Page 71 - All About History - Issue 186-19

How to build a Goddess
The ruins of the city of
Aphrodisias in Turkey,
one of the many named
after the goddess
© Getty Images
A fragment of a
statue of Aphrodite
currently at the From Venus
Coptic Museum in
Cairo, Egypt
to Mary
How did the goddess of prostitutes
inspire the Holy Virgin?
It may seem a little odd on the surface – a deity who’s
famous for her association with prostitution, sex and beauty
transforming into the pure and virginal mother of Jesus – but
there’s more to it than meets the eye. Areas that were once
sacred to the pagan goddess found themselves taken over
by churches and monasteries dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
In the 12th century, for example, a church dedicated to All-
Holy Mary was built on the remains of Aphrodite’s precinct
at Palaeo Paphos. But why? Venus represented love in all its
forms, and that was something that Medieval Europe didn’t
want to lose. Not only that – she was a protector of cities,
a deity who brought people together, and a nurturer and
protector of children. Particularly in Eastern Europe, Mary
began to take on Venus’s form thanks to her role as the
mother of Jesus and a giver of love.
“Her temples are
squashed under early
Christian churches,
particularly those
dedicated to Mary”
Greeks’ own. They gave her a Greek name and
came into the idea of how you should be called
a Greek, so she became a Greek deity.
Many consider the Roman pantheon to be
copied or borrowed from the Greeks. With
Aphrodite turning into Venus, do you think
they were very similar or were there some
quite strong differences between the two?
There was an early goddess called Venus in Rome
who was really a fertility deity, so she was more
about nature and the cycle of life. I think when
she collided with Astati from the Middle East
and the Greek Aphrodite, that’s when she took
on those warrior aspects. It’s really interesting
that increasingly in the Roman world you see
her naked but armed, so it’s no coincidence to
me that the Romans, who had a desire for world
domination, conveniently emphasised and
embraced that aspect of her.
The imagery relating to her changed during
the Augustan era in Rome. Why?
I think there’s this notion that Augustus was sort
of pushing a reset button on Roman civilisation
and culture, and even though luxury is something
that good Romans should have enjoyed, they
should never have enjoyed it in excess. Venus
became increasingly relegated to the bathroom for
the private dedication of the users of the bathroom
and the bedroom. So she was still present, but
she might have been disempowered. Venus was
holding the mirror up to contemporary women,
and she became more of a simpering creature. She
began to lose her clothes, she became ashamed
of her sex, kind of covering her breasts, and that’s
what happened in Rome as well. So, although
she was still a very important figure, still the
mother of the Roman nation via her love affair
with Anchises, which produced Aeneas and Iulus
and Romulus, it’s almost as though she was there
to protect the Roman power, rather than be the
source of that power herself.
So did the imagery and everything relating
to her continue to change throughout the
Roman Empire until Christianity became
the de facto religion?
No, not really. She was naked and armed,
a goddess who looked after cities, so she didn’t
evolve that much. When the Roman Empire really
started to get wind in its sails, she was almost
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