Myth Topic 8
The Female deities
Males: clear spheres of influence
Females—multiple aspects of single concern:
fecundity
derived from a single
“Great Goddess”?
Demeter—harvest fertility
Hestia —home life
Hera—marriage
Aphrodite—sexual power, indifferent to
human happiness
Artemis—wild animal fecundity
(Athena—female crafts)
Demeter (Ceres)—the harvest, esp. wheat
mother of Persephone
–“the goddesses”
More coming soon
Hestia (Vesta)
family; city
never left Olympus
in Rome, connected to
the Penates
Aphrodite (Venus)
overwhelming power of sexual
attraction
“lover of
laughter”
companion/child (by Ares) Eros
(Cupid)
Originally an Eastern goddess
also important on
island of Cythera -- “Cytherea”
Temple prostitution—women from good
families
Children of Aphrodite:
child with Hermes
Ovid—pursued by nymph Salmasis
“the slightly
titillating Hermaphroditus”
Priapus
(with Dionysus or Hermes)
very popular among Romans
Pygmalion
From Ovid 10.266-331
Aphrodite and Anchises (Homeric Hymn
early 7th century)
Aphrodite is powerless to Athena, Artemis, Hestia
eternal virgins
Zeus gets her to fall in love with Anchises, a shepherd
Produce Aeneas
Artemis (Diana)
Potnia Theron “mistress of the animals”
mother-goddess (in origin?), but
Greek virgin (not mannish like Athena)
Kills women suddenly with her bow (like her
brother, Apollo)
Homer on Niobe:
who boasts of her 12 children to Leto's two
Iliad, 24.650-657
saw Artemis naked one
by accident while hunting
Ovid,
Metamorphoses, 3.138-252
Athena (Minerva)
protector of male heroes
Odysseus
Achilles : Illiad, 1.198-234
probably named after the
city
Parthenon (Temple to the virgin);
don't confuse with (Pantheon)
Grey-eyed/owl-eyed — giver of olive to
Athens —“Pallas”
· Protectress of cities, and
crafts—weaving and carpentry
· ships; the Trojan horse; chariots
· The Law
· Intelligent warfare
· later—Wisdom
practical knowledge, much
like Prometheus
Always armed, with a spear, and breast
plate (aegis, from
Zeus)
Arachne Ovid 6.1-162
