APHRODIS´IA
APHRODIS´IA (
Ἀφροδίσια), festivals celebrated in honour of Aphrodite, in a
great number of towns in Greece, but particularly in the island of Cyprus.
Her most ancient temple was at Paphos, which was built by Aërias or
Cinyras, in whose family the priestly dignity was hereditary. (
Tac. Hist. 2.3,
Annal. 3.62;
Maxim. Tyr.
Serm. 83.) No bloody sacrifices were allowed to
be offered to her, but only pure fire, flowers, and incense (
Verg. A. 1.116); and therefore, when Tacitus
(
Tac. Hist. 2.3) speaks of victims, we
must either suppose, with Ernesti, that they were killed merely that the
priest might inspect their intestines, or for the purpose of affording a
feast to the persons present at the festival. At all events, however, the
altar of the goddess was not allowed to be polluted with the blood of the
victims, which were mostly he-goats. Mysteries also were celebrated at
Paphos in honour of Aphrodite; and those who were initiated offered to the
goddess a piece of money, and received in return a measure of salt and a
phallus. In the mysteries themselves, they received instructions
ἐν τῇ τέχνῃ μοιχικῇ. A second or new
Paphos had been built, according to tradition, after the Trojan war, by the
Arcadian Agapenor; and, according to Strabo (
xiv.
p.683), men and women from other towns of the island assembled at
New Paphos, and went in solemn procession to Old Paphos, a distance of sixty
stadia; and the name of the priest of Aphrodite,
ἀγήτωρ (
Hesych. sub voce),
seems to have originated in his heading this procession. Aphrodite was
worshipped in most towns of Cyprus, and in other parts of Greece, such as
Cythera, Sparta, Thebes, Elis, &c.; and though no Aphrodisia are
mentioned in these places, we have no reason to doubt their existence: we
find them expressly mentioned at Corinth and Athens, where they were chiefly
celebrated by the numerous prostitutes. (Athen. xiii. pp. 574, 579; xiv. p.
659.) Another great festival of Aphrodite and Adonis in Sestus is mentioned
by Musaeus (
Hero and Leand. 42; comp. Hermann,
Gottesd. Alterth. § 52, 24).
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L.S]
