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Aphrodite
Blessing:
Aphrodite gives to her worshippers the blessings of joy, passion, freedom, whimsy, and appreciation of beauty in all of its forms. She presides over all types of love - from the primal stirring of the loins to the noblest kind of patriotism and love of the Gods. The bonds of friendship and family and lovers are especially sacred to her. She brings together instead of tears apart, creates as opposed to destroys.
Epithets:
Aligena (Sea Born), Ambologera (She Who Postpones Old Age), Anaduomene (Rising from the Sea), Androphonos (Killer of Men), Anosia (Unholy), Apostrophia (She Who Turns Herself Away), Areia (of Ares), Basilis (Queen), Eleemon (Merciful), Enoplios (Bearing Weapons), Epipontia (On the Sea), Epitragidia (She Upon the Buck), Epitumbidia (She Upon the Graves), Euplois (Fair Sailing), Genetullis (Genetrix), Heteira (Courtesan), Kallipugos (of the Beautiful Buttocks), Kallisti (the Fairest), Khruse (Golden), Kupris (Cyprian), Kuprogenes (Cyprus-born), Kuthereia (Kytherean), Melainis (Black), Morpho (Shapely), Ourania (Heavenly), Pandemos (of All People), Pasiphaessa (the Far-Shining), Pelagia (of the Sea), Philomeides (Laughter-Loving), Porne (Fleshy; Prostitute), Skotia (Dark), Summakhia (Ally in War), Tumborukhos (Gravedigger)
Symbols:
seashell, roses, mirror
Animal(s):
dove, swan, sparrow, lynx
Sacrifices:
copper, emerald, turquoise, rose, myrtle, clover, benzoin, sandalwood, apple
Primary Cult Center(s):
Amathus, Cnidus, Corinth, Cyprus, Paphos
Festivals:
Adonia: (celebrated on different dates)
Aphrodisia: 5 Hekatombaion (July-August)
4th day of the month
Ways to honor:
The best way to honor Aphrodite is to love. If you are in a relationship, remember why you originally fell in love with that person. Then show them: seduce them all over again! If you're not, find someone to love. Or help other people to do so. Become a match-maker. Be flirtatious. Make your surroundings beautiful with perfumes, flowers, elegant fabrics, and exotic foods. Learn new sexual techniques. Write erotic stories or poetry, or take naughty pictures of yourself or a loved one. Support sex-workers. Promote safer sex practices.
For more information:
Apollodorus' Library 1.3.3, 1.4.4, 1.9.17, 3.4.2, 3.14.3-4, 3.549
Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica 2.25-155
Aristophanes' Lysistrata 392-398
Euripides' Hippolytus Herodotus' Histories 1.105, 1.131, 1.199, 3.8, 4.59, 4.67
Hesiod's Theogony 188-206, 975, 986-991
Homer's Iliad, 3.373-425, 5.311-430, 14.187-221, 21.416-433, 23.185-187
Homer's Odyssey, 4.259-264, 8.266-69, 20.67-78
Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 5, 6, 10
Hyginus' Fabulae 14-15, 40, 58, 92, 94, 147-148, 185
Hyginus' Poetica Astronomica 2.7, 2.16, 2.30, 2.43
Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.169-192, 4.285-388, 4.531-538, 5.331, 10.519-739, 10.639-707
Papyri Graeci Magicae 4.3209-3254, 4.1265-1274, 7.215-218
Pausanias' Description of Greece 1.3.1, 1.19.2, 2.4.6, 5.11.8, 7.23.2, 9.27.2, 10.26.1, 10.30.1-2
Pindar's Pythian Odes 4.213-219 and Fragments 122
Plato's Symposium
Plutarch's Roman Questions 2
Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite
Vergil's Aeneid
Vergil's Georgics 3.267-268
Xenophon's Symposium 8, 9
