At Paphos, Kythera, Korinth, Athens, and many other places, Aphrodite was known as Ourania (Heavenly). For the Greeks, this most widely disseminated of her titles evoked the Hesiodic story of the goddess’ birth from the severed genitals of Ouranos, Father Sky. They also associated the title with Aphrodite’s putative Eastern origins, perhaps because Ishtar/Astarte was known as the “Queen of Heaven” and was likewise a daughter of the sky god. Aphrodite’s abode was the heavens, and artists visualized the goddess transported through the night sky, or descending from heaven on a ladder, an Egyptian and Near Eastern symbol of travel between heaven and earth.8 Much evidence for the cult of Ourania comes from Athens, and its observance there was attributed to the mythical King Aigeus. The goddess had a sanctuary in the city center near the Stoa Poikile with a statue attributed to Pheidias, and an altar excavated in the area was constructed around 500. In the vicinity of this altar lay a fragmentary, fifth-century votive relief of Aphrodite descending a ladder and later reliefs of the goddess riding on a goat, her favorite sacrificial animal. The iconography of Aphrodite on a goat must have been popular with Greek women, for it was often used to decorate bronze mirrors and jewelry. We find the goat and ladder motifs combined on votive reliefs from outside Attica, as well as on a silver medallion from a brothel in the Kera-meikos that shows the goddess riding through a starry sky accompanied by Hermes and Eros.9
The sanctuary of Aphrodite by the Ilissos river, situated in a suburban area known as the Gardens, has not been located and is known only from Pausanias’ description (1.19.2). Here was an image of Aphrodite Ourania in the shape of a herm, a squared-off pillar topped by a head. This shape was not unusual in the cult of Aphrodite, though it is primarily associated with Hermes or Dionysos. It may have been a sign of Aphrodite’s bisexual nature, for the gods portrayed in this way were highly phallic; or it may have been a reminder of the goddess’ aniconic image at Paphos. While the herm stood in the courtyard, the temple itself contained the best-known work of Pheidias’ pupil Alkamenes, “Aphrodite in the Gardens.” Pausanias called this much-admired statue “one of the most noteworthy sights in Athens,” but unfortunately failed to describe its appearance, leaving modern scholars to speculate based on minimal clues. A prevailing theory holds that two other Aphrodite sanctuaries in the Athens area are duplicates of the one on the Ilissos. Certainly the small sanctuaries at Daphni and on the north slope of the Akropolis are similar to one another, for both were bounded by stony hillsides with niches cut into the rock, both linked the worship of Eros with that of Aphrodite, and both received offerings of anatomical votives in the shape of male and female genitalia. These charming spots, surely filled with greenery in antiquity, correspond to the vase paintings of the Meidian school that show Aphrodite seated on a rock in a garden setting. Aphrodite’s connection with vegetation at these shrines recalls the sacred gardens of Near Eastern Astarte and Cypriot Aphrodite Ourania.10
Pheidias sculpted an Aphrodite Ourania for the Eleans, sponsors of the Olympic games. This work of ivory and gold showed Aphrodite standing with one foot resting on a tortoise, an animal associated with women in Greek folklore because it was always confined to its home.11 In the sanctuary at Elis, Pheidias’ Ourania was juxtaposed with a bronze statue of the goddess riding on a ram, by the fourth-century sculptor Skopas. This image was called Aphrodite Pandemos (of All the People), another widespread cult title of the goddess. Plato (Symp. 180d-181c) attempted to differentiate Ourania and Pandemos as two distinct goddesses, one the celestial deity of “Platonic love” and the other concerned with fleshly pleasures. There is no evidence, however, to suggest that this distinction reflects cult practices or assumptions. Ourania, as we will see, is by no means aloof from fleshly pleasures, while
Pandemos shares the iconography of the “celestial” goddess who travels through the sky.
The epithet Pandemos had to do with Aphrodite’s political function as a goddess who unites the citizens in harmony. An Athenian legend about Pandemos says that Theseus founded her worship with that of Peitho (Persuasion) after he united all the people of Attica into one city.12 Equally indispensable in matters of er()s and politics, Peitho was an important concept for the emergent Athenian democracy. It is probable that the cult was established around 500, and helped to promote sunousia, the fellowship of citizens. We hear of Athenian tetradistai, or men who gathered to feast in honor of Aphrodite Pandemos on the fourth of every month, a day sacred to both Aphrodite and Hermes.13 Remnants of the sanctuary have been excavated on the southwest slope of the Akropolis, including a small fourth-century temple with sculpted doves. A later Hellenistic inscription from the site shows that preparations for the state-sponsored festival (known as the Aphrodisia) involved the purification of the sanctuary with a dove sacrifice and the washing of the statues. The cult of Pandemos was an exception to the rule that Aphrodite’s worship tended to be less centralized and state-supervised than that of most other Olympian deities. At Erythrai in Ionia, an oracle solicited by the state toward the end of the fifth century advised that the citizens build a temple of Aphrodite Pandemos and supply it with a statue “for the preservation of the people.”14
Figure 9.1 Aphrodite with dove, votive bronze from Dodona (?), c. 450. Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
An analogue to the legend of Theseus’ establishment of the cult of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho is found at Thebes, where the city’s Phoenician founder, Kadmos, is said to have married Harmonia, the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. Thebans believed that Harmonia, whose name connotes the unity of the citizens, dedicated three ancient wooden statues of Aphrodite on the akropolis. These were named Ourania, Pandemos, and Apostrophia (Averter of Evils). According to Xenophon (Hell. 5.4.4), the three Theban civil and military officials known as polemarchoi always celebrated a festival of Aphrodite when their term of office was completed. Similar customs are attested for city officials in Megara, Ionia, and the Aegean islands through dedicatory inscriptions, the earliest of which belongs to fifth-century Keos.15 While the emphasis at Thebes is on Aphrodite’s partnership with the war god Ares, many of these dedications pair her with Hermes. In either case, the union of polar opposites (masculine and feminine or war and love) expresses metaphorically the concepts of civic concord and harmonious order.
World History
