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Anchises and Aphrodite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

H.J. Rose
H.J. Rose
Affiliation:
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
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Extract

This ancient tale has naturally been recognized by modern scholars for what it is—a story of the Great Mother and her paramour; but several features appear to me to have been given less examination than they deserve, in view of their own peculiarity and the obvious antiquity of the myth.

That it is pre-Greek is fairly clear from the names of the principal actors. Anchises yields no tolerable meaning in Greek, and we do not know to what speech it belongs—possibly Phrygian. Aphrodite is, of course, no Greek goddess at all. The tale was known to Greek saga-men about the tenth century B.C., and is fully told for the first time, so far as our surviving records go, in a document possibly of the seventh century—the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. Connected as it is, though loosely, with the Troy-saga, it may quite possibly go back to Minoan-Mycenaean times, as that does. The features which I think worthy of further investigation are the fate of Anchises after his enjoyment of the goddess' favours, and in particular the effect upon him of the thunderbolt with which he was smitten.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , January 1924 , pp. 11 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1924

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References

page 11 note 1 As by Rossbach in Pauly-Wissowa, I., col. 2109: ‘Hingegen (to the uncertain etymology of the name) steht fest, das er (Anchises) zu den namentlich in Kleinasien einheimischen Lieblingen der Aphrodite gehört.’

page 11 note 2 See B 820, E 313. Hes. Theog. 1008 apparently follows the former passage. I do not stop to argue the question of the unity of authorship of the Homeric poems, which seems to me past all reasonable doubt.

page 11 note 3 For its date see Sikes and Allen, p. 198 of their edition of the Hymns.

page 11 note 4 The coincidence of all the pricipal cycles of Greek myth (save that of Odysseus on Ithaca, which is not myth or saga at all) with the sites of Cretan or Mycenaean culture has been acutely pointed out by Dr. M. P. Nilson (see Der mykenische Ursprung der griechischen Mythologie, in Festschrift für Wackernagel, shortly to be published by Vanderhoeck and Roprecht, Göttingen), with whose views I agree, and to whose courtesy I am indebted for a sight of his article in proof.

page 12 note 1 Bibliotheca, III. 141: Aphrodite acts δɩ' έωτɩκαƲ πιθνμαν and nothing is said of any further cause.

page 12 note 2 She is at home in Pessinus, the Phrygian tableland, the region of the Hellespont, B thynia and Pontus, both banks of the Maeander, and S. and E. from Phrygia until she meets Iranian and Semitic influence (see Graillot, Culte de Cybéle, Ch. X.).

page 13 note 1 See the article of von Sybel in Roscher, s.u.

page 13 note 2 Particulars in Wörner, op. cit., col. 339.

page 13 note 3 Plut, . Theseus, 20Google Scholar.

page 13 note 4 See Aesch., frags. 134, 135, Nauck.

page 14 note 1 See Rostovtzeff, , Iranians and Greeks in South Russia, p. 105Google Scholar, and Plate XXIII., and his whole discussion of the cults of that region, ibid., and in Rév. ét. gr., t. XXXII., p. 462 sqq.; Herod. IV. 67; Hippokr, . de aere aquis locis, p. 561Google Scholar, Kühn.

page 14 note 2 Op. cit., p. 156. Cf. the legends recorded by Clement of Alexandria, Arnobius, and Pausanias, conveniently collected by Hepding, . Attis, p. 31Google Scholar sqq. Legend and ritual alike show the uires to be magically potent and desired by the goddess.

page 15 note 1 For example, the notorious sacrifice of infants to Melqart at Carthage seems to result from the assumption that the god needs a supply of fresh, unworn life to sustain his own immortal life. A simpler form of this is the Alkestissacrifice in its many ramifications in folklore: A, in order to live longer, appropriates the life of B. Deme meis annis et demptos adde parenti, suggests Jason to Medea (Ov. Met. VII. 168). In view of the orgiastic character of the rites under discussion, it is worth noting that lunatics not infrequently have, besides the tendency to suicide, a perverse desire for self-mutilation. See Hastings, Enc. Rel. Eth., art. Suicide.

page 15 note 2 See Class. Rev. XXXVI. (1922), p. 116Google Scholar, note on Fast. III. 715; Rohde, , Psyche 4. I., p. 324Google Scholar.

page 16 note 1 Hom. Hymn. Cer. 233 sqq.; Plut. de Is. et Os., ch. 16.

page 16 note 2 This has now been finally cleared up by Nilsson; see his articles Der Flammentod des Heraktes auf dent Oite, Arch. f. Rel., 1922, p. 310 sqq., and Herakles in Nordisk tidskrift, 1923, p. 119 sqq. The notion is a latecomer into the story of Herakles, but early in itself. I am not sure that the practice of cremation may not have owed something to the desire to give the corpse the heat (i.e. life) which it obviously lacked.

page 16 note 3 The suicide in historical times of Peregrinus is clearly a deliberate imitation of Herakles.