1. Chapter Eight, Lecture One Female Olympians

2. The Female Olympians Mostly reducible to some aspect of fertility Greek myth told by and for Greek males With the exception of Aphrodite and Athena, they never do very much

3. Demeter “Wheat” mother? Connection with foundation myth of the Eleusinian Mysteries

4. Hestia Goddess of the house Few stories (she’s inside all the time) No love affairs Had suitors briefly: Apollo and Poseidon Given honor instead of marriage

5. Aphrodite

6. Goddess of sexuality Her lineage –As Aphrodite –Zeus and Dione Connections with Eastern deities –Istarte, Ishtar, Inanna

7. Aphrodite One of her epithets is “Cytherea” Where she came ashore as the “foam” goddess. The story of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus King of Cyprus Disgusted by the profligate women of Cyprus Aphrodite gives his statue (Galatea?) life Their son is Paphos, name for a city sacred to Aphrodite

8. Cinyras and Myrrha Paphos Eponymous hero of the capital of Cyprus Cinyras Myrrha

9. Aphrodite Cinyras’s wife boasts that Myrrha is more beautiful than Aphrodite herself. Aphrodite inflicts Myrrha with a passion for her father, Cinyras. Cinyras lured into sex with her Chases her until she turns into the myrrh tree

10. Aphrodite Her tears are myrrh resin, burned on Aphrodite’s altar – an etiological myth From the myrrh tree, Adonis is born Semitic name: “lord,” cf. Adonai, another name for YHWH in the Old Testament

11. Aphrodite Children by various male deities or associated powers

12. Aphrodite Eros –Original being or son of Aphrodite and Ares, Hermes, or Zeus –Not originally the Roman cupid, but ideal male beauty

13. Aphrodite Priapus –Aphrodite and Dionysus or Hermes –Asian garden deity –“priapism”

14. Aphrodite Anchises Prince of Troy Aphrodite “punished” by Zeus Made to fall in love with a mortal man “Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite” His “reward” will be to have a famous son, Aeneas

15. Aphrodite But he reveals the secret – that Aphrodite is Aeneas’s mother – and Zeus strikes him with a thunderbolt After that, he is lame Aeneas goes on to become the legendary founder of the Roman people after his escape from Troy.

16. Next Lecture Artemis Athena