Aphrodite - The Making of a Goddess

Redaktör

Göta Johansson

Summary, in English

Aphrodite is the divine image in Western civilization of love and fertility. She is the eternal beauty of classical Greece - but she has a wide-ranging history. On the one hand giver of wealth and abundance - on the other linked with violence and war. Aphrodite appeared on Cyprus during the Bronze Age. Protectress of copper, her cult spread all over Europe. In Scandinavia she was called Nerthus. Bronze, together with new agricultural methods, made people’s lives prosper and the goddess’s popularity soared. Her roots reach back to the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna/Ishtar. After the advent of Christianity, she shaped the image of the Holy Virgin. Aphrodite/Venus, once so prominent in art and literature, is still famous. Today her name often has a negative bias, with only her sexual aspect stressed, usually in commercial contexts. In this anthology the Centre of Classical Mythology presents the influential and versatile goddess.

Lotten Peterson traces Aphrodite’s development from the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna/Ishtar 5,000 years ago to the classical goddess and, later, how she influenced the Virgin Mary.

Gota Johansson describes Aphrodite’s origins and her long journey to Scandinavia, where she became the Vanir divinity Nerthus/Njord.

Katarina Wadstein MacLeod discusses Aphrodite/Venus in a variety of examples from modern and contemporary art.

Johan Flemberg describes Aphrodite as a goddess of war and love; he then presents her marble statuette in the Carl Milles collection. In a third essay, he explains her epithet 'Ambologera'.

Susanna Roxman analyses Aphrodite as a leitmotif in texts by the 20th century novelist and poet, Lawrence Durrell.

Carlos Parada provides an authoritative genealogical guide to Aphrodite’s nature, birth, family ties, lovers, and actions.

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