Ancient Greek Goddesses Aphrodite And Artemis – Rivalry And Conflict Over Prestige Illustrated In Hippolytus By Euripides

Thalia Lightbringer - AncientPages.com - The ancient Greeks were often in conflict with each other, and so were their gods and goddesses. However, they would pull together when outside forces threatened, such as when the Persians tried to invade Greece (Note the battles at Thermopylae and Salamis).

Similarly, though the Greek gods and goddesses had some internal rivalry, they were not allowed to take action directly against each other. Therefore, they often competed by influencing or testing mortal men and women. It was dangerous to ignore or to get too close to any of them. One illustration of this is the story of Hippolytus, a follower of Artemis.

Aphrodite (Roman Venus) Versus Artemis (Roman Diana)

Aphrodite and Artemis were natural rivals, being that Aphrodite was the goddess whose domain was beauty, the pleasures of the flesh, fertility and procreation. Artemis had sworn she would always remain celibate, choosing denial of the flesh, so was in direct opposition to the lusty side of life that Aphrodite represented.

Aphrodite was the goddess of love, but not necessarily enduring love, which was the domain of her son Eros (transformed by the Romans into the cherubic Cupid), whose arrows could be a curse, sometimes employed at Aphrodite's request. In Greek stories, love was not necessarily a blessing as it often ended quite badly for those struck by the arrows of Eros.

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See also: 

Wonderful Long-Lived Nymphs In Greek And Roman Mythologies

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