(Symposium, 180), there are two Aphrodites, “the elder, having no mother, who is called the heavenly Aphrodite—she is the daughter of Uranus; the younger, who is the daughter of Zeus and Dione—her we call common.” The same distinction is found in Xenophon’s Symposium (viii. 9), although the author is doubtful whether there are two goddesses, or whether Urania and Pandemos are two names for the same goddess, just as Zeus, although one and the same, has many titles; but in any case, he says, the ritual of Urania is purer, more serious, than that of Pandemos. The same idea is expressed in the statement (quoted by Athenaeus, 569d, from Nicander of Colophon) that after Solon’s time courtesans were put under the protection of Aphrodite Pandemos. But there is no doubt that the cult of Aphrodite was on the whole as pure as that of any other divinities, and although a distinction may have existed in later times between the goddess of legal marriage and the goddess of free love, these titles do not express the idea. Aphrodite Urania was represented in Greek art on a swan, a tortoise or a globe; Aphrodite Pandemos as riding on a goat, symbolical of wantonness. (For the legend of Theseus and Aphrodite ἐπιτραγία, “on the goat,” see Farnell, Cults, ii. p. 633.)
To her oriental attributes the following may be added: the sparrow and hare (productivity), the wry-neck (as a love-charm, of which Aphrodite was considered the inventor), the swan and dolphin (as a marine divinity), the tortoise (explained by Plutarch as a symbol of domesticity, but connected by Gruppe with the marine deity), the rose, the poppy, and the lime tree.
In ancient art Aphrodite was at first represented clothed, sometimes seated, but more frequently standing; then naked, rising from the sea, or after the bath. Finally, all idea of the divine vanished, and the artists merely presented her as the type of a beautiful woman, with oval face, full of grace and charm, languishing eyes, and laughing mouth, which replaced the dignified severity and repose of the older forms. The most famous of her statues in ancient times was that at Cnidus, the work of Praxiteles, which was imitated on the coins of that town, and subsequently reproduced in various copies, such as the Vatican and Munich. Of existing statues the most famous is the Aphrodite of Melos (Venus of Milo), now in the Louvre, which was found on the island in 1820 amongst the ruins of the theatre; the Capitoline Venus at Rome and the Venus of Capua, represented as a goddess of victory (these two exhibit a lofty conception of the goddess); the Medicean Venus at Florence, found in the porticus of Octavia at Rome and (probably wrongly) attributed to Cleomenes; the Venus stooping in the bath, in the Vatican; and the Callipygos at Naples, a specimen of the most sensual type.
For the oriental Aphrodite, see E. Meyer, article “Astarte” in W. H. Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie, and Wolf Baudissin, articles “Astarte” and “Atargatis” in Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie; for the Greek, articles in Roscher’s Lexikon and Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie; L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie (4th ed. by C. Robert); L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii. (1896); O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, ii. (1906); L. Dyer, The Gods in Greece (1891); A. Enmann, Kypros und der Ursprung des Aphrodite-Kults (1886). W. H. Engel, Kypros, ii. (1841), and J. B. Lajard, Recherches sur le culte de Vénus (1837), may still be consulted with advantage. For Aphrodite in art see J. J. Bernoulli, Aphrodite (1873); W. J. Stillman, Venus and Apollo in Painting and Sculpture (1897). In the article Greek Art, figs. 71 (pl. v.) and 77 (pi. vi.) represent Aphrodite of Cnidus and Melos respectively. (J. H. F.)
APHTHONIUS, of Antioch, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the second half of the 4th century A.D., or even later. Nothing is known of his life, except that he was a friend of Libanius and of a certain Eutropius, perhaps the author of the epitome of Roman history. We possess by him Προγυμνάσματα, a text-book on the elements of rhetoric, with exercises for the use of the young before they entered the regular rhetorical schools. They apparently formed an introduction to the Τέχνη of Hermogenes. His style is pure and simple, and ancient critics praise his “Atticism.” The book maintained its popularity as late as the 17th century, especially in Germany. A collection of forty fables by Aphthonius, after the style of Aesop, is also extant.
Spengel, Rhetores Graeci, ii.; Finckh, Aphthonii Progymnasmata (1865); Hoppichler, De Theone, Hermogene, Aphthonioque Pro-gymnasmatum Scriptoribus (1884); edition of the fables by Furia (1810).
APHTHONIUS, AELIUS FESTUS, Latin grammarian, possibly of African origin, lived in the 4th century A.D. He wrote a metrical handbook in four books, which has been incorporated by Marius Victorinus in his system of grammar.
Keil, Grammatici Latini, vi.; Schultz, Quibus Auctoribus Aelius Festus Aphthonius usus sit (1885).
APICIUS, the name of three celebrated Roman epicures. The second of these, M. Gavius Apicius, who lived under Tiberius, is the most famous (Seneca, Consol. ad Helviam, 10). He invented various cakes and sauces, and is said to have written on cookery. The extant De Re Coquinaria (ed. Schuch, 1874), a collection of receipts, ascribed to one Caelius Apicius, is founded on Greek originals, and belongs to the 3rd century A.D. It is probable that the real title was Caelii Apicius, Apicius being the name of the work (cp. Taciti Agricola), and De Re Coquinaria a sub-title.
APICULTURE (from Lat. apis, a bee), bee-keeping (see Bee). So also other compounds of api-. Apiarium or apiary, a bee-house or hive, is used figuratively by old writers for a place of industry, e.g. a college.
APION, Greek grammarian and commentator on Homer, born at Oasis in Libya; flourished in the first half of the 1st century A.D. He studied at Alexandria, and headed a deputation sent to Caligula (in 38) by the Alexandrians to complain of the Jews: his charges were answered by Josephus in his Contra Apionem. He settled at Rome—it is uncertain when—and taught rhetoric till the reign of Claudius. Apion was a man of great industry and learning, but extremely vain. He wrote several works, which are lost. The well-known story of Androclus and the lion, preserved in Aulus Gellius, is from his Αἰγυπτιακὰ; fragments of his Γλῶσσαι Όμηρικαὶ are printed in the Etymologicum Gudianum, ed. Sturz, 1818.
APIS or Hapis, the sacred bull of Memphis, in Egyptian Hp, Hope, Hope. By Manetho his worship is said to have been instituted by Kaiechos of the Second Dynasty. Hape is named on very early monuments, but little is known of the divine animal before the New Kingdom. He was entitled “the renewal of the life” of the Memphite god Ptah: but after death he became Osorapis, i.e. the Osiris Apis, just as dead men were assimilated to Osiris, the king of the underworld. This Osorapis was identified with Serapis, and may well be really identical with him (see Serapis): and Greek writers make the Apis an incarnation of Osiris, ignoring the connexion with Ptah. Apis was the most important of all the sacred animals in Egypt, and, like the others, its importance increased as time went on. Greek and Roman authors have much to say about Apis, the marks by which the black bull-calf was recognized, the manner of his conception by a ray from heaven, his house at Memphis with court for disporting himself, the mode of prognostication from his actions, the mourning at his death, his costly burial and the rejoicings throughout the country when a new Apis was found. Mariette’s excavation of the Serapeum at Memphis revealed the tombs of over sixty animals, ranging from the time of Amenophis III. to that of Ptolemy Alexander. At first each animal was buried in a separate tomb with a chapel built above it. Khamuis, the priestly son of Rameses II. (c. 1300 B.C.), excavated a great gallery to be lined with the tomb chambers; another similar gallery was added by Psammetichus I. The careful statement of the ages of the animals in the later instances, with the regnal dates for their birth, enthronization and death have thrown much light on the chronology from the XXIInd dynasty onwards. The name of the mother-cow and the place of birth are often recorded. The sarcophagi are of immense size, and the burial must have entailed enormous expense. It is therefore remarkable that the priests contrived to bury one of the animals in the fourth year of Cambyses.
See Jablonski, Pantheon, ii.; Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, ii. 350; Mariette-Maspero, Le Sérapéum de Memphis. (F. Ll. G.)
