Homeric Hymns

The hymn introduces Aphrodite, goddess of lust, as a seducer of both gods and humans. To humiliate the gods, Aphrodite makes them desire mortals. Tired of her cruel tricks, Zeus uses his power to make Aphrodite to fall helplessly in love with a mortal man, Anchises. After seeing the beautiful Anchises, Aphrodite hurries to her shrine at Paphos and adorns herself in incense and beautiful garments. She returns to Anchises and states that she is a mortal woman who was brought to him by Hermes while attending a festival honoring marriage. After sleeping with Anchises, Aphrodite readorns herself in her beautiful garments and changes into her goddess form. She tells Anchises that he will have a son who is to be named Aeneas, after her own anguish felt by sleeping with a mortal man (the name of Aeneas relates to the Greek ainos, or “grievous”).

Aphrodite reminds Anchises of the fate of two men in his lineage; his grandfather Ganymede and great-grandfather Tros. Zeus kidnapped Ganymede to Olympus because Zeus admired the mortal’s stunning beauty and wanted him as a kind of ornament; Ganymede now pours nectar for the gods and never ages.