From Ishtar to Aphrodite

Author(s): Miroslav Marcovich

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 30, No. 2, Special Issue: Distinguished Humanities
Lectures II (Summer, 1996), pp. 43-59
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3333191 .
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FromIshtarto Aphrodite

MIROSLAV MARCOVICH

Everyoneknows thatAphroditewas the Greekgoddess of femininebeauty,

sex-appeal,and love. She was that alreadyin Homer'sIliad,while in the Od-
ysseyher name stands simply for "sexual love." And in 458 B.C. the play-
wright Aeschylus employed the name of Aphrodite to denote "beauty,
charm,and grace"(Agamemnon 419).
We also know that the goddess of beauty and love was born as a perfect
adult female. She simply emerged from the white foam of the deep blue
Aegean Sea. For we can witness the act of her birth from the sea in the
fascinating "LudovisiThrone"in the National Museum of Rome (Lexicon
Iconographicum MythologiaeClassicae,lhereafterLIMC,1170).This bas-relief
dates from 470 to 460 B.C.and probablycomes from Aphrodite'stemple at
Locri,South Italy.Two elegant Gracesare attendingtheir mistress,helping
her to come out safely onto the beach. In accordancewith the ladies' custom
of the time, the goddess emerges from the sea already dressed-or sort of.
Wateris pouring down over the goddess's elaboratehair-styleand fine un-
derclothing. But the point is that her countenance unmistakably reflects
the pride of a woman fully aware of her enticing charms.
Only one generationlater (around430 B.C.)at Athens the great Phidias
sculpted an AphroditeAnadyomene ("Venusrising from the sea"). The copy
from the Vatican (LIMC667) has the goddess drying her long hair that is
wet with seawater.And in the gorgeous Anadyomene from Alexandria(now
at Dresden;LIMC439) the birthof the goddess from the sea is indicatedby
the presence of a sea-Triton.Finally, in his famous Birth of Venus from

MiroslavMarcovichis ProfessorEmeritusof Classics at the University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign. He is the authorof twenty-five scholarlybooks and over three
hundred articles,the most recent among the formerbeing DiogenisLaertiiVitarum
philosophorum libri X, IustiniMartyrisDialoguscum Tryphone,ClementisAlexandrini
Protrepticus,TheophiliAntiocheniAd AutolycumlibriIII,and TatianiOratioad Graecos.
ProfessorMarcovichwas the founding editor (1976-92)of IllinoisClassicalStudies.
This article was originally presented, with numerous slides, as the 1987 Distin-
guished HumanitiesLecture.
JournalofAestheticEducation,
Vol. 30, No. 2, Summer1996
?1996 Boardof Trusteesof the Universityof Illinois

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44 Miroslav Marcovich

around 1480 (in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence), Sandro Botticelli painted the
goddess as rising from a seashell, a rendering that was probably inspired by
similar Greek terra-cottas, an example of which is one from Basel (LIMC
1184).
So convinced were both the ancient Greeks and modem scholars that
Aphrodite was born from the Aegean Sea that the Viennese linguist Paul
Kretschmer explained even the name Aphrodite as a Greek compound
meaning "the one walking on the sea foam" (from aphrosand hodites).
No other Greek goddess was sculpted so frequently as Aphrodite dis-
playing her consummate beauty. Beginning with the year 435 B.C. at Ath-
ens, the goddess is met either as fully clothed (as in the statue by
Agoracritus, ca. 430 B.C., from Villa Doria Pamphili at Rome; LIMC 157); or
as half-clothed (as in the famous statue by Callimachus, ca. 420 B.C., at Ath-
ens, represented by the Venus from Frejus, actually from Naples and now
at the Louvre; LIMC 225). Probably under the influence of the Amazons by
Phidias and Polyclitus (ca. 440 B.C.), the goddess is represented with one
breast exposed. And she is holding an apple. (Greek girls would pelt a
prospective groom with apples.)
During the 4th century B.C. Praxiteles sculpted at least two famous
Aphrodites, one half-naked (as in a Roman copy from Aries, now in the
Louvre), the other nude. The latter was the most famous statue of the god-
dess in antiquity and was commissioned by the city of Cnidus between 364
and 361 B.C. Praxiteles's Cnidian Aphrodite was a perfectfigure ronde.One
of her attributes is a certain shyness (as can be seen in the best extant copy,
the Venus Colonna, at the Vatican; LIMC 391), which explains her name Ve-
nus pudica ("The bashful or shamefaced Aphrodite"). It will become evi-
dent, however, that Praxiteles did not invent the Venus pudica type; it had a
long history.
Unlike the Cnidian Venus pudica, the Hellenistic Aphrodite was not so
shy, as the type of the so-called "exhibitionist Venus" may show. Examples
of it are two Hellenistic beauties, one from Cyrene (LIMC455) and the other
from the Esquiline (LIMC 500), both from the first century B.C. and both
now at Rome. One can see that they are fully aware of their charms, and one
can understand why in antiquity Aphrodite was sometimes called callipygos
("with a beautiful derriere"). So faultless was Aphrodite's body that
Momus, the Greek god of reproach, having merely glanced at her perfect
measurements and divine face, dropped dead on the spot from envy. Re-
portedly this tragic event had taken place on the island of Melos (or Milo),
somewhere between 150 and 50 B.C. The goddess (LIMC 643) then moved
from Milo to the Louvre, where she now resides.
But if the gorgeousness, voluptuousness, and sensuousness of the body
of the Greek goddess of love have been established as scholarly facts, what
else can be said about it? No learned discourse is needed for the realization

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 From Ishtar to Aphrodite 45

that the goddess's face is self-evidently sheer seduction, as attested by two

marble heads from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The "Bartlett Head"
(LIMC 1061) comes from Athens, the other from Chios, and both are from
ca. 300 B.C. The coiffure of the Bartlett Venus is overtly coquettish, her lips
definitely provocative; lastly, her slightly inclined head, her sensual eyes-
the expression of the entire countenance-are sending one unmistakable
message: love.

II

The purpose of this discussion, however, is to demonstrate-pace

Kretschmer-that Aphrodite was not a Greek native but an immigrant from
Lebanon and Syria. She was not born from the blue Aegean Sea but instead
crossed that sea on her way from Phoenicia to Greece. The immigrant god-
dess crossed the sea riding either on a seashell (LIMC 1188) or on a ram
(LIMC972), as a decent and graceful Morning Star (Phosphoros)is supposed
to do (of course, her veil and her ram have definite astral connotations).
As far back as ca. 3000 B.C. there existed in the Mesopotamian cities of
Uruk and Babylon a mighty Sumerian goddess called Inanna. She had many
lovers, but the one she loved most was the mortal shepherd called Dumuzi.
Unfortunately, Dumuzi died young. However, since ca. 2400 B.C. the
Accadian name of this goddess is Esh-tar, and the Old Babylonian name
Ishtar. Both names seem to go back to a common form, CAttar,if Assyriol-
ogist C. Wilcke is to be believed.2 The name of Ishtar's mortal lover is now
Tammuz,which is only another form of the Sumerian Dumuzi.
As it happened, during the second millennium B.C. the cult of the
mighty goddess Ishtar spread rapidly throughout the Middle East-from
Mesopotamia to Canaan, Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia, and Arabia. The name
of the goddess appears as Atar-Gatis in Hierapolis (Bambyke) and as Ashtar
in Arabia. She is particularly well represented in Canaan-a fact of impor-
tance for Israel-as Ashtar(t), Ashtoret, Ashtaroth, and Astarte. As for her
mortal lover, his name is sometimes Tammuz, sometimes Atunis or Adonis.
Adonis is not a proper name but an invocation, meaning in the West-Semitic
"Oh, my Lord" (Adoni). Sometimes even Ishtar-Ashtar would change her
name. Thus in the city of Byblos she was called Baalat-Gebal("The Lady or
Mistress of Byblos"). In Arabia her name was either Allat or Al-CUzza
(meaning "The very Powerful One," "The Mighty Goddess," han-CUzzay).
In the Phoenician colony Carthage her name was Tanit, and in Etruria,
Turan, perhaps meaning "My Lady," as does the name A-fo-ro-di-taWdnassa
on Cyprus. (This Ertrurian Turan may live on in the English word tyrant.) In
Greece, however, the name of the goddess is Aphrodite, definitely a non-
Greek word (perhaps deriving from Habrodita,"The Lady of Habrod"). Fi-
nally, in Rome the goddess was called Venus, originally a word of neuter

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46 Miroslav Marcovich

gender and an abstraction as well, meaning "beauty, grace, charm" (Sanskrit

vdnas).
The center of the cult of Aphrodite was the island of Cyprus, with three
sanctuaries: at Cition, Amathus, and especially Paphos. Since the 8th cen-
tury B.C., the name of the goddess is also Cypris and Paphia ("The Cyprian
or Paphian Goddess"). The lady Ashtar reached Cyprus from the Near East
somewhere around 1200 B.C. during the Achaean colonization of the is-
land. From Cyprus the goddess of love easily conquered the hearts of the
Greek cities of Asia Minor, the islands (especially Cythera), continental
Greece, and finally Graecia Magna (Southern Italy). She arrived in Rome
from Eryx on Sicily, not from Etruria.
In brief, the purpose here is to demonstrate that the real mother of
Aphrodite was the Near Eastern goddess Ashtar-as she may be met, for
example, in a terra-cotta from Amathus, now at Copenhagen (late 7th cen-
tury B.C.; LIMC 364). In this example, the hair-style and the rich jewelry
identify the lady as Ashtar. She is holding her left breast with her left hand,
while her right hand is on her stomach, thus indicating her to be a Venus
pudica long before Praxiteles.
But a closer look must now be taken at the grandmother of Aphrodite,
the Sumerian Inanna, the Accadian Ishtar. She was a powerful goddess of
carnal love and fertility since the early third millennium B.C. However,
since war was the main occupation of every able Assyrian king and since
Ishtar was his divine wife, it follows that the queen felt it her marital duty
to become a war goddess as well. She accompanied her royal husband on
his military expeditions to insure victory to his countless conquests. In a
third function Ishtar is also the "queen of heaven," as, for example, the
prophet Jeremiah put it (7:18 and 44:17-19). That means that Ishtar was
identified with the planet Venus. In sum, Ishtar was the goddess of love,
war, and heaven.
In three bas-reliefs dating from the 10th, 9th, and 8th century B.C., re-
spectively,3 we find Ishtar in full panoply as a goddess of war, dragging de-
feated enemy soldiers into slavery. But at the same time the star and the
nimbus (halo) around the goddess show that she is also the queen of heaven,
the planet Venus. Hence also her Oriental heavenly crown, called polos. She
has just descended from heaven to assist the Babylonian army in winning
the battle. The epiphany of the goddess is indicated by her standing on an
animal (here, a lion). And the graceful "queen of heaven" extends a friendly
greeting to her host with her right hand. So much for war and heaven. But
Ishtar also appears as the goddess of love, and this is indicated by the
elaborate styling of her hair, her rich jewelry, and her fine clothing.
Even when Ishtar-Ashtar is totally nude she will display her heavenly
polos crown and beautiful long hair-as, for instance, in an endearing ivory
statuette of the goddess, contemporary with Homer (late 8th century B.C.),
from the Dipylon cemetery in Athens (LIMC354).

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 From Ishtar to Aphrodite 47

III

The Greek Aphrodite will now be shown in her three aspects, as "the queen
of heaven," as a war goddess, and as a goddess of love.
1. Like her grandmother Ishtar, Aphrodite has the epithet "Heavenly,"
Urania. Why? In his Theogony (154-206), the poet Hesiod reports how the
god Cronus, the son of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth), had separated his
parents while they were lying together. He simply severed his father's
membrumvirile with a sickle, thus achieving two things at once. First, fol-
lowing the Babylonian, Hittite, and Hurrian myths of creation (and particu-
larly the example of the Hurrian god Kumarbi),Cronus separated Heaven
(the Babylonian Anu) from the Mother Earth. Second, by cutting off his
father's genitals, thus making him a eunuch, young Cronus virtually de-
throned his father to become himself the one and only ruler of the universe.
As is known, no part of a god's body is allowed to be wasted. Conse-
quently, Uranus' penis, cut off by his ambitious son, fell down into the
Mediterranean Sea. A white foam emerged from the divine organ, and
Aphrodite was formed out of this foam. As Hesiod reports it, this miracle
had taken place near the islands of Cythera and Cyprus (the well-known
centers of the cult of Aphrodite, the Cythereia and the Cypris).
This Near-Eastern myth told by Hesiod makes clear three things. First,
Aphrodite was not born out of the white foam of the Aegean Sea but rather
from the white sperm of Uranus (such is the basic sense of the Greek word
aphros). Second, Aphrodite's real father was not Zeus but Uranus-Heaven,
just as Anu-Heaven was the father of Ishtar. And Aphrodite has the epithet
Urania, "Heavenly," simply because she is the daughter of Uranus-Heaven.
Third, being born from Heaven, Aphrodite plays the role of a physicalforce
in living nature. She appears as the basic drive of physical attraction, affec-
tion, and sexual love in nature. In Hesiod, this role of Venus Physica is con-
firmed by the function of her attendant Eros. In Greek the word eros means
"love desire" and stands for the elementary instinct of sexual love and pro-
creation in nature. In addition, the goddess appears as the natural force of
love and generation also in the Fifth Homeric Hymn (lines 1-6 and 69-74),
later in early Greek philosophical speculation (notably in Parmenides and
Empedocles), and finally in the Latin poet Lucretius (first century B.C.). In
the Stoicizing proem to his philosophical poem, Lucretius invokes Venus
Physica as the life-giving power creating all things, as the goddess of cre-
ation through whom all living beings in the sky, in the sea, and on earth are
brought to life-thanks to her everlasting impulse of love.
In brief, the Stoic perception of Physis, Natura Naturans, as "Mother Na-
ture," has been greatly influenced by the archaic religious image of
Aphrodite as Venus Physica, the creative power in animate nature, so much
so that Lucretius found it possible to call Venus the sole queen of nature
(1:21: rerum naturamsola gubernas). As such, Venus is a synonym for Mother

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48 Miroslav Marcovich

Nature, the Creatress (rerumnatura creatrix;the expression is repeated three

times in the poem: 1.629; 2.1117; 5.1362).
Of course, as the "queen of heaven," as the planet Venus, as the Morning
Star and the Evening Star full of grace (Phosphorosand Hesperos), Ishtar-
Ashtar-Aphrodite is also in charge of the sea. She dispels the stormy clouds
and calms the waters. And she is the patroness of sailors in their adventures
across the seven seas. That is why Aphrodite is also called Pontia, Euploia,
and Limenia("the Lady of fair sailing and safe port").
The early Christian Virgin Mary inherited from Aphrodite the functions
of queen of heaven (Reginacaeli),the Morning Star full of grace (Virgo caelestis
gratia plena), and the Lady of the Sea (Venus marina),the patroness of sailors,
as well. I shall later return to the influence of Aphrodite on the Virgin Mary
but will merely mention that even today in many village churches on
Cyprus, Aphrodite's island, the Virgin Mary is being invoked as Panagia
Aphroditissa,that is, "the most holy Aphrodite."4
Back to Aphrodite Urania. Herodotus, the father of history, knows that
Ishtar was also called Urania (1.131).He also states (1.105) that the temple of
Aphrodite Urania at Ascalon (Ashqelon) was the oldest shrine of the god-
dess in the world and that the sanctuary of Aphrodite Urania on Cyprus
derives from the one at Ascalon. As a matter of fact, the cult of Aphrodite
Urania has been documented in historical times for Cyprus, Cythera, and
many other cities. Turning now to Greek art, as early as 430 B.C. Phidias
sculpted two Aphrodites Uranias, one for Athens and the other for the city
of Elis. The epiphany of the queen of heaven is indicated by her posture: she
is stepping with one foot either on a hilltop (as in a copy from the Hermitage
in St. Petersburg, incorrectly restored as the Muse Melpomene; LIMC 176),
or on top of an animal (a turtle in the copy from Athens, now in Berlin, 5th
century B.C.;LIMC 177). So much about the Ishtar-Aphrodite as the daughter
of Heaven.
2. We now move to the function of Ishtar-Aphrodite as a war goddess.
First of all, in some statues the goddess is represented as armed; so at
Cythera, Corinth, Sparta, Aphrodisias (in Caria), and especially Epidaurus
(soon after 405 B.C.). Second, Aphrodite has the epithet Areia and Strateia
("of the war and the hosts"). And finally, she appears as the wife of the
Greek god of war, Ares, as mentioned already in Hesiod's Theogony(933 f.).
Archaeological evidence-an amphora from Naxos (670-660 B.C.; LIMC
1285), with the oldest extant inscription of the goddess's name-shows
Aphrodite in the wedding carriage with Ares. The same is true of fragments
of a contemporary Cycladic amphora, now in Berlin (LIMC1286). And dur-
ing the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. Aphrodite is frequently represented as
the wedded wife of Ares. For instance, on an Attic hydria (520 B.C., now at
Cambridge; LIMC 1295) the couple is on the extreme left of an assembly of
gods; another example is an inscribed vase from Tarquinia (520 B.C.; LIMC
1298).

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 From Ishtar to Aphrodite 49

IV

3. There remains to be demonstrated the affinity between Ishtar-Ashtar and

Aphrodite as the goddess of sexual love and fertility. To begin, there was
the institution of sacred or ritual prostitution. It has been well established for
many sanctuaries of both Ishtar and Aphrodite throughout Mesopotamia
(notably in Babylon), Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, Cythera, Corinth, Carthage,
and Sicily.5 The Sumerian goddess Inanna had the epithet "The Whore," as
did the Greek Aphrodite (Porne or Hetaira). As such she is the patroness of
every hetera or courtesan throughout the Greek lands.
In early cuneiform texts, the eroticism of Inanna-Ishtar is explicit and
shocking. They describe in detail the lips and bosom of the goddess of love
and her lap of honey beneath. An Old Babylonian hymn depicts Ishtar as a
harlot whom one hundred and twenty men could not satisfy.6 And Inanna
herself sets fifty orgasms per night as a norm.7 As for the institution of sa-
cred prostitution, many temples of Ishtar-Aphrodite had permanent prosti-
tutes. They are called hierodoulaiin Greek ("sacred servants"), qadishtumor
ishtaritum in Accadian ("the temple harlots" or "the women of Ishtar"), as
compared with the Hebrew word from the Bible qedeshah("harlot, concu-
bine"). Once a year the king of Uruk would engage in a ritual marriage with
a harlot from the oldest temple of Ishtar in order to ensure the fertility of the
land, cattle, and people through this act of "sympathetic magic." Closer to
Cyprus, permanent prostitutes of Ashtoret have been documented for her
temples at Heliopolis (Baalbek) and Byblos.
Leaving aside ritual prostitution, both Ishtar and Aphrodite are known
for having a lover in every port of call. So much so that when Ishtar asked
Gilgamesh, the noble king of Uruk, to marry her, he flatly rejected the pro-
posal of the divine whore, stating (in Tablet VI of the Gilgamesh Epic):
"Which of your lovers did you love forever? What shepherd of yours has
pleased you for all time?"
However, the most famous lover of Inanna-Ishtar was "the true son"
Dumuzi-Tammuz. He was no dying and resurrecting vegetation demon, as
James George Frazer wanted him to be (for one thing, no vegetation demon
dies in the spring, in April). Dumuzi-Tammuz was simply a mortal Parhedros
(consort) of the immortal Sumerian goddess of love. He was either a shep-
herd or a hunter, and he died young. In the Sumerian myth, it was Inanna
herself who sent him down to the Underworld. To commemorate the pre-
mature death of her lover, Ishtar had established an annual mourning for
Tammuz. This festival is already mentioned in the Gilgamesh Epic as well
as by the prophet Ezechiel (8:14). Tammuz appears as the consort of
Ashtoret also in Syria, Palestine, and elsewhere (and his name still lives on
in the Hebrew calendar as the tenth month, Tammuz).
However, in Phoenicia the name of Ashtoret's lover is Atunis or Adonis.
As already mentioned, the word is simply an invocation, "Oh, my Lord!"

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50 Miroslav Marcovich

(Most probably it derives from the lamentation formula addressed to a de-

ceased king-Huy Adon!, "Alas, my Lord!".) The death of young Adonis
was celebrated annually throughout Syria, Palestine, and Phoenicia. From
there the practice reached first Cyprus, next continental Greece. In Athens,
women celebrated the festival of Adonia, the mourning for Adonis, every
year in April. And Greek poets even called "Adonic" the special meter used
in lamentations of Adonis.
The love affair between Aphrodite and Adonis is demonstrated by ar-
chaeological material. The oldest extant representation of the couple seems
to be an Etrurian silver plate from between 575 and 550 B.C., now in Paris
(LIMC,Adonis 26). Adonis appears as a hunter with his dog, while Aphro-
dite is making advances (offering him a flower); accompanied by her small
son Eros, she is standing in front of her temple (indicated by a column). On
a hydria from Populonia (ca. 410 B.C., now at Florence; LIMC 10), we find
Adonis in Aphrodite's lap, already a victim of the ecstasies of love, while a
winged Himeros is dancing in front of him. Another example is a lecythos
from Athens (ca. 400 B.C., now in Paris; LIMC 8), in which Aphrodite is un-
veiling herself in front of Adonis who is playing a lyre, while a teenaged
Eros is offering plentiful apples of love. In a bronze mirror from Corinth (ca.
300 B.C., also in Paris; LIMC 13) Aphrodite and the hunter Adonis are en-
gaged in conversation. However, in another bronze mirror, also from
Corinth (ca. 350-325 B.C., also in Paris; LIMC 12), we see the goddess of love
engaged in seducing Adonis. In a Hellenistic cameo (in Paris; LIMC 15),
moreover, we surprise the lovers in a cave. In a bronze mirror from Locri
(ca. 290 B.C., now in London; LIMC 14) the queen of heaven tries to protect
her mortal lover, while in a Roman fresco from Pompeii (between 68 and 79
A.D.; LIMC 35), we witness Adonis dying in Aphrodite's lap. As already
mentioned, Adonis was a daring hunter, as is evident in a mosaic from
Yakto (Antioch) (LIMC 32). And the death of Adonis, who was killed by a
fierce wild boar, is a common motif in Roman sarcophagi of the imperial
period. An example is the bas-relief on a Roman sarcophagus from the sec-
ond century (LIMC 38a) which can be read, right to left, like a newspaper
cartoon: Scene 1-A seated Aphrodite says farewell to the departing young
hunter; Scene 2-Adonis is mortally wounded in front of a cave by a huge
wild boar; Scene 3-Adonis expires in the lap of Aphrodite.
This brings us to the festival of mourning for Adonis, the Adonia. In two
painted vases, one from Athens (ca. 425 B.C., now in Paris; LIMC 46), the
other from Cyrenaica (ca. 390 B.C., now in London; LIMC 48b), we see the
young women of Athens celebrating Adonia.In addition to ritual lamentations,
the festival consisted of many offerings to the dead young lover being made
in small "gardens of Aphrodite" set on the tops of houses (hence the
presence of ladders in both vases).
So much about Ishtar-Aphrodite as the goddess of heaven, war, and es-
pecially love. Space does not permit a discussion of other coincidences

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 From Ishtar to Aphrodite 51
between Ishtar and Aphrodite. Some of them are evident in the archeologi-
cal material to be mentioned here. Examples are the dove as the love bird, a
totemic animal of both Ishtar and Aphrodite; the altars for burning incense
and perfume; the famous Oriental garden of Ashtoret-Aphrodite, filled with
fruits and flowers of every kind (particularly myrtle and roses); and, last
but not least, the rich jewelry of the goddess of love.

The route by which this immigrant goddess had reached Greek shores
remains to be traced. First of all, we encounter the famous Mycenaean
dove-goddess. In a dress ornament from the third shaft-grave at Mycenae
(16th century B.C.; LIMC 349-350), we see the goddess holding her breasts
and displaying her feminine charms, including a distinctive hairdo, while
doves fly away in every direction from the goddess's head and shoulders.
The goddess is made of gold-as a reminder of the Homeric "golden
Aphrodite" (read: made in Phoenicia). True, the name of Aphrodite does
not appear in the oldest Greek language of the Mycenaean Linear B script
(between the 15th and 13th centuries B.C.). But this may be sheer co-
incidence, since the Mycenaean official bookkeepers who inscribed the tab-
lets were not necessarily interested in the love goddess but in correctly
recording business transactions.
However that may be, Cyprus had early become the Vatican City of
Aphrodite. Her temple at Paphos goes back to the 12th century B.C. when
Greeks called Achaeans ruled there. Later, in the 9th century B.C., when
Phoenicians from Tyre colonized Cyprus, they replaced the old Mycenaean
shrine of the goddess with a new temple (ca. 800 B.C.). The adytum or sanc-
tum of this famous temple seems to have consisted of three parts (similar to
the early altars of Greek Orthodox churches, which nowadays have three
separate doors). Judging by Roman coins from the times of Vespasian (76
A.D.) and Hadrian (117-138 A.D.; LIMC la-lb), the statue of Aphrodite in
her temple at Paphos was aniconical, that is, nonanthropomorphic. It was a
simple, large, conical stone (called argos lithos). Both wings of the adytum
contained altars for incense burning (thymiateria)typical of the Eastern god-
dess. And an Attic lecythos at Oxford (400 B.C.; LIMC 44) shows the statue
of the goddess flanked by two such thymiateria, with two adult Erotes
attending them.
As was seen earlier in the naked ivory statuette with the polos crown
from Dipylon at Athens (LIMC 354), Ashtart-Aphrodite was already
present there in Homeric times (late 8th century B.C.). Now, during the 7th
and 6th centuries B.C., Cyprus abounded in statuettes of the goddess, rep-
resented both as clothed and nude. For example, such a holy idol of
Aphrodite as one from Nicosia (dating ca. 610 B.C.; LIMC 98) was trans-
ported by Herostratus from the sanctuary at Paphos to Naucratis, the

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52 Miroslav Marcovich

colony of Miletus in Egypt, about 685 B.C. This statuette has the same
hairdo as the one seen in the Mycenaean dove goddess, as well as the rich
jewelry of this Eastern lady of beauty and love. The same is true of another
statuette of the goddess from Tricomo, Cyprus, now in Paris (ca. 550 B.C.;
LIMC 105). It may be remarked that Aphrodite's fondness for jewelry pro-
vided the poet of the Odyssey with a reason to give Aphrodite in marriage to
the lame god Hephaestus, a famous blacksmith and jeweller influenced by
Phoenician skill and craft.
Two more fully clothed Aphrodites from Cyprus may be mentioned,
both from the beginning of the 5th century B.C., one now in Paris (LIMC
108) and the other in Copenhagen (LIMC 107). Again, the rich attire of the
goddess is definitely Eastern (the polos crown of the Copenhagen statuette
makes her look like Charlemagne, just crowned emperor in Rome). Two
heads of Aphrodite, one from about 540 B.C. (LIMC106) and the other from
ca. 490 B.C. (LIMC 109) and both from Nicosia, display four features: an
elaborate hair style; jewelry; the Oriental polos crown; and the presence of
Eros, the god of love-desire (the ornament of the crown). Lastly, whether
the goddess is totally naked (and holding her breasts), as seen in a 6th cen-
tury B.C. terra-cotta from Nicosia (LIMC 367), or dressed in a "Christian
Dior" (and holding a hare), as seen in the elegant lady from the Heraeon of
Samos (also 6th century B.C.; LIMC57), her function is unmistakable: she is
the goddess of love and fertility.
Apparently, Aphrodite was born with a mirror in her left hand and a
comb in her right. Consequently, nothing reflects better the real nature of
the Near-Eastern Aphrodite than the mirror holders of the 6th and 5th cen-
turies B.C. There is, for example, a mirror holder from New York (550-525
B.C.; LIMC375) that shows Aphrodite standing on a lion (just as her grand-
mother Ishtar used to do); she is flanked by two Oriental griffins and is
holding an apple (or pomegranate) and a flower. But in another mirror
holder from Boston (500 B.C.; LIMC92) two Erotes have replaced the Orien-
tal griffins. Finally, in two mirror holders from Copenhagen (ca. 460 B.C.;
LIMC 114 and 116), the goddess is busy dressing her hair.
The arrival of the cult of Aphrodite in Greece apparently so fascinated
Greek artists that they frequently depicted the establishment of a statue of
the new goddess in her temple, as on an Apulian crater now in Cleveland
(ca. 390 B.C.; LIMC 8). The goddess is looking into a mirror while sitting in
front of a pillar that represents her aniconical statue and has the inscription
"Aphrodite." On an Apulian amphora from Naples (ca. 400 B.C.; LIMC3), a
seated Theseus, the mythical king of Athens, is introducing the cult of
AphroditePandemos ("of all the people") while providing the marble blocks
necessary for the statue of the goddess, who is present in person
(epiphany). There is also a xoanon, an archaic wooden statue of Aphrodite
with her usual polos (an Attic hydria in London, ca. 400 B.C.; LIMC41), and

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 From Ishtar to Aphrodite 53

finally, a vase painting from Ruvo (Apulia, ca. 400 B.C.; LIMC 42), that
shows female worshippers of Aphrodite installing the statue of the goddess
in her temple (indicated by a column). The goddess wears a polos crown
and holds a flower scepter.

VI

The subject now changes to the sacred animals associated with the goddess.
First of all, there is the love bird, the dove, present already in the Mycenaean
dove goddess from the 16th century B.C. On an oil container (alabastron)
from Cyrpus, now in Paris (570 B.C.: LIMC 74), the goddess is holding her
dove, as she is in a statuette from Corinth (490 B.C.; LIMC 66) and in a
bronze statuette from Epirus, now at Athens (450 B.C.; LIMC 125). In brief,
Ashtart-Aphrodite and the dove are inseparable, so much so that when
Aphrodite finally gave place to the Virgin Mary, she entrusted Mary with
her doves to spread them throughout the Mediterranean cities and be-
yond-all the way to Trafalgar Square and the metropolises of the New
World.
Sappho (around 600 B.C.) once invoked Aphrodite to visit her in a car-
riage drawn by sparrows and to help her conquer the heart of another girl.
And, as a matter of fact, sparrows sometimes do appear in the company of
the love goddess. However, geese and swans are more frequent sacred ani-
mals of Aphrodite, as attested by a terra-cotta from Hanover (510 B.C.;
LIMC63) where the goddess, wearing her polos crown, is attended by three
geese. As mentioned, the goddess reached Greek shores riding either on a
goose (as in a terra-cotta from the Louvre, early 5th century B.C.; LIMC
905), or on a swan (as in representations from the 5th and 4th centuries B.C.;
LIMC909, 916, and 931). Or she may have crossed the Mediterranean riding
on a dolphin (LIMC981) or an astral ram (LIMC 950). In any case, a ram or
billy-goat is an animal sacred to the goddess, as, for example, an archaic
terra-cotta relief from Gela, now at Oxford (500 B.C.; LIMC 65) and a bronze
relief from the Louvre (370 B.C.; LIMC958) may attest.

VII
Let us now move to the Greek classical art of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C.
As already mentioned, no other Greek goddess was represented so fre-
quently as Aphrodite. At Athens in 435 B.C., Alcamenes sculpted the fa-
mous statue of Aphrodite in the gardens (en kepois), as shown by a marble
copy in the Louvre (the head is from Tripoli; LIMC 196-197). And already in
432 B.C. Phidias (or his students) sculpted Aphrodite as reclining in the lap
of her mythical mother Dione for the Eastern pediment of the Parthenon
(now in London; LIMC 1393). The same Phidias delivered two Aphrodites

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54 Miroslav Marcovich

Uranias around 430 B.C.-one for Athens, the other for Elis. From the same
time is also the famous Aphrodite by Agoracritus, as represented by a
marble statue from the Athenian Agora (ca. 410 B.C.; LIMC 162). The point
is that in all these statues the goddess appears fully clothed, as many other
statues and statuettes also show her (e.g., LIMC 136, 185, 273, 287).
Some of these statues display the magic girdle of the goddess of love
(kestosor strophion;e.g., LIMC307 and 339)-the very girdle that, in the Iliad,
helped Hera to beguile her aging husband Zeus (14.216-730). The same rich
and fine attire of Aphrodite is also present in fifth-century vase painting.
Thus in a lecythos from London (LIMC 1271) we find Aphrodite sitting in
her blooming garden of love with her son Eros, while her attendant, called
Peitho (which in Greek love poetry means "Lady Seduction") is bringing a
thymiaterion(incense-burner). In the triptych of another lecythos from Ath-
ens (ca. 420 B.C.; LIMC 210) we see the goddess of love receiving offerings
from a young naked groom (on the right), while his seated bride is being
prepared for the wedding ceremony (in the center) and a female attendant
is busy with rich ointments and perfumes for the bride (on the left).
However, around 420 B.C., again at Athens, we already see the goddess
engaged in a slow "strip-tease." The Aphrodite of Daphni (ca. 420 B.C., as a
copy from ca. 400 B.C., now in Vienna, may show; LIMC 204) displays wet
clothing clinging to her body. And around the same year, 420 B.C.,
Callimachus of Athens sculpted an Aphrodite with one breast exposed, as
may be seen in the Venus from Frejus, now in the Louvre (LIMC225, 229) as
well as in many terra-cottas (e.g., LIMC235, 246).
In the 4th century (ca. 370-360 B.C.) Praxiteles created a half-naked type
of the goddess, as represented, for example, by the Venus of Aries (in the
Louvre; LIMC 526) or by the Venus Genetrix of Rome. More importantly,
also in the 4th century B.C. we find the statue of the half-naked Aphrodite
looking into a shining shield that is resting on her left knee as into a mirror,
as shown by a marble statue from Capua (now in Naples; LIMC 627). And
this type seems to have been the inspiration for the anonymous sculptor of
the Venus of Milo (ca. 100 B.C.; LIMC 643). Probably Aphrodite is using a
shield as a mirror-a goddess of both love and war, just as Ishtar was.
The next type of representation to be considered is of Aphrodite in the
nude. This was the case with the famous Venus pudica made for the city of
Cnidus by Praxiteles (364-361 B.C.), which displays perfect beauty fully in
the round (LIMC391: the Venus Colonna,Vatican; head in the Louvre, LIMC
394). Why is she naked? Because she is about to take a bath, as witnessed by
an Apulian pelike representing the goddess in her bath (400 B.C., from
Oxford; LIMC 385). The point is that regular lustration baths of statues of
the goddess formed part of her cult in Greece. A few imitations of the Venus
pudica are the Venus Capitolina (one in Rome, LIMC 409; the other in Flo-
rence, LIMC 419), and another in New York (LIMC420); the Venus Braschi

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 From Ishtar to Aphrodite 55

from Rome (now in Munich; LIMC399); and finally an exquisite Praxitelean

torso from Rome (LIMC392).
The type of Venus untying her sandal is also linked to her lustral bath
and goes back to fifth-century vase painting from Athens (as shown by two
copies of this type, LIMC 464 and 472). Of course, this position of the body
reveals a certain torsion, as is evident in a beautiful torso from Athens, now
in London (2d century B.C.; LIMC 475). The next type is the so-called
crouched Aphrodite: the goddess is kneeling or squatting, a position also
associated with her famous bath, as shown on an Attic lecythos (410 B.C.,
now in Berlin; LIMC 988). Here a crouched Aphrodite, assisted by Eros, is
washing her beautiful long hair while in her rich garden. Fourth-century
sculptors continued this type of the crouched Venus, as attested by two
terra-cottas (LIMC 997 and 1014). However, the most famous crouched
Venus in antiquity was by the sculptor Doidalsas (ca. 240 B.C.;copies in Rome,
the Louvre, and Rhodes; LIMC 1018, 1019, 1027).
The type of the Aphrodite Anadyomene, Venus rising from the sea, goes
back to Phidias in sculpture and to Apelles of Cos in painting. The goddess
is represented as drying her wet hair while she displays all the charms of
her body. In a headless statue from Rome (LIMC425), the presence of a dol-
phin identifies the goddess. The inspiration for the Anadyomene may have
been Polyclitus' Diadumenos (ca. 420 B.C.), representing a young athlete fas-
tening a victory band around his head. Two further Anadyomenai are from
Philadelphia (2d century B.C.; LIMC 677) and from Baltimore (lst century
B.C.; LIMC430).
Finally, Aphrodite's "strip-tease" culminates in the so-called "exhibi-
tionist Venus." The goddess is in her private dressing room at her toilette,
and the sculptor is intruding. Such was the Venus Pseliumene by Praxiteles,
that is, Aphrodite putting on her jewelry (pselion), as can be seen in a sec-
ond-century B.C. statuette from New York (LIMC 482) or in a torso of Ve-
nus from Naples (LIMC 785). The final manifestations of the "exhibitionist
Venus" are a Venus from Esquiline (LIMC 500) and another from Cyrene
(LIMC455), bothfigures rondes(both from the 1st century B.C. and both now
in Rome).
The significant point is that it was this type of the nude Venus, caught in
her private boudoir, that greatly influenced the iconography of the goddess
in late antiquity. This type of the goddess of love and fertility was ex-
tremely popular along the Oriental periphery of the Roman Empire (as can
be seen from an Oriental beauty from Amman dressed only in her jewelry
and from a number of similar ones; LIMC, Aphrodite in peripheriaorientali,
111, and also 22, 24, 44, 100, 107, and 112) and was meant to ensure love,
happiness, and many children to every family keeping such a statuette in its
household.

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56 Miroslav Marcovich

VIII

The last point to be made concerns the mother and her child, Aphroditeand
Eros. In Greek, eros is an abstract concept meaning "love desire," along with
its synonyms himerosand pothos ("longing and yearning"). They accompany
Aphrodite already in Homer's Iliad (14.216). As a masculine noun, eros be-
came easily personified and proclaimed a son of Aphrodite. Apparently,
Sappho was the first to do so. In Hesiod, Eros is only an attendant of
Aphrodite while at the same time playing the role of an independent cos-
mic force of love, as powerful as Chaos and Mother Earth. Eros will play the
same cosmic role in the speculations of Pherecydes of Syrus, Parmenides,
Empedocles, and the Orphic cosmogonies.
In Greek art, however, Eros has appeared as the son of Aphrodite, along
with Himerosand Pothos, since 580 B.C., as evidenced by a votive tablet from
Athens (LIMC 1255). In age Eros may vary from a small boy to an adult
youth, as in a bronze hydria from Eretria (ca. 350 B.C., now in New York;
LIMC 40) showing a grown-up Eros tending the statue of his mother. This
essay, however, will concentrate on the so-called kurotrophicstatues of the
goddess, that is, those that represent Aphrodite with a baby Eros either in
her lap or on her breast. One example from Gela shows a happy Aphrodite
with the small baby Eros in her lap and with a dove (530 B.C.; LIMC 791),
another is of an infant Eros (in Adolphseck; LIMC70).
This endearing relationship between the goddess of love and her baby
son is very well represented in Greek art, from the example of the Doidalsas
Venus (e.g., LIMC 1022) to that of a charming group from Eretria (4th cen-
tury B.C.; LIMC 1245). To return to the kurotrophicVenus. A vase painting
from Lipari (330 B.C.; LIMC 1238) shows a happy mother giving breast to
her baby, or a Venus lactans. But a terra-cotta from the British Museum (lst
century B.C.) represents an Isis lactans, that is, the great Egyptian goddess
Isis suckling her own baby son Harpocrates (in Egyptian, Harpehrod, or
"Horus-the-Child"). The next step is to compare another Isis lactans from
Caranis, Egypt (ca. 300 A.D.), with a Maria lactans, that is, the Virgin Mary
giving breast to the Infant Jesus (as in a bas-relief from Medinet Madi, ca.
500 A.D., now in Berlin). The only difference between the Isis lactans from
Caranis and the Maria lactans from Medinet Madi are two crosses.
The argument to be made here is that the archeological type of the Venus
lactans had influenced the type of the Isis lactans which, in its turn, influ-
enced the iconography of the early Christian Maria lactans. As for the syn-
cretism between Aphrodite and Isis, it is an established fact in scholarship
today (going back to the 3d century B.C. and to the island of Delos). But
here the focus is on its manifestation in art alone. When one compares a shy
Venus from the Capitol with a statue of Isis, it is clear how much the type of
Venus pudica introduced by Praxiteles had influenced the iconography of

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 From Ishtar to Aphrodite 57
Isis. Another example is the Venus Pompeianashowing the goddess reaching
Pompeii with her son Eros. The ship, however, attests to the fact that she is,
simultaneously, Isis with her son Harpocrates, because it was Isis, not Ve-
nus, who had sailed all the way from Alexandria to Pompeii to establish her
cult there.
And, to press the point further, a Campanian oinochoe(ca. 350 B.C., now
in Paris; LIMC 1241) shows Aphrodite kissing her small son Eros, just as the
Virgin Mary kisses the Infant Jesus in the most famous of Russian icons, the
Virgin from Vladimir, painted by a Byzantine artist in 1125 A.D. (now in the
Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin). In brief, religious traditions
die hard, and Aphrodite continues to live in the Virgin Mary-in many
different aspects.

IX

It is time to draw some conclusions. This cross-cultural adventure has been

a quest for Aphrodite that took us to the religion, literature, and art of sev-
eral Near-Eastern and Mediterranean nations, covering some twenty-five
centuries. We have tried to bring the mighty Sumerian-Accadian goddess of
love and fertility, of heaven, sea, and war called Inanna-Ishtar-Ashtaroth
from Mesopotamia to Greece-via Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Cyprus.
At the immigration service in Paphos, she changed her name to Aphrodite.
To put things into perspective, the oldest goddess of beauty, love, and
fertility seems to be the famous Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf (now in the
Museum or Natural History in Vienna). She is at least 25,000 years old, be-
longing to the Aurignac culture of Europe. Her ample curves bespeak her
fertility functions. She is beautiful because she is fat. And she is fat first of
all because obesity is an old status symbol, the sign of opulence and nobil-
ity. The lady is not a working woman; instead, she keeps sitting on her be-
hind to develop steatopygy, the same condition her two sisters have
achieved-the Venus of Lespugue (now in Paris) and the Venus Savignano
sul Panaro (now in the Museo Pigorini of Rome). Secondly, the Venus of
Willendorf is fat because her massive breasts and large hips are sure harbin-
gers of healthy births to a numerous progeny of hunters and tamers of ani-
mals to come, as the hips of another of her sisters, the Venus of Laussel in
Dordogne, are also meant to show. This Venus of Laussel was, incidentally,
also the first Venus pudica in history as her left hand is on her stomach. The
weight-conscious modern woman who objects to calling the Venus of
Willendorf and the Venus of Laussel beautiful because of their obesity
might be reminded of the ample proportions of the famous Venuses by
Rubens, as they are seen in two examples from 1630 and 1625, respectively
(Venus, Mars, and Amor, in London and Berlin, respectively): de gustibus non
est disputandum.

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58 Miroslav Marcovich

To return to the gorgeous Venus of Willendorf: her elaborate hair-style is

exquisite (apparently, the wisdom C'est la coiffurequefait lafemme is as old
as mankind). Another fascinating hair-style is displayed by the charming
Venus from Brassempouy (ca. 20,000 years old), which bears comparison
with the rich collection of Aphrodite's hairdos represented on coins with
the image of the goddess from the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. (LIMC 1146-
1157).
But to close on a cheerful note: so proud was Aphrodite of her son Eros
that she even used weights made in the shape of Eros to weigh the amount
of love in a girl's heart. This is the so-called erotostasy of Venus, as it is rep-
resented on a golden ring from Boston (410 B.C.; LIMC 156) or on a
Campian hydria in London (340 B.C.; LIMC 1248). One can see a young man
patiently waiting for the result of the erotostasy of Aphrodite-whether to
talk to the girl's father or forget the whole thing.
While in the West Aphrodite busily transferred some of her functions to
the Virgin Mary as a Reginacaeli, Stella marina,and Maria lactans-in a word,
as the Panagia Aphroditissa of Cyprus-what was she doing in the Middle
East? An eloquent mosaic from the Church of St. Mary in Madaba, Jordan
(6h century A.D.; LIMC Aphrodite/Al-CUzza 8) may provide the answer.
We find the goddess happily married to her hunter Adonis, and in this idyl-
lic mosaic we see them enjoying a peaceful family life in the garden of
Aphrodite. When we last visited them, the mother was just spanking one of
her naughty Erotes with her sandal, attended by a serving Grace (Charis).
The scene is both pastoral and petit-bougeois.8

NOTES
1. A. Delivorrias and others, LexiconIconographicum MythologiaeClassicae,s.v.
Aphrodite,II.1 (1984), pp. 2-176; 11.2(1984),pp. 6-175 (Zurichand Miinchen:
ArtemisVerlag,1984),with literature.
2. In E. Ebeling and B. Meister, Reallexikonder Assyriologie, s.v. Inanna/Ishtar,V
(Berlin:de Gruyter,1976),pp. 74-89.
3. In Reallexikonder Assyriologie [note 2], V, Abbildungen 1-3.
4. Ch. Seligman, The Twelve Olympians and Their Guests (London: Parrish, 1956),
p. 99.
5. See E. M. Yamauchi,"CulticProstitution,"in Orientand Occident:EssaysPre-
sentedto CyrusH. Gordon,
ed. H. A. Hoffner,Jr.(Neukirchen-Vluyn:
Neukirchener
Verlag,1973),pp. 213-22.
6. W. von Soden, Die Religion in Geschichteund Gegenwart5 (1961), p. 543.
7. S. N. Kramer,TheSacredMarriageRite(Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,
1969),p. 104.
8. Additional useful literatureon Aphrodite:W. Burkert,Griechische
Religionder
archaischen und klassischen Epoche (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1977), pp. 238-43;
Idem,StructureandHistoryof GreekMythologyandRitual(Berkeley:Universityof
CaliforniaPress, 1979),pp. 99-122;J. E. Dugand, "Aphrodite-Astarte,"in Hom-
magea PierreFargues:Annalesde la FacultedesLettresde Nice21 (1974),pp. 73-98;
W. Fauth,in Der kleinePaulyI (Stuttgart:Druckenmuller,1964),coll. 70 f. (Ado-
791-95 (Baal);P. Friedrich,The Meaningof Aphrodite
nis); 425-31 (Aphrodite);

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 From Ishtar to Aphrodite 59

(Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1978); A. Hermary and others, in LIMC

[note 1], s.v. Eros, III.1 (1986), pp. 850-942; III.2 (1986), pp. 609-68; H. Herter,
"Die Ursprtinge des Aphroditekultes," in Elements orientaux dans la religion
grecqueancienne (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960), pp. 61-76; Idem,
Kleine Schriften(Miinchen: W. Fink, 1975), pp. 28-42; M. P. Nilsson, Geschichteder
grieschichenReligion, 13 (Munchen: Beck, 1967), pp. 519-26; II2 (1961), p. 631 f.; B.
Servais-Soyez, in LIMC, s.v. Adonis, I.1 (1981), pp. 222-29; 1.2 (1981), pp. 160-70;
E. Simon, Die Geburtder Aphrodite(Berlin: de Gruyter, 1959); Idem, Die Gotterder
Griechen(Miinchen: Hirmer, 1969).

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