DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0043
33
be the daughter of Jupiter and Dione ; that is, of the male and
female personifications of the all-pervading spirit of the universe;
Dione being, as before explained, the female AIS or ZETS, and
therefore associated with him in the most ancient oracular temple
of Greece at Dodona.' No other genealogy appears to have been
known in the Homeric times; though a different one is employed
to account for the name of Aphrodite in the theogony attributed to
Hesiod.
44. The reveruXXihg or TsvatSai were the original and appro-
priate ministers and companions of Venus; * who was however
afterwards attended by the Graces, the proper and original atten-
dants of Juno :3 but as both these goddesses were occasionally united
and represented in one image,4 the personifications of their respec-
tive subordinate attributes might naturally be changed. Other
attributes were on other occasions added; whence the symbolical
statue of Venus at Paphos had a beard, and other appearances of
virility ;5 which seems to have been the most ancient mode of re-
presenting the celestial, as distinguished from the popular goddess
of that name ; the one being a personification of a general procrea-
tive power, and the other only of animal desire or concupiscence.
The second may be from icvmropis, i. e.Kvew ■noptaKovaa, though the theo-
gonists derive it from the island of Cyprus. Schol. Ven. in II. E. 458.
Hesiod. Theogon.
The third is commonly derived from a^posthe foam of the sea, from which
she is fabled to have sprung: but the name appears to be older than the
fable, and may have been received from some other language.
1 Suwrav TCfi Ail TrpotrtdetxOy icat t] Aicwtj. Strabo Lib. viii. p. 506.
1 Pausan. Lib. 1. c. i. s. 4.
3 II. H. 267.
To 5e aya\fj.a tt]s 'Upas fwi Opovov KaQrjrai fxeytOeL f**ya, XPv(fov t**v Kat ehetpavTos'
TIo\vk\£itov 5e epyov eir€trrt 5e ol arctpavos xaPLTas eXa,,/ Kai '£lpay enapyairiievas, Kat
twv xtipwv, TV MeI/ ^aP"KOV ^eoei poias, tti 5e ffK-qirrpov. Ta /iei> ovv es tt\v poiav (ano-
oriTOTepos yap e<r™ 6 \oyos) atpturOw /ioi. Pausan. in Cor. c. 17. s. 4.
4 aoavoy 8e apxatov KaXovaiv AifpoSmjs 'Hpus. I'ausan. ill Lacon. c. 13. s. 6.
s Signum et hujus Veneris est Cy.pri barbatum corpore, sed veste mu-
liebri, cum sceptre et statura viri. Macrob. lib. iii. p. 74.
c
be the daughter of Jupiter and Dione ; that is, of the male and
female personifications of the all-pervading spirit of the universe;
Dione being, as before explained, the female AIS or ZETS, and
therefore associated with him in the most ancient oracular temple
of Greece at Dodona.' No other genealogy appears to have been
known in the Homeric times; though a different one is employed
to account for the name of Aphrodite in the theogony attributed to
Hesiod.
44. The reveruXXihg or TsvatSai were the original and appro-
priate ministers and companions of Venus; * who was however
afterwards attended by the Graces, the proper and original atten-
dants of Juno :3 but as both these goddesses were occasionally united
and represented in one image,4 the personifications of their respec-
tive subordinate attributes might naturally be changed. Other
attributes were on other occasions added; whence the symbolical
statue of Venus at Paphos had a beard, and other appearances of
virility ;5 which seems to have been the most ancient mode of re-
presenting the celestial, as distinguished from the popular goddess
of that name ; the one being a personification of a general procrea-
tive power, and the other only of animal desire or concupiscence.
The second may be from icvmropis, i. e.Kvew ■noptaKovaa, though the theo-
gonists derive it from the island of Cyprus. Schol. Ven. in II. E. 458.
Hesiod. Theogon.
The third is commonly derived from a^posthe foam of the sea, from which
she is fabled to have sprung: but the name appears to be older than the
fable, and may have been received from some other language.
1 Suwrav TCfi Ail TrpotrtdetxOy icat t] Aicwtj. Strabo Lib. viii. p. 506.
1 Pausan. Lib. 1. c. i. s. 4.
3 II. H. 267.
To 5e aya\fj.a tt]s 'Upas fwi Opovov KaQrjrai fxeytOeL f**ya, XPv(fov t**v Kat ehetpavTos'
TIo\vk\£itov 5e epyov eir€trrt 5e ol arctpavos xaPLTas eXa,,/ Kai '£lpay enapyairiievas, Kat
twv xtipwv, TV MeI/ ^aP"KOV ^eoei poias, tti 5e ffK-qirrpov. Ta /iei> ovv es tt\v poiav (ano-
oriTOTepos yap e<r™ 6 \oyos) atpturOw /ioi. Pausan. in Cor. c. 17. s. 4.
4 aoavoy 8e apxatov KaXovaiv AifpoSmjs 'Hpus. I'ausan. ill Lacon. c. 13. s. 6.
s Signum et hujus Veneris est Cy.pri barbatum corpore, sed veste mu-
liebri, cum sceptre et statura viri. Macrob. lib. iii. p. 74.
c