Olympian Goddess Aphrodite on Life's Toughest Challenge - Temptation

Summary of Contents: Aphrodite in Mythology | Arrival and Appearance | On the Beach | Final Temptation | Island in the Centre of the World | Goddess of the Seashore | Aphrodite's Gift

Festival Day - 12 to 13 August

Olympian Goddess Aphrodite Mythological references

Aphrodite was linked with Asiatic goddess Ishtar and scholars studying Egyptian hieroglyphics believed her to be their goddess Hathor.

Most famously Aphrodite is linked with the fall of Troy. The cause of Hera’s and Athena’s animosity toward Troy city and King Priam was the consequence of a choice-test and an apple, so the famous story told. It happened at a wedding.

Known as Venus in the Roman pantheon of Gods, people since have thought of Aphrodite as the goddess of physical love infamously provoked to jealous vengeance by sweet young princess Psyche’s love for her son Cupid.

Olympian Goddess Aphrodite Mythological references

"Aphrodite or Venus?" Nick Hammond asked out-of-body survivalist Margo Williams.

Aphrodite's Arrival and Appearance

"Aphrodite in this contact, but Friday was chosen as the day to make contact, following the Roman naming of Vendredi, or Venus’ day.

A diamond of light appeared in the air and exploded silver pink. Its light sparkled, weaving textures into a white-skin goddess, pale as alabaster. Dazzling white off-one shoulder gown, rich red hair worn plaited over shoulder. Blue green eyes, soft and beautiful.

I noticed a plaited golden girdle at waist and golden sandals on her feet.

"It is a pity some of the Gods make you frightened but that is how they are," she said. "Yet sometimes fear is good. Even terrifying experiences can bring forth love."

She didn’t give me time to think about that, she gestured calm. "But you will never be frightened by me. I give you my word, the word of Aphrodite, there will be no such tests by me." Aphrodite reached for my hand.

"The only thing I have to give is my love. So, come with me and have no fear."

Venus' Ears

Instantly the air felt tropical hot and humid, filled with the smell and sounds of the ocean. We stood on soft white-sand beside a turquoise sea, the beach stretched palm-fringed for miles into the horizon.

A large conch shell lay part-buried in the wet sand down below the tide-line. There were other shells, an enormous clam and hundreds of abalones, big and small.

Aphrodite's skin was white as the sand. She pointed to the abalone shells. "You know these?"

"Yes," I replied.

"You know the tiny ones, what they are named?"

I picked one up, looked at it. The tiny fragile shell glistened wet in my hand, a perfect ear-shaped shell. "'Venus’ Ears'," I replied.

"Do you think these shells beautiful?"

"Yes."

"Do you think they are more beautiful than my ears?"

"How could they be? Yours are perfect," I answered, truthfully.

Aphrodite laughed out loud, it sounded like tiny tinkling bells. "Such a sweet tongue. They are perfect, like me. Named for me. My ears." She pointed into the distance. "Your task is to take that shell to the end of this beach."

I looked into the palm-lined distance, and when I looked back Aphrodite had vanished.

Stories told of how Venus set Psyche impossible tests and each time she accomplished the task that success only added to Venus’ displeasure.

And provoked ever more dangerous missions, including a journey down into the Underworld to retrieve Persephone’s beauty potion recipe.

The shell and the beach wasn’t so dangerous a test as those of myth but it was not easy, either. Saying 'No' to the Adonis who came my way as the last of her four temptations took more self control than I care to admit.

So, I wondered if Aphrodite’s tests would in due course become crueller. Her fickleness was as legendary as Hera’s jealousy.

Aphrodite's Final Test of Temptation

"Come." Aphrodite beckoned.

We entered what looked like an Asian garden. Small rustic bridges over bubbling streams, miniature pagodas; all very pretty. An archway in a tall hedge opened into a small square garden, in the centre of which was a marble table and two seats.

Two golden goblets stood paired on the table top.

Aphrodite gestured for me to sit. "You have opened yourself up to receive the gifts and the love of various gods and goddesses." Elegantly she took the seat opposite.

"With each test your character is strengthened. You absorb wisdom and you become more courageous." She paused in interested assessment, if I understood. "But none can have the bond between as we do. A bond of love and of trust."

She picked up the closest goblet, sipped and placed it back on the table. She gestured to the goblet in front of me. "Will you drink a glass of wine with me?"

I felt apprehensive but refusal seemed unfriendly. So took a sip. It tasted sweet, like mead. I sipped some more. It was probably the most delicious honeyed liquid I ever tasted.

"You see? It has done you no harm. You have faith in us, so why not faith in what we offer? It is not often I ask a mortal to share wine with me."

I relaxed, began to like the garden very much.

"Thank you for showing your trust. You always can trust me." She paused, thoughtful. "Life could be like this for ever if you choose to come with me. But I cannot insist, nor would I wish to pull you."

She smiled so disarmingly charming. I would have agreed to anything.

"What do you say?"

I understood what she meant. Recruitment offers happened from time to time with other goddesses and gods. I assumed that required permanently leaving my own world.

I gave my answer and was returned. Sweet honeyed wine taste still on my lips.

Island in the Centre of the World

Aphrodite didn’t ever mention Troy city or prince Paris, King Priam or Helen but did speak of the island of Cyprus where Aphrodite’s Bath still can be found high in the Akamas Peninsula hills.

Some distance away, near the town of Paphos is the site of her temple sanctuary, in old Kouklia. Not much remains by way of solid structure, column pieces and small pink-tinged chunks of marble lay scattered here and there lost in a site as big as seventy football fields.

I followed her through the old temple grounds; tzitzika sounds of night-time carried on the warm gentle breeze.

An ambience of loving peace accompanied us. I felt its power around me though didn’t know if it emanated from her or the site had retained its energy like sun-warmed stone.

"This was a great temple. My temple," she said. Tiny silica fragments in the stone reflected her light as she moved. "It still is a place of peace, a place of worship, a place of happiness."

Some ancient and nearly-forgotten legends described Aphrodite as an ocean goddess and maybe there is some truth in that association.

She always was gentle with me, though she manifested authority and strength equal to Hera’s and Athena’s. However, Aphrodite seemed more interested in the natural world environment and our relationship with it.

Aphrodite led me to the pebbled beach close to the sanctuary site. A huge rock chunk, the size of an office-block, lay half on the beach, half in the water as if heaved up and deposited by a gargantuan God.

Smaller doughy-pink chunks lay scattered in the shallow water and all around, like left-over debris from the moment of creation.

A bright moon shone, it illuminated the foam-capped waves hurrying to the shore. They carried a curious sound, high-pitched and haunting. "What is that?" I asked.

"You are listening to the song of the sea."

It almost sounded like a tune.

"I work often with the gods and goddesses of the oceans. I also work with the goddess of the moon." She paused, thoughtful for a moment. "And at times, I work with the Lord of the Underworld though few know of this. He listens to what I say, and I listen to him."

Softly she added, almost too soft to hear but I heard Aphrodite say: "I came from the sea, from the rocks and from the sky. I am immortal."

I turned to look at her.

"There is no other goddess like me."

I don't know what she meant by that.

"You will always find me on the beach, any day or night. If you look hard enough," she added. "So long as I choose to appear."

Goddess of the Seashore

Most Fridays our time together was spent by the ocean, sometimes we visited soft-sanded tropical beaches in search of shells; other times we explored distant rock-strewn coves.

Sometimes we wandered ice and snow-bound shorelines lashed by cold black seas, just as beautiful, she said, and so they were.

We also visited beaches busy with human activity. On a beach of soft sand, hot sunlight and clear turquoise sea Aphrodite walked among the sunbathers and I followed, though no one seemed to notice her.

A child in a cot slept peacefully through a noisy crisis at the water’s edge. A crew of fishermen steered their small boat to the beach but their net, part-filled with fish, broke in the shallow water. They yelled, tried to catch escaping fish with their bare hands.

Aphrodite walked toward the fishing boat, she raised her arms high at the ocean.

Instant response, a huge wave reared up from the calm water, it surged into the fishermen, tipped over their boat and drowned their efforts.

Two fish leaped high above the surface, in soaring perfection like trapeze acrobats they crossed flight-paths in mid air and then plunged back underwater.

Sunbathers saw and pointed to the fishes’ aerial display.

Aphrodite laughed like tinkling bells. "Fish are my friends," she explained. "If a mortal has to have one for food occasionally, that is permissible. But not to make a living from."

Aphrodite's Gift

"Now come to me." She reached her arms around me in an embrace. "My gifts to you are the strength and courage to accept all tests, no matter how hard they are. With love for the god or goddess in your heart."

Aphrodite’s gift of acceptance was gentle, powerful and sometimes necessary.

The old stories mostly presented Aphrodite as a mischievous, fickle goddess even among the Gods. Given to flushes of jealous fury over rival claims of beauty by vain mortals.

However, the tests she set me always seemed to be measures of constancy and wisdom.

If you want my opinion, no human could rival Aphrodite’s astonishing beauty. Human physical appearance changes with each passing year. I sensed her interest in humanity is in how we appreciate and accept life’s changing seasons.

And how we respond to temptation when it comes our way.

Thank you for your company on this short introduction to goddess Aphrodite. If you would like to know more about Margo Williams' experiences and suggestions for how to survive in the hereafter, read this book. Now available from Amazon.