Crouching Aphrodite
MR 371 Sully room 17 Goddess of love and beauty in Greek mythology, Aphrodite is identified as Venus by the Romans. A great lover herself, she also influenced the course of the loves of gods and mortals, in a beneficial or frightful manner. She was considered the “sister of the Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar and the Syro-Phoenician Astarte”. AR22
Aphrodite Venus Ishtar Astarte : Goddess of love
Aphrodite, Known as the Venus de Milo Ma 399 The spiral composition of the body opening out in several directions, the marvellously delicate surface of the top of the body and the fall of the drapery over the hips make
this Venus one of the masterpieces of the late Hellenistic Period. She could represent Aphrodite
or Amphitrite, goddess of the sea, venerated on the Greek island of Milos where the statue was discovered
in 1820.
It is interesting to note the light the Bible sheds on the possible, even probable, origin of Greek myths. According to Genesis 6:1-13, before the flood, the angelic sons of God arrived on Earth. They gave rise to Nephilim or ‘ones who have fallen’.
Because of this union against nature of spiritual creatures and humans, the Earth became full of immorality and violence (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4). The men of postdiluvian times, such as Yavan, the ancestor of the Greek people (Genesis 10:2-4), certainly heard speak of this period. AR25
The Bible offers an explanation for the origin to the Greek myths
“In the Pantheons of Greece and Rome, and in that of Chaldaea, the same general grouping is to be recognised; the same genealogical succession is not unfrequently to be traced. This resemblance is too general and too close in some respects,
to allow of the supposition that mere accident has produced the coincidence”. George Rawlinson
And Professor George Rawlinson AR26 concludes: “The striking resemblance of the Chaldaean system to that of the Classical Mythology seems worthy of particular attention […]. Even the familiar names and titles of classical divinities admit of the most curious illustration and explanation from Chaldaean sources. We can scarcely doubt but that, in some way or
other, there was a communication of beliefs
Also remarking this fundamental connection, the orientalist E. Speiser traces the theme of Greek myths back to Mesopotamia . AR27 a passage in very early times, from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the lands washed by the Mediterranean, of mythological notions and ideas. »
There where both Babylon and the place from where humans dispersed after the confusion of language were to be found. - Genesis 11:1-9.
