Japanese Folklore: Tamamo no Mae: The Nine tailed fox

 

 

 Tamamo no Mae, One of the strongest and most feared Yokai.




Tamamo  is one of the most famous kitsune (Fox Spirits) in Japanese mythology.

A nine-tailed magical fox, she is also one of the most powerful yokai that has ever lived.

Her magical abilities were matched only by her sharp mind  and lust for power.

Tamamo lived during the Heian period, and though she may not have succeeded in her plan to kill the emperor and take his place, her actions destabilized the country and lead it towards one of the most important civil wars in Japanese history.

 For that reason, she is considered one of the Nihon San Dai Aku Yokai—the Three Terrible Yokai of Japan.

She  is mentioned in various old texts and has been a popular subject throughout Japanese history. Her story is portrayed in literature, 

Noh, Kabuki, bunraku, and other forms of art including modern mang, anime and evenK Dramas. 

There have been  several variations on her story throughout history.

According to Legends: Tamamo no Mae was born around 3,500 years ago in what is now China. Her early life is a mystery, but she eventually became a powerful sorceress.

 

A few hundred years later she became a white faced, golden furred kyubi no kitsune—a nine-tailed fox with the highest level of  magic powers.

She was also a very skilled liar and master  manipulator. She used her charms and intelligence to advance her standing and influence politics of the time .

During the Shang Dynasty she was known as Daji. She disguised herself as a beautiful woman and became the favorite concubine of King Zhou of Shang.

 

 
Daji was a model of human depravity. She held orgies in the palace gardens. Her fondness for watching and inventing new forms of torture are legendary.

Daji eventually brought about the fall of the entire Shang Dynasty. She managed to escape execution, and fled to the Magadha kingdom in India in 1046 BCE.

In Magadha, she was known as Lady Kayo, and became a consort of King Kalmashapada, known in Japan as Hanzoku.

She used her beauty and charms to dominate the king, she devoured children, murder priests, and commit other unspeakable horrors.

Eventually—whether because she ran out of  children to eat or because Kalmashapada began to turn away from her and towards Buddhism—she fled back to China.
...

During the Zhou Dynasty she called herself Bao Si, and was known as one of the most desirable women in all of China.

In 779 BCE she became a concubine of King You. Not satisfied as just a mistress, she manipulated the king into deposing his wife Queen Shen and making Bao Si his new queen. 

Though she was beautiful, Bao Si rarely ever smiled. In order to please his beautiful new wife, King You committed acts of such
evil and atrocity that eventually all of his nobles abandoned and betrayed him. Eventually, King You was killed and Bao Si captured and the Western Zhou Dynasty was brought to an end in 771 BCE. Somehow Bao Si managed to escape again, she went into hiding for many years.

Little is known of her activities until the 700s, when she resurfaced disguised as a 16-year old girl named Wakamo. She tricked the leaders of the 10th Japanese envoy to the Tang Dynasty—Kibi no Makibi, Abe no Nakamaro, and Ganjin—as they were preparing to return home to Japan.

Wakamo joined their crew and took the ship to Japan, where she hid herself away for over 300 years.

In the 1090s, she resurfaced once again. This time she transformed herself into a human baby and hid by the side of the road.

A married couple found the baby and rescued it, taking her in as their daughter and naming her Mikuzume.

She proved to be an exceedingly intelligent and talented young girl, and was so beautiful that she attracted to attention of everyone around her.

When she was 7 years old, Mikuzume recited poetry before the emperor. His imperial majesty immediately took a liking to her and employed her as a servant
in his court.

Mikuzume excelled at court, absorbing knowledge like a sponge. There was no question she could not answer, whether it was about music, history, astronomy,
religion, or Chinese classics. Her clothes were always clean and unwrinkled. She always smelled pleasant. Mikuzume had the most beautiful face in all of Japan, and everyone who saw her loved her.

During the summer of her 18th year, a poetry and instrument recital was held in Mikuzume’s honor. During the recital, an unexpected storm fell upon the palace. 

All of the candles in the recital room were snuffed, leaving the participants in the dark. Suddenly, a bright light emanated from Mikuzume’s body, illuminating the room.

 Everybody at court was so impressed by her genius and declared that she must have had an exceedingly good and holy previous life. 

She was given the name Tamamo no Mae. Emperor Toba, already exceedingly fond of her, made her his consort.

Almost immediately after she became the emperor’s consort, the emperor fell deathly ill. None of the court physicians could determine the cause, and so the onmyoji (Exorcist) Abe no Yasunari was called in. ( Not be confused with Abe no Yasuna, who is the father of the famous onmyōji Abe no Seimei , Similar title, Different people.)

Abe no Yasunari read the emperor’s fortune and divined that he was marked by a bad omen. After that, the highest priests and monks were summoned to the palace to pray for the emperor’s health.

The best prayers of the highest priests had no effect, however. The emperor continued to grow worse. Abe no Yasunari was summoned again to read the emperor’s fortune. 

This time, to his horror the onmyoji discovered that the emperor’s beloved Tamamo no Mae was the cause of his illness. She was a
kitsune in disguise, and was shortening the emperor’s life span in order to take over as ruler of Japan. Emperor Toba was reluctant to believe the diviner’s words, but agreed to test Tamamo no Mae just to be sure.

To save the emperor’s life, Abe no Yasunari prepared the Taizan Fukun no Sai, the most secret and most powerful spell known to onmyodo.

Tamamo  was ordered to perform part of the ritual. They reasoned that an evil spirit would not be able to participate in such a holy ritual.

Though she was reluctant to participate, the emperor’s ministers persuaded her. They told her that it would increase her standing an admiration among the court. She had little choice but to accept.

When the ritual was performed, Tamamo was dressed even more beautifully than normal. She recited the holy worlds as expected and played her part extremely well. But just as she prepared to wave the ceremonial staff, she vanished. Abe no Yasunari’s divination was confirmed. The court flew into an uproar.

Soon after, word arrived that women and children were disappearing near Nasuno in Shimotsuke Province.

The court sorcerers determined that Tamamo  was the cause, and it was decided that she must be destroyed once and for all.

The emperor summoned the best warriors in all of the land and then charged the most superb of them, Kazusanosuke and Miuranosuke, to find Tamamo no Mae.

The warriors gladly accepted the honor. They purified themselves and set out with an army of 80,000 men to slay the nine-tailed kitsune.

Upon reaching Nasuno the army quickly found the kitsune. 

The warriors chased her for days and days, but the fox used her magical powers and outsmarted them time and time again, easily escaping. The army grew weary, and frustration set in. It seemed that nothing they did was working. However, Kazusanosuke and Miuranosuke would not accept the shame of defeat and vowed to press on. They practiced harder, honing their tactics, and eventually picked up the kitsune’s trail.

One night, Miuranosuke had a prophetic dream. A beautiful young girl appeared before him, crying. She begged: “Tomorrow I will lose my life to you. Please save me.” Miuranosuke adamantly refused, and upon waking the warriors set out again to find Tamamo no Mae. 

Sure enough, the next day they caught
her. Miuranosuke fired two arrows, one through the fox’s flank and one through its neck. Kazusanosuke swung his blade. It was over, just as the dream had said.

.....

However, her evil did not end with her death. One year after she died, Emperor Konoe died, heirless. The following year, her lover
and former Emperor Toba died as well. A succession crisis ignited between forces loyal to Emperor Go-Shirakawa and forces loyal to former Emperor Sutoku.

 This crisis started the Fujiwara-Minamoto rivalry that led to the Genpei War, the end of the Heian period, and the rise of the first shoguns.

......

As if that were not enough, Tamamo’s spirit haunted a massive boulder which killed every living thing that touched it.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
This boulder is know as the killing stone or  Sessho-seki.

 On march 5 2022, the boulder split in half. Presumably freeing the evil fox once more.

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Also, Happy Valentines Day.

💗🦊

German Folklore, Lorelei The Siren..

 

Lorelei.

In German Folklore Lorelei is described as a beautiful golden haired siren that site's on top of a large rock on the banks of the Rhine River and sings her beautiful and bewitching melodies to lure sailors to their death.

As the legend goes, she was once a beautiful young woman, who  in a moment of despair over a cheating lover claimed the rock and threw herself into the river.

She was then   transformed into a siren who lured fishermen and sailor's to their doom 

 The large rock also called Lorelei, stands on the edge of the Rhine River near Sankt Goarshausen, Germany, and is also known for producing an echo. 

The essentials of the legend itself was created by German writer Clemons Brentano in his ballad “Zu Bacharach am Rheine” (“To Bacharach on the Rhine”), which first appeared in his novel Godwi (1800–02). 

Lorelei became the subject of a number of literary works and songs; the poem “Die Loreley” (1824) by Heinrich Heine was set to music by more than 25 composers.

Part of the song.

The comb she holds is golden,

She sings a song as well

Whose melody binds an enthralling

And overpowering spell.

In his little boat, the boatman

Is seized with a savage woe,

He’d rather look up at the mountain

Than down at the rocks below.

From The Lorelei English translation of the poem by Heinrich Heine, 1824. Translated by A.Z. Foreman

The waves of the river and a nearby waterfall combined with the natural echo of the location create a murdering sound that many attribute to the sirens song.

The legend and song have lead to this rock becoming a tourist destination. And a statue of Lorelei has been placed at the top.

Japaneses myths: The White Butterfly....

 

 

 

 

                                      The White Butterfly

An old man named Takahama lived in a little house behind the cemetery of the temple of Sozanji. He was extremely amiable and generally liked by his neighbors, though most of them considered him to be a little mad. His madness, it would appear, entirely rested upon the fact that he had never married or showed any  desire for intimate companionship with women.

One summer day he became very ill, so ill, in fact, that he sent for his sister-in-law and her son. They both came and did all they could to bring comfort during his last hours. While they watched, Takahama fell asleep; but he had no sooner done so than a large white butterfly flew into the room and rested on the old man's pillow. The young man tried to drive it away with a fan; but it came back three times, as if loath to leave the sufferer.

At last Takahama's nephew chased it out into the garden, through the gate, and into the cemetery beyond, where it lingered over a woman's tomb, and then mysteriously disappeared. On examining the tomb the young man found the name "Akiko" written upon it, together with a description narrating how Akiko died when she was eighteen. Though the tomb was covered with moss and must have been erected fifty years previously, the boy saw that it was surrounded with flowers, and that the little water tank had been recently filled.

When the young man returned to the house he found that Takahama had passed away, and he returned to his mother and told her what he had seen in the cemetery.

"Akiko?" murmured his mother. "When your uncle was young he was betrothed to Akiko. She died of consumption shortly before her wedding day. 

When Akiko left this world your uncle resolved never to marry, and to live ever near her grave. For all these years he has remained faithful to his vow, and kept in his heart all the sweet memories of his one and only love. Every day Takahama went to the cemetery, whether the air was fragrant with summer breeze or thick with falling snow.

 Every day he would visit her grave and pray for her happiness, swept the tomb and set flowers there. 

When Takahama was dying, and he could no longer perform his loving task, Akiko came for him. That white butterfly was her sweet and loving soul."

 

Cupid:God of passion and lust.

Cupid, The cherub of love and passion.

Cupid is the Roman equivalent to Eros the  Greek of Lust.

Cupid (lust or desire) and Amor (affectionate love) are to  different names for the same Roman love-god, ( in some versions cupid is a set of twins) erith was he is the son of Venus, fathered by Mercury, Vulcan or Mars (depending on which version of the story you read.) is young Childlike figure with  wings  who accompany Venus and has also been  identified as Amores, Cupids, Erotes or other forms of  Eros.

The oldest version of cupid   is Eros, whom Hesiod categories as a primordial deity, emerging from Chaos as a generative power with neither mother nor father. Eros was the patron deity of Thespiae, where he was embodied as an aniconic stone as late as the 2nd century AD. From at least the 5th century BC he also had the form of an adolescent or pre-adolescent male, at Elis (on the Peloponnese) and elsewhere in Greece,  acquiring wings, bow and arrows, and eventually divine parents in the love-goddess Aphrodite and the war-god Ares. He had temples of his own, and shared others with Aphrodite.


Fragmentary base for an altar of Venus and Mars, showing cupids or erotes playing with the war-god's weapons and chariot. From the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD)

 

 

 

 In Elis, and  Athens, Eros shared a cult with a twin, named Anteros. Xenophon's Socratic Symposion 8. 1, features a dinner-guest with eros (love) for his wife; in return, she has anteros (reciprocal love) for him. Some sources suggest Anteros as the  avenger of "slighted love".

In Servius' 4th century commentary on Virgil's Aeneas, Cupid is a deceptive agent of Venus, impersonating Aeneas' son and making Dido, queen of Carthage, forget her husband. When Aeneas rejects her love, and covertly leaves Carthage to fulfill his destiny as ancestor of the Roman people, Dido is said to invoke Anteros as "contrary to Cupid". She falls into hatred and despair, curses Rome, and when Aeneas leaves, commits suicide.

Ovid's Fasti, Book 4, invokes Venus not by name but as "Mother of the Twin Loves", the gemini amores. "Amor" is the Latin name preferred by Roman poets and literati for the personification of "kindly" love. Where Cupid (lust) can be imperious, cruel, prone to mischief or even war-like, Amor softly persuades. Cato the Elder, having a Stoic's outlook, sees Cupid as a deity of greed and blind passion, morally inferior to Amor. The Roman playwright Plautus, however, has Venus, Cupid and Amor working together.

In Roman cult inscriptions and theology, "Amor" is rare, and "Cupido" relatively common. No Roman temples seem dedicated to Cupid alone but the joint dedication formula Venus Cupidoque ("Venus and Cupid") is evidence of his cult, shared with Venus at her Temple just outside the Colline Gate and elsewhere. He would also have featured in many private household cults. In private and public areas alike, statues of Venus and Mars attended by Cupid, or Venus, Cupid and minor erotes were sometimes donated by wealthy sponsors, to serve both religious and artistic purposes.

 Cupid's roles in literary myth are usually limited to actions on behalf of Venus; in Cupid and Psyche, one of the stories within the Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass)  by the Roman author Apuleius, the plot and its resolution are driven by Cupid's love for Psyche ("soul"), his filial disobedience, and his mother's envy.

 

 

 

Venus The Goddess of Love.

🌹🖤 Happy Valentine's Day🖤🌹

(More posts pre-scheduled for the next month or so)

Venus is the Roman goddess of love.


Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and Venus is the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus is the Roman counterpart to the Greek Aphrodite, as the Romans borrowed heavily from Greek mythology. However, Venus has attributes that Aphrodite does not, including also being a goddess of victory and battle.



In the later classical art , literature and poetry Venus became one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. She is usually depicted nude in paintings.


As the goddess of Love and sexuality Venus had several  lovers and suitors, including the gods Mercury, Bacchus, and Ares. She had children with each of these suitors. Venus was also married to the god Vulcan, albeit unhappily and without children.


Venus represents  love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles

The importance of the worship of Venus  was increased by the political ambitions of the gens Iulia, the clan of Julius Caesar and, by adoption, of Augustus.

They claimed to be direct descendants  of  Iulus, the son of Aeneas; Aeneas was the alleged founder of the temple of Eryx and, in some legends, of the city of Rome.

From the time of Homer onward, he was made the son of Aphrodite, so that gave his son Iulii and his decendents  a divine origin. Others later sought to connect themselves with a deity grown so popular and important, one of the more notably individuals was Gnaeus Pompeius, the triumvir. He dedicated a temple to Venus as Victrix (“Bringer of Victory”) in 55 bce. Julius Caesar’s own temple (46 bce), however, was dedicated to Venus Genetrix, and as Genetrix (“Begetting Mother”) she was best known until the death of Nero in 68 ce. Despite the extinction of the Julio-Claudian line, she remained popular, even with the emperors; Hadrian completed a temple of Venus at Rome in 135 ce.



Being a counterpart, Venus had no original myths of her own. The Romans inspiration from Aphrodite  as well as several other goddesses. Along with  her association with   the planet Venus. The planet was at first the star of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and later  of Aphrodite. Because of her association with love and with feminine beauty, the goddess Venus has been a favorite subject in art since ancient times; notable representations include the statue known as the Venus de Milo (c. 150 bce) and Sandro Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus (c. 1485).

                                                               Venus de Milo 

Some of the celebrations in her honor.

Veneralia

Vinalia Rustica

Vinalia Urbana


Roman theology presents Venus as the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and balance of life. Her male counterparts in the Roman pantheon, Vulcan and Mars, are active and fiery. 

Venus absorbs and tempers the male essence, uniting the opposites of male and female in mutual affection. She is essentially assimilation and benign, and embraces several otherwise quite disparate functions. She can give military victory, sexual success, good fortune and prosperity. In one context, she is a goddess of prostitutes; in another, she turns the hearts of men and women from sexual vice to virtue. Varro's theology identifies Venus with water as an aspect of the female principle. To generate life, the watery matrix of the womb requires the virile warmth of fire. To sustain life, water and fire must be balanced; excess of either one, or their mutual antagonism, is unproductive or destructive



In some Latin mythology, Cupid was the son of Venus and Mars, the god of war. At other times, or in parallel myths and theologies, Venus was   the consort of Vulcan or as mother of the "second cupid", fathered by Mercury.


...

Romance by Edgar Allan Poe.

 

                  Happy Early Valentines Day

                                               More Paranormal posts coming soon :)

  🖤Romance 🖤

By Edgar Allan Poe.

Romance, who loves to nod and sing,

With drowsy head and folded wing,

Among the green leaves as they shake

Far down within some shadowy lake,

To me a painted paroquet

Hath been—a most familiar bird—

Taught me my alphabet to say—

To lisp my very earliest word

While in the wild wood I did lie,

A child—with a most knowing eye.

Of late, eternal Condor years

So shake the very Heaven on high

With tumult as they thunder by,

I have no time for idle cares

Through gazing on the unquiet sky.

And when an hour with calmer wings

Its down upon my spirit flings—

That little time with lyre and rhyme

To while away—forbidden things!

My heart would feel to be a crime

Unless it trembled with the strings

Japanese Myths : The Snow Bride

 

 

 

                             ❅❄💙The Snow Bride💙❄❅

Mosaku and his apprentice Minokichi journeyed to a forest, some short distance from their village. 

It was a bitterly cold night when they neared their destination, and saw in front of them a cold sweep of water. They desired to cross this river, but the ferryman had gone away, leaving his boat on the other side of the water, and as the weather was too inclement to admit of swimming across the river they were glad to take shelter in the ferryman's little hut.

Mosaku fell asleep almost immediately he entered this humble but welcome shelter. Minokichi, however, lay awake for a long time listening to the cry of the wind and the hiss of the snow as it was blown against the door.

Minokichi at last fell asleep, to be soon awakened by a shower of snow falling across his face. He found that the door had been blown open, and that standing in the room was a fair woman in dazzlingly white garments. For a moment she stood thus; then she bent over Mosaku, her breath coming forth like white smoke. After bending thus over the old man for a minute or two she turned to Minokichi and hovered over him. He tried to cry out, for the breath of this woman was like a freezing blast of wind. She told him that she had intended to treat him as she had done the old man at his side, but forbore on account of his youth and beauty. Threatening Minokichi with instant death if he dared to mention to anyone what he had seen, she suddenly vanished.

Then Minokichi called out to his beloved master, "Mosaku, Mosaku, wake! Something very terrible has happened!" But there was no reply. He touched the hand of his master in the dark, and found it was like a piece of ice. Mosaku was dead!

During the next winter, while Minokichi was returning home, he chanced to meet a pretty girl by the name of Yuki. She informed him that she was going to Yedo, where she desired to find a situation as a servant. Minokichi was charmed with this maiden, and he went so far as to ask if she were betrothed, and hearing that she was not, he took her to his own home, and in due time married her.

Yuki presented her husband with ten fine and handsome children, fairer of skin than average. When Minokichi's mother died, her last words were in praise of Yuki, and her eulogy was echoed by many of the country folk in the district.

One night, while Yuki was sewing, the light of a paper lamp shining upon her face, Minokichi recalled the extraordinary experience he had had in the ferryman's hut.

"Yuki," said he, "you remind me so much of a beautiful white woman I saw when I was eighteen years old. She killed my master with her ice-cold breath. I am sure she was some strange spirit, and yet tonight she seems to resemble you."

Yuki flung down her sewing. There was a horrible smile on her face as she bent close to her husband and shrieked, "It was I, Yuki-Onna, who came to you then, and silently killed your master! Oh, faithless wretch, you have broken your promise to keep the matter secret, and if it were not for our sleeping children I would kill you now! Remember, if they have aught to complain of at your hands I shall hear, I shall know, and on a night when the snow falls I will kill you!"

Then Yuki-Onna, the Lady of the Snow, changed into a white mist, and, shrieking and shuddering, passed through the smoke-hole, never to return again.

 ........

💙❄️👻👻❄️💙

Hone onna love beyond the grave

 

 

                                                     

 

 

                                                                        Hone onna


 Forever loved.

Not all who die turn into vengeful beings of anger or jealousy . 

 

Hone onna retain an undying love that continues long after their flesh has rotted away. 

 

This allows them to continue to be with the person they loved the most, despite having died. These ghosts appear as they did in life—young, beautiful women in their prime. 

 

Only those unclouded by love or with strong religious faith are able to see through their disguise and see their true form: a rotting, fetid, skeletal corpse returned from the grave.
 

 

At night, a hone onna rises from the grave and wanders to the house of her former lover. 

 

Her appearance shocks those who believed her to be dead. 

 

This shock quickly turns into a joy that blinds the hone onna’s lover to any clues that something might be wrong. Even the hone onna herself may not know of her condition. She is driven only by love. She exists as a ghost only to continue the love she had in life. 

 She spends the night and leaves in the morning. 

 

She returns again and again for days, or even weeks, without being noticed. 

 

 

 Each night she drains some of her lover’s life force, and he grows sicker and weaker. Without intervention, he will eventually die, joining his lover forever in death’s embrace.

In most cases, a friend or a servant of her lover will see through the hone onna’s illusion and alert someone to her true identity. Though her human lover may be repulsed by her when the truth is revealed to him, the ghost may not realizes her condition and continue to visit every night. 

A home can be protected with prayers and magic charms against entry by ghosts, but they only work as long as the master of the house wills them to. As the hone onna’s body decays further, her enchanting allure only increases. Eventually most men succumb and let her into their homes one last time, sacrificing their own lives to the ghost of the woman they loved.

 

 

One of the most well known hone onna is Otsuyu from Botan dōrō, or The Tale of the Peony Lantern. Botan dōrō was introduced to Japan in the 17th century from an old Chinese ghost story.

 

 Over the centuries, it has been adapted into puppet shows, kabuki plays, rakugo, and movies.

                                     

Nure Onna

 

 

 

 

                                Nure onna



Nure Onna means .. wet woman
She is also called  nure yomejo:

Nure Onna live in water on coasts, rivers, and other bodies of water; native to Kyūshū.

She is a dangerous vampiric sea serpents who hunts along the shores and rivers looking for humans to prey.

 

 They are most often found on the shores of the island of Kyūshū, but there are stories of nure onna encounters as far north as Niigata Prefecture and as far east as Fukushima Prefecture. 

There are two variations of this yōkai: one without arms, which resembles an enormous sea serpent with a woman’s head, and  one with   arms.

                                          

 

                             

 Aside from this difference, the two act in exactly the same way. Their faces are hideous and betray serpent-like features such as a forked tongue. They have long black hair which sticks to their dripping bodies. Their name comes from the fact that they always appear soaking wet.

 

 While physically much stronger than a human, nure onna prefer not to rely on brute force and use trickery and guile to catch their prey. 

 

They most often appear near the water, on a coast or by a riverbank. Nure onna magically disguise themselves as a distressed woman carrying a bundled up baby. They cry out for help from fishers, sailors, or anybody passing by. When the prey approaches, a nure onna will plead with their victim to hold her baby for just a moment so that she can rest. 

                                       

If he agrees and takes the bundle, the “baby” becomes as heavy as a boulder. The victim is unable to move. 

 

The nure onna is then free to attack her helpless victim, feeding by draining his blood with her long, serpentine tongue.

Nure onna frequently appear together and cooperate with ushi oni, as they inhabit the same environments and share the same diet.

Mythology: Aphrodite the Goddess of love.

 

 Febuary is the month of love and who better embody s that notion then the
goddess of love herself, i'm referring of course to Aphrodite.

Aphrodite is a greek goddess of love know for her stunning beauty.

though she also played a large part in the trojan war and was notorious for
her many sorted affairs.

===========


She is a goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation. Her symbols are roses, myrtles, doves, sparrows, and swans.......


----------------------

She has an odd origin story ..

Aphrodite was born from  the  god Uranus severed genitalia that had been
thrown into the sea near Cyprus.

 

=========

When Cronos castrated his father Uranus (Ouranos) with a sickle and threw
the genitalia into the sea, soon after Aphrodite appeared amidst the resulting sea foam.
 

In another versions, shes the daughter of Zeus and Dione, the Titaness.

Hesiod recounts the first version and Homer the second,  though the ancient Greeks had differing opinions on the two versions of her origin, some preferring the first and others the second.

With her birth near Cyprus, Aphrodite was especially worshiped in Paphos on the island -

Greece and the Near East had extensive cultural exchange prior to the 8th-century BCE Archaic Period,
during  the 5th-century  BCE Greek historian Herodotus states that the most ancient cult site to Aphrodite was at Ascalon in Syria.

This hints at her eastern origins as a fertility goddess and possible evolution from the Phoenician goddess  Astarte or the Near Eastern Inanna (Ishtar). It is also possible that the goddess derived from an entirely local  Cypriot deity.

The strong association with the island is evidenced in her common name,
Cypris, meaning ‘of Cyprus’.

==========================

The cult of Aphrodite was believed to be largely derived from  or at least heavenly influenced by  the Phoenician goddess Astarte, or  goddess Ishtar, whose cult was based on the Sumerian cult of Inanna.
 

                                               ......Rin as Ishtar from the Fate Series...

                                                            ---------Ishtar Statue----------

==========================================

Aphrodite's main cult centers were Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth, and Athens.

Her main festival was the Aphrodisia, which was celebrated annually during the midsummer.
===========

In Laconia, Aphrodite was worshiped as a warrior goddess.

The goddess of love was also the patron goddess of prostitutes, this  association led early scholars to propose the concept of  "sacred prostitution" in Greco-Roman culture, an idea which is now generally seen as erroneous.


Aphrodite's main festival, the Aphrodisia, was celebrated all across Greece, but especially in Athens and Corinth. 

In Athens, the Aphrodisia was celebrated on the fourth day of the month of Hekatombaion in honor of Aphrodite's role in the unification of Attica.
 

 

 During this festival, the priests of Aphrodite would purify the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on the southwestern slope of the Acropolis  with the blood of a sacrificed dove. Next, the altars would be anointed and the cult statues of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho would be escorted in a majestic procession to a place where they would be ritually bathed. Aphrodite was also honored in Athens as part of the Arrhephoria festival.
 

 

The fourth day of every month was sacred to Aphrodite.

Pausanias records state that  in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshiped as Aphrodite Areia, which means "warlike".

This name is derived from her connection to Ares the god of war.

Pausanias also records that, in Sparta  and on Cythera, a number of extremely ancient cult statues of Aphrodite portrayed her bearing arms. well Other cult statues showed her bound in chains. 

Aphrodite was the patron goddess of prostitutes of all kinds,  ranging from pornai (cheap street prostitutes typically owned as slaves by wealthy pimps)  to hetairai (expensive, well-educated hired companions, who were usually self-employed and sometimes provided sex to their customers).
 

The city of Corinth was renowned throughout the ancient world for its many hetairai, who had a widespread reputation for being among the most skilled, as well as the most expensive  prostitutes in the Greek world.  Corinth also had a major temple to Aphrodite located on the Acrocorinth and was one of the main centers of her cult.

Records of numerous dedications to Aphrodite made by successful courtesans have survived in poems and  pottery inscriptions to this day.
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In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the god of fire, blacksmiths and metalworking.

Being the goddess of love, she had many partners as such she was a somewhat unfaithful wife, prone to several affairs with other gods and even mortals.


A few of her Olympian trysts include, Ares, Hermes, and Dionysos.

In the Iliad, Aphrodite is the unmarried consort of Ares, the god of war,  and the wife of Hephaestus is a different goddess named Charis.

in Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite is unmarried and the wife of Hephaestus is Aglaea, the youngest of the three Charites.

but

In Book Eight of the Odyssey, the blind singer Demodocus describes Aphrodite as the wife of Hephaestus and tells how she committed adultery with  Ares during the Trojan War.


Hephaistos, was a crafty god and a master engineer, he built a special golden bed to catch his wife in the act.

One day when Aphrodite and Ares were in the middle of their most resent hook up, the bed sprang forth a golden net which locked the naked god's in  their illicit embrace. Afterwards Helios the sun god shone down his bright light  on the couple so that all of  Olympus could get a good look  at their disgrace and embarrassment. they where eventually freed, Ares later fled to Thrace and Aphrodite back to Cyprus.  

Other stories came about in later years to explain Aphrodite's marriage to Hephaestus.
In the most famous story, Zeus hastily married Aphrodite to Hephaestus in order to prevent the other gods from fighting over her.
 

In another version of the tale, Hephaestus gave his mother Hera a golden throne, but when she sat on it, she became trapped and he refused  to let her go until she agreed to give him Aphrodite's hand in marriage.



The Trojan War...

In Homer’s description of the Trojan War in the Iliad, Aphrodite is described as ‘golden’ and ‘smiling’ and supports the Trojans in the war.
 

 

-----------------------------------------Helen of Troy------------------------------------

==========================The Trojan Horse==================

During a few  notable events during the Trojan war Aphrodite protects her son Aeneas from Diomedes and saves the hapless Paris from the wrath of Menelaos.





Aphrodite is cited as partly responsible for the Trojan War. At the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Eris (goddess of strife) offered a golden apple for the most beautiful goddess.

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                                                    -----------The Judgment of Paris-----------
The myth of the Judgement of Paris was only briefly mentioned in the Iliad, but is described in length in an epitome of the Cypria, a lost poem of the  Epic Cycle,  which records that all the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual
parents of Achilles).  

All except Eris, the goddess of discord, she was not invited. maybe her invitation was just lost in the mail lol.... 

Eris was angered by this insult, so she crashed the wedding bringing with her a golden apple inscribed with the word(kallistei, "for the fairest"),  which she threw among the goddesses.

Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.

The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses over the other, put the choice into  the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, the goddesses appeared before  Paris for his decision.

In some versions of the Judgement of Paris, Aphrodite is depicted fully nude, in others she is not, and Athena and Hera are always fully clothed.

However since the Renaissance, Western paintings have typically portrayed all three goddesses as completely naked.


All three goddesses were the personification of beauty and Paris could not decide between them, so they resorted to bribes.

Hera tried to bribe Paris with power over all Asia and Europe,  and Athena offered wisdom, fame and glory in battle, but Aphrodite promised Paris that,  if he were to choose her as the fairest, she would let him marry the most beautiful mortal woman on earth.  

This woman was Helen, who unfortunately for Paris was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta.

Paris selected Aphrodite and awarded her the golden apple.

The other two goddesses were enraged and, as a direct result, sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War.


Aphrodite plays an important and active role throughout the entirety of Homer's Iliad. In Book III, she rescues Paris from Menelaus after he foolishly challenges him to a one-on-one duel. She then appears to Helen in the form of an old woman and attempts to persuade her to have sex with Paris, reminding her of his physical beauty and athletic prowess.

Helen immediately recognizes Aphrodite by her beautiful neck, perfect breasts, and flashing eyes
and chides the goddess, addressing her as her equal.  Aphrodite sharply rebukes Helen, reminding her that, if helen angers her, she will punish her just as much as she has favored her already.

Helen demurely obeys Aphrodite's command.

In Book V, Aphrodite charges into battle to rescue her son Aeneas from the Greek hero Diomedes.
Diomedes recognizes Aphrodite as a "weakling" goddess  and, thrusting his spear, nicks her wrist through her "ambrosial robe".Aphrodite borrows Ares's chariot to ride back to Mount Olympus.
Zeus chides her for putting herself in danger, reminding her that "her specialty is love, not war."

According to Walter Burkert, this scene directly parallels a scene from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Ishtar, Aphrodite's Akkadian precursor, cries to her mother Antu after the hero Gilgamesh rejects her sexual advances, but is mildly rebuked by her father Anu.
 

In Book XIV of the Iliad, during the Dios Apate episode, Aphrodite lends her kestos himas to Hera for the purpose of seducing Zeus and distracting him from the combat while Poseidon aids the Greek forces on the beach.

In the Theomachia in Book XXI, Aphrodite again enters the battlefield to carry Ares away after he is wounded.

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In addition to her associations with doves, Aphrodite was also closely linked with sparrows  and she is described riding in a chariot pulled by sparrows in Sappho's "Ode to Aphrodite".
 
In ancient Greek pottery Aphrodite was frequently seen appearing with doves and the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos on the southwest slope of the Athenian Acropolis was also decorated with relief sculptures of doves with knotted fillets in their beaks. Votive offerings of small, white,  marble doves were also discovered in the temple of Aphrodite at Daphni.

                                                   
and

Because of her connections to the sea, Aphrodite was often associated with different types of water fowl, including swans, geese, and ducks.

Aphrodite's other symbols included the sea, conch shells, and roses.

The rose and myrtle flowers were both sacred to Aphrodite.

Her most important fruit emblem was the apple,  but she was also associated with pomegranates, possibly because the red seeds suggested sexuality or because Greek women sometimes used pomegranates as a method of birth control.

In Greek art, Aphrodite is often also accompanied by dolphins and Nereids.


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==Sappho's "Ode to Aphrodite===
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Rich-throned immortal Aphrodite,
scheming daughter of Zeus, I pray you,
with pain and sickness, Queen, crush not my heart,
but come, if ever in the past you heard my voice from afar and hearkened,
and left your father's halls and came, with gold
chariot yoked; and pretty sparrows
brought you swiftly across the dark earth
fluttering wings from heaven through the air.

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Ok thats all for now, hope you all have a fun Valentines Day!

Next post will be up in a week or so.