Aphrodite, in her many forms, became a central figure of the neoclassical movement that first conquered our world in the nineteenth century and continues to do so today. For those living in ancient times, however, the nature of their interactions with Aphrodite would have been dictated by the period in which they lived and the social structures that dominated their communities. In this sense, we can use a number of sources to trace the change in approaches and perceptions of Aphrodite from the archaic period in Greece to the early empire in Rome. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite's birth is inextricably linked to contemporary fears of femininity as a threat to established patriarchal structures that sustained communities. When Cronus, aided and abetted by his mother, takes "the enormous sickle with its long row of sharp teeth and quickly cuts off his father's genitals," the Hesiodic narrative depicts fears of an interrupted succession and meddling wives as a direct threat to masculinity. Significantly, Aphrodite is born from this detached and broken masculinity, and first forms as an angry “white foam” – that of “girl whispers; smiles; deception; sweet pleasure, intimacy and tenderness” all arise with Aphrodite is in line with the profound distrust of women that Hesiod demonstrates most explicitly in his Works and Days. However, to understand the oral nature of the Hesiodic tradition is to bear witness to the terrifying nature of Aphrodite as depicted in the cosmogony: not only is she presented as an outsider, where her name places her on the fringes of the Greek world, but the emphasis is placed on her subversive beauty combined with her ability to "deceive" men. It is clear from the deeply familiar and brutal nature of the conflict that gives birth to Aphrodite, that while Hesiod sought to fashion a cosmos in line with his experience as a farmer and worker, tradition incorporated the fundamental fears of femininity and personified them in Aphrodite as the first female divinity with human-like attributes created in the Theogony. Unlike Hesiod's popular didactic poetry, Homer's Iliad is more concerned with the lessons of high politics and military relations that brought about key turning points in Greek cultural memory. In the Judgment of Paris, it is Aphrodite who offers Helen to Paris in exchange for his favor, thus triggering the Trojan War and the imminent fall of the city. In the Iliad, Aphrodite's actions are condemned under the same terms. In Book III, he removes Paris from the battlefield and "puts him in his perfumed chamber" to await Helen's arrival. First, Aphrodite's intervention in a dramatic battle between two soldiers evokes the fear that women might castrate at times when a strong sense of masculinity is required – to say, as Paris does, “let's leave the war alone now, you and me, and let us enjoy ourselves in our bed” is a clear violation of the battle rites established in antiquity, and it is Aphrodite herself who instigates this violation. Yet Aphrodite's true transgression occurs when she forces Helen to lie with Paris by threatening to "raise hatred for [Helen] among both the Trojans and the Danaans" if she did not do so. In this sense, when Aphrodite says to Helen “I will hate you as I have loved you until now” the Homeric tradition mirrors the Hesiodic warning about the dual nature of Aphrodite's beauty and ability to deceive. More generally, however, and perhaps most importantly, we see that Aphrodite's instigation of sexual behavior between Helen and Paris in this scene marksthe fate of the Greeks and Trojans to be destined for a catastrophic war. Both the Homeric and Hesiodic traditions were intrinsic, in different ways, to the creation of religious and social structures during periods of rapid growth and change in the Archaic era.period and it is clear in this sense that both used Aphrodite as a sign of the threat of women and their ability to seduce men – while Hesiod projected his local fears of femininity onto the cosmos in the form of Aphrodite, Homer presents her as an obstacle to the military's duty and therefore to the stability of the political order. In the late Hellenistic period we are able to discern a somewhat different approach to Aphrodite on the part of the writers. In his Epitaph on Adonis, Bion presents Aphrodite in a moment of heartbreaking vulnerability following the death of her beloved Adonis. The repetition of Aphrodite's "I lament Adonis", combined with the deeply descriptive images of Adonis' wounds, demonstrates the author's desire to make readers and Aphrodite's followers empathize with her on an emotional level. This is in stark contrast to the Hesiodic and Homeric traditions in which she is presented simply as the product and cause of male conflict; in the Epitaph his “woe” is for the errors of “reckless youth” and, in fact, his laments demonstrate an enormous love for humanity. An interesting allusion is made to this version of Aphrodite in Aristophanes' classic Lysistrata: complaining that women "get out of hand," a magistrate condemns a "noisy rooftop party for Adonis" and goes on to note that women were " on the roof getting drunk and shouting 'oh damned youth.'” This is important for our investigation into the perceptions and uses of Aphrodite since we can infer that women following the foreign cult of Adonis adopted the mourning position of Aphrodite as a form of protest in the before the Sicilian expedition, as the date and context of the Lysistrata would suggest. In this sense, we see that by the end of the Hellenistic period Aphrodite had become a deity that all citizens could empathize with and understand positively; we can use this knowledge to argue that alternative ways of imagining Aphrodite were employed as early as the classical period and that these, in contrast to archaic approaches, saw the deity as a means of civic-ritual protest against the influence of the state. contempt for life, as would have happened during the Sicilian Expedition. By Virgil's time in the Aeneid, Aphrodite was transformed into Venus and a much more accessible and sympathetic character was forged. In the Aeneid, a seminal poem that lays out the mythical foundations of a thriving empire, the Romans are said to be directly descended from Aphrodite herself. In this sense she is central to the image of the State and those who would have led Rome in Virgil's time, i.e. Augustus and Caesar, would have directly associated themselves with Venus as a central figure in Roman cultural memory. This is in stark contrast to archaic tendencies to portray Aphrodite as the product and cause of conflict among both common and official men. In Book II of the Aeneid we see a direct attempt to dissociate the Roman Venus from the archaic Aphrodite – Venus asks Aeneas not to kill Helen, pleading “'thou shalt not hold the woman of Laconia, that hated face, to be the cause of this, nor Paris. It is the harsh will of the gods, of the gods,” in which the story of Helen's seduction is changed to free Aphrodite/Venus from all guilt. Indeed, the Roman Venus here actually seeks to moderate the reckless actions of men, whereas in archaic accounts Aphrodite is the cause and product of male recklessness. Please note: this is just an example. Get a document now,.