The Iliad 20.104–109 — Apollo-lycaon speaking to Aeneas | The Lexicon

The Iliad 20.104–109

to the gods that are for ever; for of thee too men say that thou wast born of Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, while he is sprung from a lesser goddess. For thy mother is daughter of Zeus, and his of the old man of the sea. Nay, bear thou straight against him thy stubborn bronze, nor let him anywise turn thee back with words of contempt and with threatenings.

ἥρως ἀλλʼ ἄγε καὶ σὺ θεοῖς αἰειγενέτῃσιν εὔχεο· καὶ δὲ σέ φασι Διὸς κούρης Ἀφροδίτης ἐκγεγάμεν, κεῖνος δὲ χερείονος ἐκ θεοῦ ἐστίν· ἣ μὲν γὰρ Διός ἐσθʼ, ἣ δʼ ἐξ ἁλίοιο γέροντος. ἀλλʼ ἰθὺς φέρε χαλκὸν ἀτειρέα, μηδέ σε πάμπαν λευγαλέοις ἐπέεσσιν ἀποτρεπέτω καὶ ἀρειῇ.

Lattimore commentary

The Iliad depicts Aphrodite as daughter of Zeus, in contrast to the well-known version in Hesiod’s Theogony (190–206) according to which she arose in the open sea from the cast-off genitals of his grandfather Ouranos, and is thus older than the Olympian cohort. The latter version would make her more like Thetis, connected to open water. The story of how Aineias was fathered on Aphrodite by Anchises, Priam’s cousin, is told in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite.

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