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Question 9

In the programme you talk about some 'unspeakable offerings' the virgins brought to the grove of Venus. What were these, and what was the night they spent at the shrine an expression of?

(From Michael, London)

Bettany Hughes: Well I'm not being coy, but in this particular instance because our literary source says 'unspeakable' we don't have direct evidence for the contents of the basket.

We do know, however, that in the worship of Aphrodite phallic and vulvic objects were carried in a religious procession by young women. Evidently these were fertility symbols: because this particular ritual in Athens appears to have its origins in Bronze Age (Mycenaean) Greece, I would not be at all surprised if such objects were indeed carried by the young Athenian girls and placed in the niches which still exist in the rock of the Acropolis (one has next to it a faint inscription relating to Eros). This section of the Acropolis may well be open to the public in two years' time so you might just be able to see these niches for yourself. The last time I visited, someone had slipped through the security fence and left half a pomegranate in one opening!

As you may have picked up from our programmes, the reasons for worshiping Aphrodite at the Acropolis were not only sexual. Aphrodite was thought to promote harmony (harmonia), and harmony had all kinds of applications. It could be useful in marriages, business relationships, between soldiers within a phalanx and most especially in politics. It is no coincidence that Aphrodite is worshipped so vigorously in Athens, where opposing political views needed to come to some kind of 'harmonious' consensus, nor that Aphrodite is worshipped at the Acropolis alongside the goddess Peitho, the divinity of Persuasion.

I hope this answers your question, at least to some degree.

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