Eleonora Galindo Martnez

Group 1101

Greek Mythology: was Zeus scared of Aphrodite?

A question that has not been asked enough times is, if Zeus had
children with every pretty woman he saw, were she a goddess or not,
where is the hundreds of children logic dictates he should have had
with Aphrodite, the most desirable creature in the universe?
We could find many possible answers, the easiest one probably
being that no writer ever thought of it. But truly, what are the
chances? Taking into account that Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty,
love, sensuality and lust, and that Zeus, plus to being the supreme
god is the least constant of men when it comes to romance, anyone
would think that they must have gotten involved at some point.
There are also mentions of Aphrodite putting all her effort unto
humiliating Zeus by making him fall in love with certain mortals or
even animals, quite probably out of bitterness because he forced her
to marry Hephaestus, one of the ugliest gods. Anyone would be upset,
wouldnt they? And despite being married, Aphrodite kept affairs not
only with Ares, her worldwide known lover, but with variety of gods
and mortals that will not be discussed here, for we are interested in
Zeus alone.
Zeus does not need his situation explained, everyone knows it.
And this brings us to the next argument: they were never together
because they were family. There are two versions of Aphrodites birth:
first, in Hesiods Theogony, she is born when Uranus severed genitals
fall into the sea, produce foam and she rises from it; so strictly
speaking she would be Geas and Uranus daughter, making her Zeus

aunt. The second version is that she is the daughter of Zeus and
Dione, according to the Iliad, so this time she would be his daughter.
So, they were related. Big deal. They were gods, they did not care
if they were twins, if they wanted to be together they were together.
Zeus first married one of his aunts, the titan Metis, and ate her before
she could give birth to Athena; also, he pursued Thetis, who was his
cousin. Then, regardless of the order, he had children with both his
sisters, Hera and Demeter, and even pursued the daughter he had
with the latter, Persephone; so that alone eliminates whatever validity
that argument had.
Next possibility: Zeus did not like her. Fair enough, we do not
know his preferences, perhaps she did not match his taste. But again,
what are the chances? She was supposed to be as desirable as Helena
was for mortals, seriously, she was sex on legs, so it is unlikely Zeus
would not have felt attracted by her at some point. The wild theory
here, based on modern psychology, would be that she was too much
woman for him, a figure too strong, too difficult for him to deal with.
The idea might sound absurd, but we must remember Zeus is the
lightning god, the most powerful of Olympians; why would he be
scared of a sexy goddess? Which gives us the last possibility: they did,
in fact, have an affair.
After some research, data has arisen that they might have had
one child, Priapus; yet, even among the erudite on the subject, this
deitys parentage is disputed: he might be Zeus son, or Dionysus, or
Hermes, or Pans. She had fingers in a lot of pies. What is almost
certain is that Hera cursed this child while he was still in Aphrodites
womb as retribution for Paris not naming her the most beautiful of
goddesses. The result: Priapus was born uglier than Hephaestus,
impotent and mentally challenged, thus being considered unfit to live
among the gods and thrown to Earth to live as a mortal. He was a

spirit of fertility despite his impotence, and was represented as a very

ugly man with a gigantic penis and, curiously, a permanent erection;
here we were, thinking impotence prevents exactly those. The results
of your mother being the goddess of lust have been revealed.
Ultimately, the question stands; even if there are sources that
state that these two were involved, they are scarce and the
information in them highly debatable. We would consider it necessary
for experts to make thorough research on the relationships among
deities, so that these sorts of questions might be answered more
clearly. Because, after all, melodrama is a need of human beings: we
always want to know things that do not concern us, and anything
related with sex and other people having it is, undeniably, none of our
business; yet, it is impossible to wonder, what if?