Persephone And Aphrodite example essay topic

Aphrodite is one of the most famous figures of Greek mythology, because Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexual rapture. She was desired by nearly all of the Greek gods. Aphrodite was one of the twelve main gods on Mt. Olympus, and she was the most powerful goddess when it came to members of the opposite sex.

There are many origins to Aphrodite's birth. Some of them are: She arose full-grown out of the foam of the sea, She is the daughter of Zeus and Dionne, She is the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, which would make her a Titan ess, or She is the daughter of Titans Oceanus and Tethys, making her an Oceanid. (Dittos 34-35) "The most common origin of her birth is her being foam-born, which is what her name means" (Parin 45). This origin says that Aphrodite arose nude and full-grown out of the foam of the sea and riding into the shore of Cythera on a scallop shell.

She found Cythera to be too small of an island, so she went to live in Paphos, in Cyprus, which is still the principal seat of her worship. Although Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, she had a magic girdle that she wore that made everyone fall in love with her. She could hardly ever be persuaded to lend it to anyone. Since Aphrodite had the magic girdle and was so beautiful, all of the gods fell in love with her. All of the goddesses were jealous of Aphrodite because all of the gods loved her instead of the other goddesses. Because of this, Zeus arranged a marriage for her with Hephaestus, the lame smith-god.

Aphrodite, already regretting the trouble she had caused, took Adonis, and put him in a chest. She gave the chest to Persephone, asking her to hide it in a dark place. Persephone couldn't stand not knowing what was inside the chest, so she opened the chest and found Adonis. Persephone found Adonis to be a very cute baby, so she took hi into her own palace to raise him. Aphrodite did not find out about this until Adonis was a grown man.

When she did find out about this though, she immediately went to Persephone's palace to claim Adonis. Persephone would not give him back to Aphrodite though, because she had made him her lover. Persephone appealed to Zeus, but Zeus knew that Aphrodite wanted to have him as her own lover. He refused to settle this case and transferred it to a lower court. The court's verdict was that Persephone and Aphrodite should get equal claims to Adonis, since Aphrodite arranged his birth and Persephone rescued him from the chest. They also decided that Adonis should get some time to without these goddesses in his life, so they divided a year up into three equal parts: Four months with Persephone, Four months with Aphrodite Four months to be with whomever he wanted to be with.

Although this is what the court ruled, Aphrodite wore her magic girdle and persuaded Adonis to let her not only her time with him, and she persuaded him to let her have his time to himself to be with him. (Parin 36) Persephone did not agree with this at all. She went to Ares and told him how angry she was. Ares got jealous of Persephone's true love for Adonis, so he disguised him self as a wild boar and killed Adonis right in front of Aphrodite.

Aphrodite had two children. She had a son, Gol gas, who was the founder of the Cyprian Golgi. She also had a daughter, Be roe, who was the founder of Berea in Thrace. Some also say that, instead of Dionysus, Adonis was the father of her son Priapus. One day, high on Mount Olympus, a wedding was taking place. A sea goddess, Thetis, was marrying a mortal king.

All of Olympus was in attendance, except for Eris, who was not invited. Eris was furious at being excluded and decided to throw her golden apple at the place of the wedding. The golden apple of Eris, however, was not a golden apple of love, like those of other goddesses, but one of discord. A fight or argument always broke out when it was thrown at a group of people. The apple had the words 'For the fairest of all' printed on it, so naturally, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all wanted to claim it as their own. Zeus put an end to their quarrel by asking Hermes to bring them to the field of Paris, a Trojan shepherd who was the most handsome man in Greece.

He was asked to decide which of the three goddesses was the most beautiful. When he could not decide, the goddesses started to bribe Paris, so that he would decide in their favor. Hera offered him all of Asia as his kingdom, Athena the wisdom and strategy to defeat Greece, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful woman in world. Paris decided to award the golden apple to Aphrodite. The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen of Sparta (Sparta is in Greece).

But she had a husband! A man named Menalaus was married to her. But Aphrodite had to keep her promise, so she helped Paris to steal Helen. At this, Menalaus declared a great war against Troy. It lasted 10 years. Adonis was the son of King Cinyras and his daughter, Smyrna.

The king's wife made the mistake of comparing Smyrna's beauty to that of Aphrodite's. The Goddess of Love was enraged and caused the king to sleep with Smyrna. When Cinyras came to his senses and realized what he had done he tried to kill his daughter. Aphrodite turned her into a myrrh tree, and the king split the tree down the middle. From the split, Adonis was born, and Aphrodite whisked him away in a chest. She took him to Persephone to be taken care of.

As Adonis grew and became more handsome, it was apparent that Aphrodite would have a fight on her hands for Persephone did not want to return him. The Muse, Calliope, was sent by Zeus to decide the matter. She declared that Adonis would spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third of the year with Persephone, and the remaining third would be his alone. Aphrodite wasn't pleased at all with this ruling and continued to be extremely jealous of Adonis. This, of course, upset her lover, Ares.

He turned himself into a boar and killed the handsome young man. This made Aphrodite even madder because now Adonis would be spending the entire year in the underworld with Persephone. So Zeus finally settled the quarrel once and for all... Adonis spent half his year in Tartarus and the other half among the gods on Olympus. Galatea was the ivory creation of a brilliant artist named Pygmalion, who lived on Cyprus. He hated and abhorred women and promised himself that he would never get married.

Perhaps in trying to create a perfect woman, Pygmalion sculpted a work of art. The statue he created looked very much alive and he perfected it each and every day until there was nothing left to perfect. The statue was beautiful and Pygmalion fell in love with it. He began to realize how lonely he was when his kisses and caresses where not returned from the inanimate object.

He was terribly sad and tried to pretend very hard that his creation was alive. Aphrodite was very much impressed by this original and devoted love and decided to make Pygmalion's wish come true. At a festival honoring Aphrodite, Pygmalion asked the Goddess of Love if she might assist him in finding a maiden like his statue, but Aphrodite knew what he really wanted. She acknowledged his prayer by causing the altar flame to leap three times.

When Pygmalion returned to his home, he walked over to touch his statue and discovered that it was warm to the touch. So he kissed it, and its lips became soft. His creation was coming to life before his eyes! He joyfully thanked Aphrodite. She was present and their wedding, and Pygmalion and Galatea (what he named his statue) had two children, Paphos and Meth arme. According to most myths, the reason Hephaestus and Aphrodite were married is because Hephaestus asked Zeus for her as a reward for reconciling his parents.

Aphrodite didn't refuse. Some people think this marriage is appropriate because it is a union of inner and outer beauty. But many people do not agree because they have nothing in common -- her sensual beauty differs from his ugliness; her playful spirit contrasted with his steady, serious temperament; her unfaithfulness and irresponsibility, and his workmanship ethics. Although these two were so different, Hephaestus loved Aphrodite.

She didn't exactly feel the same way about him though. Instead, she had frequent affairs with many different Gods. In one particular affair that Aphrodite had with Ares, Hephaestus set up a trap that caught them while they were making love. Hephaestus summoned all the gods together, in hope that he makes Aphrodite the laughing stock of Olympus. His plan backfired on him though, actually revealing himself as someone who was attempting to retain the love and devotion from his wife. Aphrodite is a powerful and popular figure of Greek mythology.

She did many great, and maybe not so great, things during their lifetimes that are still remembered today. They were both main gods on Mt. Olympus. They may have not had many great times with each other according to myth, but they were still significant gods who had great lives.

Many people use both of these gods to relate to things today, and she will be remembered for years and years to come. Her characters in Greek mythology are very significant and they will not be forgotten anytime soon.

Bibliography

Hamilton, Earth. Mythology Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. New York: Penguin Group, 1969.
Ingri and Edgar Parin D'allure's. Book of Greek Myths. New York: Bantam Dowbleday Dell Publishing Group, 1962".
Pygmalion and Galatea". Hellenistic Network. web (6 April 2005) Bowman, Laurel.
Classical Myths: Aphrodite: Texts". The Ancient Sources. web (6 April 2005) Hamilton, Earth.