Aphrodite Areia

Areia or Aphrodite Areia (Ancient Greek: Ἀρεία) or "Aphrodite the Warlike" was a cultic epithet of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, in which she was depicted in full armor like the god Ares. This representation of the goddess was the norm at Sparta.[1] The claim of the ancient historian Pausanias, that "Aphrodite Areia" was simply a female version of Ares has some support in the contemporary epigraphy, but modern scholars consider there to be little definitive evidence about the unique practices around, or attitudes toward, this version of the goddess.[2][3]

The Greeks regarded this interpretation of the goddess—a love goddess who was also an armored warrior—as somewhat strange and paradoxical.[4] However, there were other, similarly martial interpretations of the goddess, as at Cythera, where she was worshipped under the epithet Aphrodite Urania, who was also represented as being armed.[5][6]

As this cult of Aphrodite Urania was considered her oldest, it is believed that the martial depiction of the goddess belongs to her very earliest worship, and shows her descent from older, Eastern goddesses like the Sumerian Inanna, the Mesopotamian Ishtar, and the Phoenician Astarte.[7][8] She was also known by this name on the Areopagus, and at ancient Corinth.[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.17.5
  2. ↑ Cyrino, Monica S. (2012). Aphrodite. Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World. Routledge. pp. 51–52. ISBN 9781136615917. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  3. ↑ Budin, Stephanie L. (2010). "Aphrodite Enoplion". In Smith, Amy C.; Pickup, Sadie. Brill's Companion to Aphrodite. Brill's Companions in Classical Studies. Brill Publishers. pp. 85–86, 96, 100, 102–103, 112, 123, 125. ISBN 9789047444503. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  4. ↑ Cochrane, Ev (April 1998). "Aphrodite Urania". Aeon: A Journal of Myth, Science and Ancient History. 5 (2). ISSN 1066-5145. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  5. ↑ Graz, F. (1984). Eck, W., ed. "Women, War, and Warlike Divinities". Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik (55): 250.
  6. ↑ van der Toorn, Karel; Becking, Bob; van der Horst, Pieter Willem, eds. (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 66, 117. ISBN 9780802824912. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  7. ↑ Farnell, L. (1909). The Cults of the Greek States. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 653. ISBN 9780511710469. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  8. ↑ Iossif, Panagiotis; Lorber, Catharine (2007). "Laodikai and the Goddess Nikephoros". L'Antiquité Classique. 76: 77. ISSN 0770-2817. JSTOR 41665635.
  9. ↑ Fairbanks, Arthur (1910). A Handbook of Greek Religion. Greek series for colleges and schools. American book Company. pp. 68, 161. Retrieved 2017-12-01.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Leonhard Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Areia". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. p. 275.

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