Published in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture.
Edited by Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang. Mago Books. 2018.
In
1976, I travelled to Greece. I was a young feminist and had read Helen Diner's Mothers and Amazons and while in Greece
I read up on the Greek Myths. Travelling to Crete really turned my head and
upon returning to Australia I decided to learn Greek. Initially it was Modern
Greek but after a year of so I decided to learn Ancient Greek as my passion for
mythic stories exploded. In 1981, I wrote a 10,000 word thesis entitled 'Women
and Power: A Feminist Reading of the Homeric Hymns to Aphrodite and Demeter'.
This work has sat in my drawers for all these decades because at the time there
was nowhere to put out such a work. This essay comprises about half of the
original and I have altered it only slightly to improve it, but I have not
changed the argument in any major way. The original essay used untranslated
Greek and for the purpose of publication I use Thelma Sargent's The Homeric Hymns: A Verse Translation
published in 1975 as the source of the poetic text that I quote. It is an
analysis of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite and in it I argue that the hymn
demonstrates the historical shift of power that occurred from matrifocal
societies in which women – and goddesses as symbolic representations of women –
held more power than they did once patriarchy became firmly established.
The Hymn to Aphrodite is 293 lines
and is among the longer Homeric Hymns. While the name Homer prefaces these
hymns, none has been attributed to Homer rather they are named because the
style of the hymns resembles the Iliad and
Odyssey and the meter of the hymns is
dactylic hexameter. They are generally dated from the 7th or 8th century BCE
and several in the following centuries. This analysis focuses on the relation
of power between female and male characters (in the hymn).
The
pattern of the poem runs roughly as follows: Aphrodite[2]
starts as all-powerful. With the exception of three virgin goddesses, she has
power over all living creatures – immortals, mortals, animals – specifically
power of and consequently over life. Zeus causes her to ‘fall in love’. As a
result she goes down to Anchises[3]
and claims mortality. She tells him a fictitious story of being carried off by
a god (Hermes) (which is an indication of her powerlessness). We are told that
Anchises has power of death over animals. After lying with Anchises, Aphrodite
reveals herself as immortal. Anchises fears impotence, weakness/castration
(which indicates his fear of powerlessness). Anchises gains power through
association, via his descendants (a form of immortality) who will govern Troy
(an indication of his indirect power over mortals). Aphrodite is humiliated by
the association – she loses power especially in the immortal realm, but also,
as a woman, in relation to Anchises. She has to resort to threatening that Zeus
will punish him if he ever reveals to mortals the identity of Aeneas’ mother
(for then, presumably, she would lose her power over mortals too). So she must
rely on his good will and/or fear of punishment to retain that power. To be
thus beholden to any mortal is to be subject to him, and therefore to be
powerless in relation to him.
The single element concerned here is
power. Although it is not explicitly
stated, the notion of power is the single thread around which the other
elements of the hymns are woven. By grasping the significance of this relation,
many aspects previously missed move into the foreground – such as the
importance of the stories told by Aphrodite and Demeter in their mortal
disguises. In both instances they speak of abduction and the helplessness they
experienced as a result of this. This brings out the importance of the balance,
or rather imbalance, of power between females and males as the prime area of
conflict or difference expressed by the poem. To my knowledge this analysis has
not been attempted previously with this hymn.
By examining it symbolically I hope
to elucidate the ways in which poetry is able to carry hidden histories; and by
taking power as the central theme I hope to make clear the complex relationship
between the different realms in which the action takes place. The poetic
expression of these relationships makes this a difficult task since poetry is
concerned with the juxtaposition of otherwise unconnected phenomena. The hymn
works on several levels simultaneously and events do not always occur in the
logical sequence of everyday reality (as we normally perceive it). This
dislocation of reality is further accentuated by the divine nature of the main
characters in the hymns. Although the mortal/immortal distinction is important,
the primary symbolic relationship expressed is the relation between women and
men. Specifically it is the relation that is frequently fraught with conflict
and therefore the one most likely to be represented poetically. The poem is
concerned with the shift in the balance of power between the three major
characters, namely Aphrodite, Anchises and Zeus. The conflict expressed is that
of the female/male conflict, there is no conflict between mortals and immortals
outside of this.
Muse, speak to me of the deeds of the
Cyprian
Aphrodite the golden, who stirs up sweet
longing
In gods and subdues the tribes of mortal
mankind
And birds that fly in the air and all wild
beasts
Of the many kinds the dry land supports and
the sea.[5]
(11 1–5)
The
power she wields over all these forms is the power of desire and the forces
concerned with perpetuation of life. In lines 36–40 we are told how even Zeus
succumbs to her power:
Even Zeus who delights in loud thunder she
leads into folly–
He who is greatest and has for his share
the greatest of honors–
Even that wise heart she deceives at her
pleasure
And lightly mates him with women of mortal
mankind[6]
In
lines 69–74 we are shown the extent of her powers over wild beasts:
Gray wolves, fawning upon her, went with
her; fierce lions too,
And bears, and quick leopards, their hunger
for roe deer ever unsated.
Aphrodite rejoiced in her soul at the
sight,
And into the heart of each beast cast love
and desire,
And all, two by two, lay down together
among the dim shadows.
This
is a prelude to her meeting with Anchises and her over-powering him with
desire. However, her meeting with Anchises differs from the others because this
time she herself has been swept off her feet with desire for him. This occurs
because Zeus, in retribution, is showing the extent of his power. Hitherto
Aphrodite has had power over all the gods and had made them succumb to lying
with mortals. She herself had never being drawn to a mortal before. Zeus here
is beating her at her own game, showing Aphrodite that even in her own special
area he can overpower her. This is clearly a question of who has the power.
Zeus asserts his own supreme power at Aphrodite’s expense. It is not possible
for her to get away with having power over all the gods even in a single
area. It is possible that this is a
story that refers to Aphrodite’s introduction into the Olympian pantheon,
resulting in the taming or subduing of a once powerful goddess, and forcing her
to confine herself to a severe limitation on the exercise of her powers, and,
further, that she should be subject to the will of Zeus.
As proof that Aphrodite is
subordinate to Zeus at the end of the poem (11 284–90) is the fact that
Aphrodite threatens that should Anchises reveal the truth of Aeneas’ parentage,
then he, Anchises will be smitten with a bolt of lightning by Zeus.[9]
Nevertheless Aphrodite, the immortal, is unable to punish a mortal man. This
does of course relate to her functions, but it is also indicative of her
powerlessness as a female deity. Throughout the hymn Zeus encroaches more and
more into her domains and her power dwindles steadily in relation to him. This
is not so surprising given the hierarchical structure of Olympus with which we
are familiar. What is more surprising is that within the poem her power also
declines in relation to Anchises, a mortal man.
Earlier spread for the hero's repose with
soft coverings,
Over them thrown the skins of bears and
loud-roaring lions
Slain by Anchises himself in the towering
mountains (11 158–160)
Aphrodite
and Anchises wield power in similar realms. Aphrodite’s is more widespread
because she has power over immortals with regard to himeros or desire. Anchises can also
claim to have indirect power over some mortals but he is dependent upon
Aphrodite in this. Aphrodite tells him:
A son as dear, who will rule over the
Trojans
And from whom will descend a line of
children forever. (11 196–197)
Although
Anchises’ power over mortals is limited in the direct sense, he is assured that
Aeneas will have great power over many mortals. Through his son he achieves
considerable power and honour and even a kind of immortality. The immortality
is achieved in two ways – first of all via his descendants, (1 197) who will
found a new nation, and secondly through fame, as the father of Aeneas and
ironically as the subject of this hymn.[10]
The shift to counting descent through the male line is significant here and is
an indicator of the transition to patriarchy and male right from the previous
state of mother right and female descent.
But into the heart of Aphrodite herself
Zeus cast sweet longing to lie in love with
a man,
That not even she should escape the
marriage bed of a mortal,
Lest at some time Aphrodite, lover of
smiles,
Laughing sweetly in triumph, should boast
that among all the gods
She had joined gods together with women of
mortal mankind,
Who bore mortal sons to immortals, and
mated with goddesses men. (11 45–52)
This
is an example of attrahent power[11]
and results when one individual wants to be like or to be liked by another, or
in a stronger form, when an individual is devoted to, or loves another. Because
Aphrodite is so attracted to Anchises she allows herself to be led by him to
his bed.
he
took her hand, and the lover of smiles, Aphrodite,
Turning aside her face, her beautiful eyes
cast down,
Hesitant, followed him to the comfortable
bed. (11 155–157)
In
doing so she seems to be singularly unaware of the implications of her actions
and not until afterwards does she display any awareness of the shame she will
incur. Aphrodite has been led into this situation because she posed a threat to
Zeus’ authority, since she was able to fill him with the desire to lie with
mortals without desiring to do so herself. Zeus therefore decided to restore
his claims to authority.
Welcome, queen, whoever of the blessed you
are who come to this house– (1 92)
"I will build you an altar high on the
peak of the mountain
In view of the country around, and in all
seasons bring you rich offerings.
And be well disposed yourself toward me in
your heart.
Grant that I be a man high in honor among
the Trojans,
The father hereafter of vigorous children,
and for myself
Grant that I live long and well, seeing the
light of the sun,
Happy among my people, and prosperous, up
to the threshold of age." (11 100–106)
Aphrodite
disclaims her immortality and instead insists upon her mortality, even
providing herself with a genealogy, and a reason for speaking the Trojan
language, since she claims to have once had a Trojan nurse.
The use of
language in this section is particularly interesting in light of the power
theme. For instance at lines 117 and 121 respectively the words anērpaze ἀνήρπάζε and hapaze ἁρπάζε are used. The first part anēr is a word that means man, husband and mortal human being. The
second part both of which come from the verb
harpázō
means to snatch up, drag by force, treat with
violence and ravish, overpower,[12]
and from which the English word rape is derived.[13]
After having ‘snatched her away’ Hermes then led her (past tense of ἄγω) (1 122) over
the land to where Anchises lived. Hermes is described as having brought her
unyielding necessity. (1 130)
Aphrodite then goes on to entreat by
grasping or touching Anchises' knees – γουναζομαι[14]
– a form of supplication and suggests that Aphrodite is lowering herself and
pleading to be noticed(1 131).
Lead me, a virgin, untried in love, to your home. (1 133)
And a little later she is offering him gold and riches as a dowry, as a
counterpart to the offerings he promised her (11 101–2).
Then no one of the gods or of mortal
mankind
Shall stay me from lying with you this
moment in love– (11 149–151)
He
assumes his masculine right to claim her in such a way and does so.
But when he beheld Aphrodite's throat and
her beautiful eyes,
He shuddered with fear and, averting his
gaze, turned aside
And hid his own noble face in the folds of
his cloak (11 181–183)
At
this time Aphrodite holds the power position and Anchises fears the
consequences of his actions. He implores her, in Zeus’ name, not to make him live as a weakling amenēnos (αμενηνος) or as an impotent man; but he does not fear death.
Rose[15]
goes so far as to suggest that he fears castration. If this is so then Anchises
fears living as a powerless man, more than he fears death itself. Castration,
impotence, or weakness are all signs of powerlessness in men and are to be
avoided. Deborah Dickmann Boedecker suggests a different interpretation based
upon Aphrodite’s origin as a Dawn-goddess and her responsibility the passing of
time. What she suggests is that Anchises fears mortal aging. Aging is also a
sign of increasing physical weakness, and in the case of Tithonos, whose story
is told soon after this, outright senility, physical and mental.
A son as dear, who will rule over the
Trojans
And from whom will descend a line of
children to children forever (11 196–197)
and that the
Trojan race is nearest to the gods in physique – as is again shown by the
stories of Ganymedes and Tithonos.
The child shall be called Aeneas because of
my terrible shame
At having fallen into the bed of a mortal[16]
(11 198–199)
Aeneas,
for her, is the evidence of her fall into shame. She is immediately aware of
her humiliation and consequent loss of power through this act.
"But for me there will be great
disgrace among the undying gods
For all days forever and ever on your dear
account–
They who once feared my taunts and the
cunning with which I united
All gods at some time with women of mortal
descent,
Subduing them all to my purpose. Never
again
Will my tongue wield such power among the
immortals,
For I have gone sadly astray; shockingly,
blamelessly
Have I gone out of my mind and planted a
child
Under my girdle by going to bed with a
mortal." (11 247–255)
She
can no longer wield her power triumphantly over the gods, nor taunt them any
longer about their sexual relations with mortals. She calls it onomaston and apeplagchthein de noio (1 254) which indicate that she was not
herself and her mind led astray.
"If ever someone of mortal mankind
should inquire
What mother carried your dear son under her
girdle,
Remember well to tell him what I command
you:
Say that the boy was born of a flower-faced
nymph,
One of those who inhabit the forest clad
mountain.
If ever you blurt out the truth and
foolishly boast
Of having mingled in love with
bright-crowned Cytherea,
Zeus in his anger will smite you with a
smouldering bolt of swift lightning.
All this I tell you. See to it well in your
heart.
Curb your tongue, and never mention my
name.
And with awe and reverence fear the wrath
of the gods." (11 281–290)
Deborah
Dickmann Boedecker in connection with Aphrodite’s humiliation notes the use of
the epithet daughter of Zeus throughout the hymn.[17]
It is first used in line 81 when Aphrodite approaches Anchises. It was here a
“…
double function. It recalls her subordination to Zeus, who is humbling his
daughter through his love affair with a mortal, and it emphasizes her divine
nature in contrast to Anchises’ mortality.”[18]
It
is used again (11 107–111) when she is professing her mortality to Anchises.
When Aphrodite is reassuring Anchises that he has nothing to fear from the gods
– she is called daughter of Zeus.
“The
use of the epithet διοσ θυγατηρ [daughter of Zeus] in its synchronic
sense therefore reflects the process through Aphrodite, who originated as a
celestial figure in Indo-European tradition, became incorporated into the
Olympian family and subjected to her “father”, the Homeric Zeus.”[19]
If
Deborah Dickmann Boedecker is right about the origins of Aphrodite, and her
origins are Middle Eastern, then it would appear that Aphrodite, in her
assimilation into the Greek pantheon, suffered a considerable curtailment of
powers, and of areas over which she previously had sole control. Within Greek
tradition she became almost solely associated with love. The Homeric Hymn to
Aphrodite shows that even in her own domain in the Greek tradition – that of
love – she can be overpowered by Zeus.
This may be seen as a reflection of what occurs to women, in terms of
power in love relations with men. In her symbolic role as a woman there is a
significant decrease in power available to her – even in the area in which she
in particular, and women in general, are said to prevail. Love,[20]
as it is presented here, entails for a woman surrendering of herself. From a
position of power already considerably lower than that of a man (even in
relation between a goddess and a mortal man), her access to and exercise of
power is even further reduced. Love is an instance of attrahent and though it
need not be oppressive where power is equal, when, as in this case, the woman
abrogates what power she does have, in order to have a relationship with a man,
it is clearly being used as a means of controlling her. The entire framework of
the poem is concerned with the reduction of Aphrodite’s power and the
concomitant increase in power of the male characters. Zeus proves his
widespread control even over areas that are the particular domains of other
deities; Anchises emerges from the union with an assurance of control over some
mortals, and an increase in glory and fame as a result. Indeed, this is a key
example of the humiliation of a goddess as representative of the humiliations
of women that are to become normalised under patriarchy.
References
Atkinson,
Ti-Grace Amazon Odyssey, Links Books,
New York, 1974.
Baumeister,
Augusti, ed. Hymni Homerici, Aedibus
B.G. Teubneri, Lipsiae, 1888Boedecker, Deborah Dickmann Aphrodite’s Entry into Greek Epic. Mnemosyne Supplement 32, Brill,
Leiden, 1974.
Chantraine,
Pierre Dictionaire etymologique de la
langue grecque: Histoire de mots, Kincksiek, Paris, 1968.
de
Crespigny, Anthony “Power and Its Forms” in de Crespigny, Anthony and Alan
Wertheimer, eds. Contemporary Political
Philosophy, Nelson, London, 1970.
Firestone.
Shulamith The Dialectic of Sex – The Case
for Feminist Revolution.. Paladin, London, 1972.
Greer,
Germaine The Female Eunuch, Paladin, London,
1972.
Hesiod,
Theogony, West, M.L. ed. Clarendon
Press, Oxford, 1966.
Liddell
and Scott Greek–English Lexicon,
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1953.
Plato
The Symposium, Dover, Kenneth,
ed. Cambridge University Press. 1980.
Rose,
H.J. “Anchises and Aphrodite”, Classical
Quarterly, 18, 1924.
Sargent,
Thelma The Homeric Hymns: A verse
Translation. New York: WW Norton, 1975.
Dr Susan Hawthorne has a passion for
myth as history and ancient languages and has studied Greek, Sanskrit and
Latin. She is a poet and her collections Cow
(2011) and Lupa and Lamb (2014), and
her novels The Falling Woman (1992)
and Dark Matters (2017) draw on her
knowledge of languages and mythic history. She studied philosophy and contributed
'Diotima Speaks through the Body' to Engendering
Origins: Critical Feminist Essays in
Plato and Aristotle, Bat-Ami Bar On (1994) which challenges the idea that
Diotima is a fabrication. She is Adjunct Professor in the College
of Arts, Society, and Education, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
[1] I
would like to thank Miriam Robbins Dexter for reading this article and making
illuminating comments that have helped me to check the language and my conclusions
about the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite to which I came all those years ago.
[2] Aphrodite
is known as the Greek goddess of love, but her roots are far more ancient, as
will become clear throughout this essay.
[3] Anchises
is a son of the royal family of Troy and the father of Aeneas later credited
with the founding of Rome.
[4] Aphrodite’s power, as
explicated here are far wider than those implied by Hesiod in Theogony, 11 205–206. Hesiod's text
suggests that she is a frivolous girl full of whimsical smiles and deceptive
displays of love and desire.
[5] All translations from the
Greek are from Thelma Sargent, The
Homeric Hymns: A verse Translation. New York: WW Norton, 1975. The Greek text consulted is Hymni Homerici, ed. Baumeister, Augusti,
1888.
[6] While Thelma Sargent's translation has many
strengths, it still is of its time. In 1975, it was all right – indeed perhaps
mandatory in Classics – to use a word like 'mankind' rather than a more general
word like humanity or mortal form.
[7] Boedecker, Deborah
Dickmann Aphrodite’s Entry into Greek
Epic, 1974, Chapter 1.
[8] Chantraine, Pierre Dictionaire etymologique de la langue greque,
1968, Vol. 1, p. 148.
[9] This is an example of the
conflict based use of power by a male deity – and an example of coercive power.
Coercive power involves the use or the threat of use of force by one party. For
this to be effective s/he must have access to more forms of power, or at the
very least be believed to have access to more power; thus it may not be
necessary to actually exercise the power to gain compliance. This is obviously
believed to be the case when mortals are threatened by immortals.
[10] This is a typically Greek
form of immortality and is expounded by Socrates in The Symposium, 208c1–209e4.
[11] de Crespigny, Anthony “Power and Its Forms” in de Crespigny,
Anthony and Alan Wertheimer, eds. Contemporary
Political Philosophy, Nelson, London, 1970. p 50.
[12] Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon, 1953.
[14] In Near Eastern
poetry such as the Ugaritic, the “knees” are used as a euphemism for the genitals.
Thank you to Miriam Robbins Dexter for pointing this out to me.
[15] Rose, H.J. “Anchises and
Aphrodite” Classical Quarterly 18
(1924) pp. 11–16.
[16] She is deriving the name
Aeneas from – shame.
[17] It is also used by Homer and Hesiod, in which
Aphrodite is said to have floated to Greece from the Near East. See Hesiod, Theogony, l 173.
[18] op cit, Boedecker , p. 36.
[19] ibid. p. 37.
[20] For a much fuller analysis
of love from a feminist perspective see op cit, Atkinson “Radical Feminism and
Love” in Amazon Odyssey; Firestone The Dialect of Sex, ch. 6; and Greer The Female Eunuch.
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