People Aphrodite punished for neglecting her
If you think Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and passion, was all about peace and love, you’re wrong. Just like many other Greek gods, she was vain and punished anyone who dared to neglect her or what she stood for.
The goddess’s ways of getting back at people who didn’t worship her were cunning, often involving other gods and even mortals, without sparing their feelings or lives. With punishments ranging from being turned into an animal and being accused of rape to having to kill your own children, Aphrodite was anything but forgiving. These are three stories about people who infuriated Aphrodite and got what they had coming.
Hippomenes and Atalanta, tortured lovers
Hippomenes was a young man in love with the fearless princess and huntress Atalanta. Although she was the only child of Schoeneus, king of the Greek region Arcadia, her father would only make her heir to the throne if she married someone.
Atalanta was, however, devoted to the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, who required her priestesses to stay unmarried virgins. The sporty princess let Schoeneus know that she would only marry a man who could outrun her. Not only did Atalanta’s father agree to that, but also to his daughter’s extreme wish that all men who lost a race to her would be beheaded.
All Greek men who dared to go up against Atalanta failed and lost their lives.
That did not scare Hippomenes, though. He fell in love with Atalanta while seeing one of her races and begged the love goddess for help. Aphrodite provided him with three golden apples that would distract Atalanta during her race against Hippomenes (because apparently all women are drawn to shiny objects).
Hippomenes was able to win the race by shooting the apples past Atalanta, forcing her to pick them up and stare at them in awe. After his victory, Atalanta was faithful to her word and married Hippomenes. But the young man made a grave mistake not thanking Aphrodite in winning over the princess.
While the couple was visiting a temple of the fertility goddess Cybele, Aphrodite punished them by making them have sex on the temple floor. Cybele, unaware of Aphrodite’s magical influence, was outraged and turned Atalanta and Hippomenes into lions. The couple would be eternally forced to draw Cybele’s chariot, closely together but denied to have sex ever again.
The fact that Atalanta had no idea about Hippomenes’s arrangement with the goddess but was punished as well, mattered little to Aphrodite.
Medea, a woman scorned
Medea was a princess and sorceress from the kingdom of Cholcis, centered in present-day Georgia. She was a skilled worshipper of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, and she was considered very beautiful. Aphrodite, who easily got annoyed when beautiful girls did anything but worship her, decided to force Medea to fall in love.
And not just with anyone. At the same time, Hera, the goddess of marriage, was also creating an elaborate plan to punish a mortal and needed the hero/prince Jason to bring home the famed golden fleece. The two goddesses decided to work together and made Medea fall in love with the hero so she would help him in his quest for the fleece.
After Jason’s quest ended, the couple got married and had three sons. But Jason’s eye fell on Creusa, the princess of Corinth. When Jason decided to leave Medea and marry Creusa, the sorceress killed the unlucky princess and her father with a poisoned robe that Medea gave Creusa as a ‘wedding gift’.
But it’s another horrible act that Medea is most famous for. Aphrodite’s forced love and loyalty for Jason made the tormented sorceress so mad that she killed their sons.
In Euripides’s play Medea, the dramatist makes Medea appear in a chariot drawn by dragons who were sent by her grandfather Helios, the sun god. She’s holding the bodies of her dead children, who Medea wants to give a proper burial. Jason watches his scorned wife from the ground and begs her to let him have their children’s bodies.
Jason
“In the name of the gods
Let me touch the soft skin of my children.”
Medea
“That will not happen. Your words are thrown into the empty air.”
Medea goes on to marry the king of Athens, Aegeus, and fruitlessly tries to poison his son Theseus to get rid of Aegeus’s heir. After that, she is banished from Athens, never to be seen again, but probably forever mourning her lost love Jason.
Aphrodite had not only broken Medea, but her cheating husband Jason didn’t fare any better. The former hero eventually dies alone when a beam of his beloved ship, the Argo, falls on top of him.
Hippolytus, a wrongly accused hunter
Hippolytus was the son of Theseus, the king of Athens, who was nearly killed by Medea, and Amazonian warrior Antiope. Just like Atalanta, Hippolytus was athletic, passionate about hunting, and a follower of the goddess of the hunt, Artemis. The young prince despised Aphrodite, and all distractions love brought.
Aphrodite took Hippolytus’s lack of interest badly and prepared her revenge, involving Hippolytus’s stepmother Phaedra. Theseus, a famous Greek hero, had married Phaedra after he had killed the minotaur in Crete. Although Hippolytus loved his father, he didn’t care for his stepmother.
But Aphrodite made sure Phaedra was getting obsessed with Hippolytus.
One night, Phaedra visited her stepson’s bedroom and declared her love to him. Because the disgusted Hippolytus rejected her, Phaedra told Theseus his son had raped her. The king, believing his wife over his son, called on his own father, the sea god Poseidon, to punish his mortal grandson.
Poseidon struck when Hippolytus was driving his chariot next to the sea one morning. The god made a bull rise out of the water to madden Hippolytus’s horses, who trampled the prince to death.
Aphrodite had carried out an elaborate plan to punish a non-believer, not even sparing the poor possessed Phaedra, who killed herself after hearing of Hippolytus’s death.
Don’t forget to thank Aphrodite
Love and hate have always been entwined, and for the Greek gods, that wasn’t any different. Aphrodite is probably the best example of that strong contrast. Although the stories of Hippomenes and Atalanta, Hippolytus, and Medea are very different from each other, they all have Aphrodite’s bloodlust in common.
So next time you pray to the goddess in the hope of meeting the love of your life, remember to thank her afterward. Or you might turn into a lion.
Sources:
Euripides. Medea. 431 BC.
Fry, Stephen. Heroes. London: Penguin, 2019.
Fry, Stephen. Mythos. London: Penguin, 2017.
