Up: [[Greek Mythology]] Related: [[Porcelain Perfection - Me]] Created: 2023-03-05 After seeing my poem [[Porcelain Perfection - Me]] and reading my stream of consciousness writing about it, Helen has encouraged me to seek a positive view of Venus Aphrodite that might help me to embrace my own body, my sensuality if not my sexuality. I’m going to call her Aphrodite from here out to stay consistent with Hestia as a Greek goddess name. Venus is the Roman name. I’ve looked for myself in Aphrodite’s qualities. It has helped to read Jungian discussions of her, and to learn that it wasn’t until Homer in the Hellenic period that poor Aphrodite was diminished to be just the goddess of physical beauty and sexual love and then, later, femme fatale, prostitute, home wrecker. ### A Life Force Prior to patriarchy grabbing hold in Greece and Italy, Aphrodite was celebrated as a life force in both Mesopotamia and Cyprus. She was seen in mist as it rose from the water to the sky, and in rain falling from the sky to earth. Those are beautiful images, and much easier for me to relate to than the images of Aphrodite’s naked physical beauty. Although if I’m going to pay attention to her body, I quite like this broken sculpture of her from the third century. It helps me to not have to see the beauty of her face, and that her body is a real woman’s body, not a Barbie body as it was in [[The Birth of Venus Botticelli.webp]] ![[Aphrodite Body No Face from Baracat Gallery (artwork).webp|300]] ### Wholeness Aphrodite as life force, as creator, is retained in the idea of her as goddess of love for the sake of love, not fertility. This makes her a goddess to be appreciated by homosexuals as well as heterosexuals. Indeed, the men she was attracted to, aside from Ares, were effeminate. Aphrodite was the mother of Hermaphrodite, so can therefore be thought of as an image of wholeness, both male and female. As the sacred marriage, the [[Mysterium Coniunctionis]] of Jungian psychology, that’s certainly an image I can embrace. ### Creativity, Beauty, Sensuality I can find myself in what I’ve learned of Aphrodite’s connection to love in many forms, not just human sexual love. I am there in the intensity with which I embrace creative actions, whether that’s art making or my PKM. And in my desire to more often notice, pause for, and share the sacredness, the beauty of everyday moments and objects. I’m consciously trying to be a more sensual woman: eating more mindfully, really immersing in the delights of my hot bath with lavender epsom salts or the texture of the wool afghan over my legs when I’m sitting in front of the living room fire. See also [[Love isn’t an Emotion]] ### Present in the Moment I notice and appreciate that Aphrodite and [[Hestia]] share a strong presence in the moment. Where Hestia’s presence is a quiet, contemplative stillness, Aphrodite’s is absorbed in beauty and sensuality. I have long wanted both. ### Feeling Function Christine Downing writes at length in *The Goddess* of Aphrodite representing Jung’s feeling function; of her presenting a clear and strong alternative to logos as the only form of consciousness. I appreciate the positive side of this feeling function in Aphrodite — that, although never parented, she didn’t close down into a hard and brittle shell, but rather was warm and receptive to others. ### Dark Side I feel frightened, however, when I read of the out of control, huge emotions that Aphrodite’s passions arose in others. Downing summarizes: > [!Orbit] Christine Downing in *The Goddess: Mythological images of the feminine* > Ariadne and Medea betray their fathers and brothers, Helen abandons her husband, Myrrha entices her father into her bed, Pasiphae is filled with bestial lust for a bull. You (Aphrodite) are paired with Ares, the god of violent battle, more frequently than with any other consort. That union issues in strife *and* harmony; together you parent Deimos (Panic), Phobus (Fear), Eros, and Harmonia. (p. 207) I am judgmental that Aphrodite was not an involved mother, although it’s understandable given that she was herself motherless. Other than trying to help out Adonis, she had little to do with her children. I knew that I wouldn’t make a good mother. Maybe Aphrodite did too, but she was a goddess and this was, after all, pre-birth control! But, joking aside, this is where Aphrodite’s sexuality feels both selfish and needy. Downing writes, *Turning toward the other constitutes your essence.* (P.201) The chaos her energy created in others was selfish. The need to be liked and admired is shared by me. The only difference is that Aphrodite needed to be liked and admired for her body, whereas I try to get there by being helpful and, although I often feel inadequate to the task, by intellect. > [!user] Sources > - Christine Downing, *The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine*, especially ch.8 > - Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, *The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image* > - Jean Shinoda Bolen, *Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women over Fifty*