harmonia, Pothos, Anteros, Himeros, Hermaphroditus, Rhodos, Eryx, Peitho, Eunomia, The Graces, Priapus, and Aeneas. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.227.206.190 (talk) 21:55, 1 January 2017 (UTC) The pages on the 3 graces indicate that Aphrodite is not their mother, yet they're listed here as children of her and Dionysus. Which is it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.111.173.153 (talk) 00:00, 12 February 2012 (UTC) Afrodite is the goodes of love and of the beauty. Sined ainhoa. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.120.12.61 (talk) 16:09, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Recent edit by IP

An IP recently sloppily inserted this text into the "Origin" section:

As the Greek goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite holds great power over both mortals and immortals. She was a Gorgeous, perfect, eternally young woman with a beautiful body. Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, and so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat.

It seems interesting enough to include within a format which is consistent with the article, yet I think a reference is required in conjunction with such an edit.--Abie the Fish Peddler (talk) 03:00, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Additional sections

Aphrodite in popular culture Aphrodite in the modern world Landmarks of Aphrodite (to include aphrodites rock and aphrodites baths etc ) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Polysophia (talk • contribs) 22:13, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Etymology

Aphrodite: Ap /Ab /Aba /Apa ="water", Abra = "river" , uwa ="place","temple","having to do with it", Dida/Dite = "Goddess" (in Luwian)

more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Luwian_language#Luwian_Gods_and_Goddesses

for Dite part of Aphrodite see also Titan (mythology) < Dida = "Goddess", -na = "place", "temple of" (in Luwian)Böri (talk) 10:44, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

a reference would be nice. --dab (𒁳) 18:26, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Michael Janda has published his theory about the Indo-european origin of the name as early as 2005 in his "Elysion. Entstehung und Entwicklung der griechischen Religion" (Innsbruck 2005, pp. 349-360). The meaning of Greek *déasthai seems to be "to shine", not "to seem". Also Janda uses and explains it as "to shine". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Malcolm77 (talk • contribs) 13:36, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

what about albanian: afer close, dita day, it fits: the star that is close to day. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.235.113.5 (talk) 20:00, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

Popular Culture

Warrants a section. Including Kyle myloe's new album Aphrodite. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Polysophia (talk • contribs)

I definitely think that Aphrodite warrants a popular culture section. Kylie Minogues album was called Aphrodite and the entire theme of it revolved around her. Also she has had a major impact on television. She was a major character in Hercules and Xena. She also appeared in both versions of Clash of the Titans and has made major appearances in the Percy Jackson novels just to name a FEW. Aphrodite is also mentioned in Katy Perrys song, Darkhorse where a line alludes to her;

"Make me your Aphrodite Make me your one and only But don’t make me your enemy, your enemy, your enemy"

And Aphrodite also had a very popular role in the videogame, God of War 3, where players had to have sex with her in order to win her favor. And she is also a playable character in Smite. Also in Tal Bachmans song, She's so High, there is a line alluding to APhrodite again;

‘Cause she’s so high High above me, she’s so lovely She’s so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, or Aphrodite She’s so high, high above me" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.40.249.80 (talk) 17:55, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

APhrodite also has a great presence in both Marvel and DC comics. In Marvel comics she debuted in 1948 and has been a consistent character since. Last appearing in the marvel comics in 2011. In DC comics she first appeared in 1941 and became a major character in the Wonder Woman comics as the patron Goddess of the Amazon Island, Paradise Island. Following the DC comics reboot she also got a new adaptation and continues to appear. Both of her DC and Marvel versions are based on the Mythological Aphrodite.

There is also a comic published by the 'Top Cow' imprint of 'Image Comics' which debuted in 1996. This comic is called Aphrodite IX. And follows a female cyborg called Aphrodite. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.40.249.80 (talk) 19:13, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

THE GREAT POWERS OF APHRODITE

Hey guys, Does anybody have any idea what Aphrodite's powers were? The question I'm asking is did she have any at all?? Write comments to help me in my reasearch please?? From nellie66 Nellie 66 (talk) 09:40, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Deities are not superheroes or pokemons. It may help to start by researching the general context of Ancient Greek religion and polytheism. --dab (𒁳) 08:06, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Although gods and godesses are not generally viewed to have "powers" per say, I've heard in many cases that Aphrodite was able to make any man or woman fall in love, and could persue many men (although not all) to do her bidding on account of her beauty. I completely forget where I read that, so it's sort of an unreliable statement. MelancholyPanda (talk) 23:58, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Changes under "Cult"

I made small changes and removed the following clause about sacred prostitution: "and can be considered a foreign import". Since we're told it was practised in Phoenicia, Cyprus, Greece and Sicily, I don't understand from what foreign country it is to be considered an import, or what non-foreign country is to be considered its destination. If the clause is to go back in, perhaps it should be clarified and referenced.

I also changed "sacred servant" to "sacred slave": the dictionary meaning of doule is "(female) slave". Andrew Dalby 19:12, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

I think that Aphrodite the power to make any men fall in love with her — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.6.144.162 (talk) 13:46, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

"Janda" Etymology

Under the section "Name", it references someone named "Janda", who wrote in 2010 that "Aphrodite" may be from "aphros" ("foam") and "deato" ("to shine"). Unfamiliar with the second word, I looked it up in my Pocket Oxford Classical Greek Dictionary (2002). This was the entry, word for word.

δέαται he seems

•δέατο he seemed

Now, knowing from my Oxford Grammar Of Classical Greek (2001) that -αται is the third person singular present middle indicative ending of -αω and -ημι verbs whose middle infinitives are -ασθαι (compare τιμάται and ‘ίσταται, third person singular present middle indicative forms of τιμάω, "I honor" (middle infinitive τιμάσθαι), and ‘ίστημι, "I stand up" (middle infinitive ‘ίστασθαι), respectively), and that -ατο is the third person singular imperfect middle indicative ending of that same group of verbs (compare τιμάτο and ‘ίστατο), but also knowing that, at least according to the Pocket Oxford Classical Greek Dictionary, this word only has third person middle indicative forms, and only in the present and imperfect, and also knowing that, were *δεα- an -αω verb like τιμάω, as opposed to an -ημι word like ‘ίστημι, it would have the accent on the Α ("*δεάται" and "*δεάτο"), not on the Ε ("δέαται" and "δέατο"), I propose the theoretical present middle infinitive "*δέασθαι", and the theoretical first person singular present middle indicative "*δέαμαι".

Because "deato", the word listed in this article and quoted from the Janda source, is obviously the third person singular imperfect form of the word, I suggest that it be replaced, in the article, with a more appropriate form of the verb.

The article currently reads as follows.

According to this interpretation, the name is from aphros "foam" and deato "to shine", meaning "she who shines from the foam [ocean]", a byname of the dawn goddess (Eos).

I suggest that it be rewritten as follows.

According to this interpretation, the name is from aphrós "foam" and déatai "[she] seems" or "shines" (infinitive form *déasthai), meaning "she who shines from the foam [ocean]", a byname of the dawn goddess (Eos).

I notice that the page is semi-protected. I will make this edit myself, but if my edit is reverted, I would like the reason why posted here. Thank you. Lionboy-Renae (talk) 21:27, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Before going to all that work, wouldn't it have made sense to look up the piece by Dr. Janda and see if that's the way he explained it? 70.107.238.239 (talk) 21:36, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Misconceptions

Aphrodite is NOT the goddess of love. This is a common misconception today that has been accepted as fact because of its common occurance in literature and texts. In ancient Greek mythology she is the goddess of sex, desire and lust. Her son Cupid is the god of love. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Satsugi (talk • contribs) 18:41, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia is based on facts, not opinion. There are in fact some cases that claim Aphrodite is NOT the goddess of love, yet there are other cases that confirm she was. It is opional to say which case is true, and therefore cannot be cited. MelancholyPanda (talk) 23:59, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Edit request from Skitterz, 4 February 2011

{{edit semi-protected}} I would like to edit this because there is an error in the article.

Skitterz (talk) 21:29, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. Salvio ^{Let's talk about it!} 01:26, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

What's wrong with it? MelancholyPanda (talk) 00:00, 21 April 2011 (UTC)

Questions and comments

1. "Each goddess demanded a slightly different cult but Greeks recognized in their overall similarities the one Aphrodite."

The end of this sentence is weird.

2. "In other tales, Aphrodite was a daughter of Thalassa and Zeus."

Who wrote these tales?

3. "In another version of this story, Hera, Hephaestus' mother, had cast him off Olympus"

What version is it and who wrote it?

4. "Another version of this myth tells that the women of the village where Pygmalion lived grew angry that he had not married."

Who wrote this version?

5. "In one Greek myth, Aphrodite placed the curse of snakes for hair and the stone-gaze upon Medusa and her sisters."

A source is needed for this.

6. "Other comparanda[by whom?] are Armenian Astghikand Etruscan Turan."

Should the two be divided by an "and"?

7. I placed the section about comparative mythology after mythology because the sequence is much more logic and appropriate.

ICE77 (talk) 05:56, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

The Two Aphrodites

The existence of two Aphrodites -- the Uranian and the Pandemonic -- (mentioned at the end of the opening paragraph of the main article) is reliably proved by Plato, Symposium, at pages 180c-181a in the Stephanus pagination, where this fact is discussed in significant detail by the famous Phaedrus, whose authority on the subject cannot be much doubted. More is said about Aphrodite throughout the Symposium, notably (since it seems there is some modern debate) that in her higher form her primary form of presencing (perousia) is the emotion of love, and her lower form is sexual passion or lust. Along with the Symposium, the best authority on Aphrodite is Hesiod, who can hardly be questioned since he is the one invariably cited by the most prominent of ancient Greece's other thinkers and poets. Paul Leland Ness, B.A., J.D. (talk) 03:55, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Identification with Al-lāt

Under "Ancient Near Eastern parallels" (an altogether confused section, by the way), the text says that "Aphrodite was equated by the Greeks with...the Arabian Alilat." I'm no expert on this, but I notice that the wikipedia entry on Al-lāt says that Herodotus identified the Arbaian goddess with Aprhrodite, but that she was also identified with the Babylonian/Assyrian Ereshkigal and the Carthagenian Allatu, neither of whom were identified with Aphrodite. That entry further says that the Arabian Al-lāt was identified with the Greek Athena and Tyche and the Roman Minerva - again not associated with Aprhrodite.

I realize that it is technically correct that one Greek source identified Aprhodite with Al-lāt (and I do know more than a bit about Herodotus, who is far from infallible with details) and that ancient synchronization was not that tidy or unanimous, but it seems to me the sweeping way this is treated in the text of this entry is quite misleading and potentially confusing to users. (Especially since it has no citation to back it up.)TheCormac (talk) 23:25, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 25 May 2012

Please, remove "She also was a slut who got shafted by zeus every weekend then raped Dory the fish from Finding Nemo to relieve her sexual anger. Michael Massie attempted to have sex with her pet goat but he did not succeed." in the first paragraph. Probably some kind of joke. Thank you.

92.231.40.80 (talk) 10:30, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

 Fixed Vandalism reverted by User:Modernist. Dru of Id (talk) 11:59, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Other Tales

As most of you read from Wikipedia: Aphrodite cursed Medusa and her sisters. Well what you read might/probably be WRONG. I read in a book that said Athena (goddess of war,wisdom,etc.)was the goddess that cursed Medusa and her sisters.Medusa was the only one out of all her sisters that was mortal. The other two were immortals.All three of the sisters had beautiful hair (with volume);Athena was jealous of their gorgeous hair. So,she turned there hair to snakes and well turned them into gorgons.But Athena made Medusa the only one who turned anybody/anything into stone the moment she looked at them.So,as I told you Athena was the one who put the curse on Medusa and her sisters.................not Aphrodite.(69.121.30.125 (talk) 17:55, 17 June 2012 (UTC))

Yes, I agree. Could anybody give a source for this Medusa tale? Otherwise it should be removed. Michael! (talk) 21:13, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

"The day is near"

Curious to know what the point of having "afron dite" in the eytmology section? AFAIK, Albanian has always called the morning star/the planet venus "Venusin". This is a very modern calque on the term and potentially erroneously suggested to be etymologically linked? Can someone remove it - it hasn't got a purporse. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.230.4.109 (talk) 04:51, 24 August 2012 (UTC)

Good point. This isn't etymology, and was added without discussion and without a reference, so I have removed it. Andrew Dalby 08:47, 24 August 2012 (UTC)

Folk etymology

I added a citation need tag against "folk etymology". OK, it could have been argued that Aphrodite's name results from folk etymology, but this is a technical term that's often misused and I think it may have been misused here. Better to have a citation. Andrew Dalby 08:47, 24 August 2012 (UTC)

I'm just curious, why do you think it may have been misused here? I thought Aphrodite's name was considered one of the classic examples of folk-etymological alteration. (But I agree that a citation might be helpful.) 70.107.238.239 (talk) 21:19, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

I agree, the connection with foam could well be folk etymology. To be honest, I can't now remember why I thought the term was misused here, except that it often is. I didn't remove this statement, but I noticed that it was uncited (at the time I was removing another more speculative claim, see above). That's why I asked for a citation; it was removed long afterwards by another editor. If anyone wants to add it back (with a reference) feel free to do so as far as I'm concerned :) Andrew Dalby 10:16, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 18 October 2012

Other Tales

In one Greek myth, Aphrodite will gave to the most beautiful women a symbol of the beauty and the power what it .represents it was a bracelet of tourmaline with a few flowers with white and black, the dead and the life

Source from a " encyclopedia of the mythological jewelry " it's a curious date which i like to will add to this page ^^ Writereaderofnight (talk) 01:03, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. I'd like to see a link to a reliable source if possible. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 05:37, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

Wording problem

Under "Other tales" in the Mythology section, it says: "Glaucus of Corinth angered Aphrodite and she made her horses angry during the funeral games of King Pelias. They tore him apart." I don't know if this is a faulty translation from another language, but it clearly should be about his horses (the horses of Glaucus), not her horses (the horses of Aphrodite?), and considering that this is a Greek myth it probably should say that she drove them mad (that is, insane), not that she made them angry. A horse doesn't tear its human apart out of mere anger. A good source reference would probably be an improvement too, but I no longer understand Wikipedia's rules on those, so I can't provide one. 70.107.238.239 (talk) 20:40, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Well, you're certainly right (I checked in that handy source, Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, 155.i) and I suspect you're also right that faulty translation is to blame here. You're right a third time: Wikipedian practice will no longer allow you to add an unreliable source (e.g. Graves) while someone finds a better one. I'll try making the change and adding the primary source: it's hardly controversial.

I did that. It would be better to find a source that links Aphrodite with Glaucus's little mishap, which Graves does but Hyginus and Pausanias don't. Can you help there? Andrew Dalby 10:50, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll have to see what I can find out from home. (I shouldn't be doing this at work anyway.) 70.107.238.239 (talk) 20:07, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Okay, it seems the event is first associated with the goddess in Virgil's Georgics, book 3, line 268, but her potential reasons for driving the mares mad are only given in a scholion by someone named Servius. This is according to Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1993), page 175. Does that help? 173.52.254.159 (talk) 22:03, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Mythology

In my opinion, the Mythology section should be reordered to:

• Birth
• Adulthood
• Adonis (which is by far the most important myth concerning Aphrodite)
• Pygmalion (and Galatea)
• The Judgement of Paris
• Amor and Psyche (actually a Neo-Platonic myth)
• Other myths (no tales!)
• Consorts and children (maybe this subsection could even be removed from here)
• Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos (It should be placed in a new section. It isn't a myth, but part of Plato's philosophy. Plato used mythology to fit his own needs.)

Michael! (talk) 21:25, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Deleted section on Cupid and Psyche

I deleted the entire section on Cupid and Psyche. Although the tale has Greek antecedents that are indicated mainly in art, it's unclear what role Aphrodite played in the Greek tradition. The tale is from a Latin novel of the 2nd century AD, and the male protagonist is named as Cupid, not Eros; the goddess is named as Venus. We don't know enough about what Apuleius received and what he invented to assert that this is such a major myth of Aphrodite that it should be recounted at great length in this article—especially since there's no summary at all of the wonderful Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, which is actually about Aphrodite, and highly informative regarding her nature. Even if one were persuaded that Cupid and Psyche should be included, it was given undue weight: two or three sentences could sum up Venus's role. The section had no footnotes at all, and really, what information about Aphrodite do we lose if we omit it? Cynwolfe (talk) 19:36, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Also deleted the Pygmalion section. See [1]. Little is known about the Greek antecedents that would be revealing of Aphrodite; the tradition pertains mainly to the literary development of the character of Venus. Because we don't have enough from Greek sources to know what this myth may have meant in regard to Aphrodite, there's no reason to include the tale at length. Both these tales could go in a short section that simply notes stories that developed about Venus in Latin literature that came from now-obscure Greek antecedents. Most important, secondary sources are needed. (Incidentally, Ovid doesn't name Galatea in his version.) Cynwolfe (talk) 19:48, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Couching heels

Hestia mayn't be her opponent.