The magical Girdle of Aphrodite or Venus (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ἱμάς, ''himás'': 'strap, thong'; κεστός, ''kestós'': 'girdle, belt';

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''cingulum'' ''Veneri'', ''cestus'' ''Veneris''), variously interpreted as

girdle A belt, especially if a cord or rope, is called a girdle if it is worn as part of Christian liturgical vestments, or in certain historical, literary or sports contexts. Girdles are used to close a cassock in Christian denominations, including th ...

belt Belt may refer to: Apparel * Belt (clothing), a leather or fabric band worn around the waist * Championship belt, a type of trophy used primarily in combat sports * Colored belts, such as a black belt or red belt, worn by martial arts practit ...

, breast-band, and otherwise, is one of the erotic accessories of

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...

, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. According to

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

, the girdle was imbued with the power to inspire the passion of desire in mortals and immortals alike.

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...

, in her role as the goddess of marriage, sometimes borrowed it from Aphrodite to mitigate lovers' quarrels, to instigate the bridal contests of suitors, and on at least one occasion to manipulate her husband

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

.Atsma 2017, n.p.

Sources

Homer, ''Iliad'' 14.159–221

Guy Head - Juno Borrowing the Girdle of Venus

The earliest mention of the girdle is in Book 14 of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...

'', when its magical power is sought by Hera, who wants to seduce her husband Zeus, and has arrayed herself in all her finery, when she asks Aphrodite for "love and desire" ( φιλότητα καί ἵμερον, ''philótēta kaí hímeron''). Aphrodite immediately understands what she wants and gives her the magic girdle, her "broidered

zone Zone or The Zone may refer to: Places Climate and altitude zones * Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span * Frigid zone, ...

, curiously-wrought" ( κεστὸν ἱμάντα ποικίλον, ''kestón himanta poikílon'').

She spake, and loosed from her bosom the broidered zone, curiously-wrought, wherein are fashioned all manner of allurements; therein is love, therein desire, therein dalliance—beguilement that steals the wits even of the wise. This she laid in her hands, and spake, and addressed her: "Take now and lay in thy bosom this zone, curiously-wrought, wherein all things are fashioned; I tell thee thou shalt not return with that unaccomplished, whatsoever in thy heart thou desirest."

Other sources

The scant details of the Homeric account were supplemented and embellished by later authors. *

Apuleius Apuleius (; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis; c. 124 – after 170) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He lived in the Roman province of Numidia, in the Berber city of Madauros, modern-day ...

, ''

The Golden Ass The ''Metamorphoses'' of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as ''The Golden Ass'' (''Asinus aureus''), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The protagonist of the novel is Lucius. At the end of the no ...

'' 2.8. *

Coluthus Coluthus or Colluthus of Lycopolis ( grc-gre, Κόλουθος, Kolouthos; ) was a Greek epic poet of the late Roman Empire who flourished during the reign of Anastasius I in the Thebaid. ''Calydoniaca'' and ''The Rape of Helen'' According to th ...

, ''Rape of Helen'' 15, 155. *

Nonnus Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebai ...

, ''

Dionysiaca The ''Dionysiaca'' {{IPAc-en, ˌ, d, aɪ, ., ə, ., n, ᵻ, ˈ, z, aɪ, ., ə, ., k, ə ( grc-gre, Διονυσιακά, ''Dionysiaká'') is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest survi ...

'
3.400, 5.88, 32.10, 33.4, 41.20, 42.98, 42.378, 48.264
*

Antiphanes of Macedon Antiphanes ( grc, Ἀντιφάνης) of Macedon is the author of ten epigrams in the Greek Anthology; one of these is headed as Antiphanes of Megalopolis and may be by another poet. He lived after the time of Meleager (that is, after 100 BCE), ...

, ''

Greek Anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' ( la, Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Pa ...

'' 6.88. *

Photius Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...

, ''Bibliotheca''br>190.149a
Photius, citing

Ptolemy Chennus Ptolemy Chennus or Chennos ("quail") ( grc-koi, Πτολεμαῖος Χέννος ''Ptolemaios Chennos''), was an Alexandrine grammarian during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. According to the ''Suda'', he was the author of an historical drama ...

, mentions the story that Aphrodite lent her magical embroidered band (''kestos himas'') to

Helen Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

, to ensure that

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

would fall in love with her: it was stolen by Helen's servant, Astyanassa, and recovered from her by Aphrodite.

Interpretation

Homer's text suggests that the ''kestós himás'', traditionally translated as "embroidered girdle", may be describing a kind of decorated breast-band ( στρόφιον, ''stróphion''), for Aphrodite advises Hera: "Take now and ''lay in thy bosom'' this zone". There is at least one example of late-Hellenic sculpture that seems to confirm this, depicting the goddess wrapping a ''stróphion'' (from ''stróphos'' "twisted band" + the diminutive suffix ''-ion'') around her chest.Bender 2014, n.p. Count Du Mesnil du Buisson, in a study of the ornaments that appear on figures of

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in S ...

Astarte Astarte (; , ) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess Ashtart or Athtart (Northwest Semitic), a deity closely related to Ishtar (East Semitic), who was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. The name i ...

Atargatis Atargatis (; grc, Ἀτάργατις, translit=Atárgatis or arc, , translit=ʿtrʿth; syc, ܬܪܥܬܐ, translit=Tarʿaṯā) was the chief goddess of northern Syria in Classical antiquity. Ctesias also used the name Derketo ( grc-koi, Δε� ...

, and Aphrodite, calls attention to a characteristic ornament consisting of two bands, each of which passes over a shoulder and under the opposite arm and together form a diagonal cross, which he calls ''sautoir'' ("

saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French ''sautoir'', Medieval Latin ''saltator ...

"). Depictions of saltires with cords, bands, knots, and tassels suggests magical properties, as these ornaments were sometimes thought to conserve the ''

mana According to Melanesian and Polynesian mythology, ''mana'' is a supernatural force that permeates the universe. Anyone or anything can have ''mana''. They believed it to be a cultivation or possession of energy and power, rather than being a ...

'' of the wearer.

Campbell Bonner Campbell Bonner (30 January 1876 - 11 July 1954) was an American classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman liter ...

argues a possible connection with the Homeric girdle, but also notes other theories.

Reception

The Girdle of Venus was a common theme in the

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

and literature of Europe, particularly during the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and Neoclassical periods. * ''Cestum Veneris habere'', "possessing the girdle of Venus"; according to

Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore ...

and

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

, literally "to be irresistible". * ''Gürtel des Liebreizes'', "belt of grace"; so called by

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

in his philosophical essay '' On Grace and Dignity'' (1793), a detailed interpretation of the myth, emphasising the difference between beauty and grace: "The Greek myth attributes to the goddess of beauty a belt, possessed of the power to endow the one who wears it with grace, and to obtain love. ... All grace is beautiful, for the belt of grace is a property of the goddess of Gnidus; but not all that is beautiful is grace, for even without this belt, Venus remains what she is. ... Venus can take off her belt and momentarily relinquish it to Juno; her beauty she could surrender only with her person. Without her belt she is no longer the alluring Venus; without beauty she is no longer Venus at all."Schiller (tr. Gregory) 1992, pp. 337–338.

References

Bibliography

* Atsma, Aaron J., ed. (2017)
"Aphrodite Estate & Attributes"
''

Theoi Project The Theoi Project (also known as Theoi Greek Mythology) is a digital library website about Greek mythology and its representation in classical literature and ancient Greek art. It serves as a free reference to the gods (''theoi''), spirits (''daimo ...

''. Accessed 7 March 2022. * Bender, K. (2014)
"The girdle of Aphrodite-Venus...or was it her 'wonderbra'?"
''Iconography in Art History'',

Blogger A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

. Retrieved 7 March 2022. * Bonner, Campbell (1949)
"ΚΕΣΤΟΣ ΙΜΑΣ and the Saltire of Aphrodite"
''The American Journal of Philology'', The Johns Hopkins University Press, 70(1): 1–6. * Schiller, Friedrich (1992)
''On Grace and Dignity''
Translated by George Gregory. Schiller Institute, Inc. (Original work published 1793). {{Authority control Greek mythology Mythological clothing

Sources

Homer, ''Iliad'' 14.159–221

Other sources

Interpretation

Reception

See also

References

Bibliography