The Iliad Aphrodite Quotes

Maddening one, my Goddess, oh what now?
Lusting to lure me to my ruin yet again?
Where will you drive me next?
Off and away to other grand, luxurious cities,
out to Phrygia, out to Maeonia’s tempting country?
Have you a favorite mortal man there too?
…Well, go to him yourself – you hover beside him!
Abandon the gods’ high road and be a mortal!
Never set foot again on Mount Olympus, never! –
suffer for Paris, protect Paris, for eternity…
until he makes you his wedded wife – that or his slave.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 3, lines 460-465, 470-474. When Aphrodite bids the beautiful Helen over whom the Trojan War is fought to join Paris in his bed, Helen rebukes the goddess of love for interfering in her life. Aphrodite is protector of Hector, who kidnapped Helen from her Achaean husband Menelaus. Helen sees herself as the "slave" of Hector and implies that her kidnap was Aphrodite’s doing, telling the goddess to go him Hector herself.

Not a single Trojan, none of their famous allies
could point out Paris to battle-hungry Menelaus.
Not that they would hide him out of friendship,
even if someone saw him –
all of them hated him like death, black death.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 3, lines 529-533. Paris disappears from the battlefield after Aphrodite saves him from being killed by Menelaus. She scoops him up and transports him back to his bedroom in Troy. Both Trojans and Greeks search for him. The reason why all the Trojans hate Paris "like death" is because he stole the Spartan queen Helen from Menelaus and started the Trojan War.

I’ve lifted the mist from off your eyes
that’s blurred them up to now –
so you can tell a god from man on sight.
So now if a god comes up to test your mettle,
you must not fight the immortal powers head-on,
all but one of the deathless gods, that is –
if Aphrodite daughter of Zeus slips into battle,
she’s the one to stab with your sharp bronze spear!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 140-147. Athena tells Diomedes that a mist veils the eyes of mortals which prevents them from distinguishing gods in battle. She lifts the mist from his eyes, so he can tell a god on sight. Then she warns him that he is to fight only one god, Aprodite, and stab her with his bronze spear.

Go back and tell him all,
all I say – out in the open too – so other Achaeans
can wheel on him in anger
…He cheated me, did me damage, wrong! But never again,
he’ll never rob me blind with his twisting words again!
Once is enough for him. Die and be damned for all I care!
Zeus who rules the world has ripped his wits away.
His gifts, I loathe his gifts…
I wouldn’t give you a splinter for that man!
Not if he gave me ten times as much, twenty times over, all
he possesses now, and all that could pour in from the world’s end –
not if his gifts outnumbered all the grains of sand
…and dust in the earth – no, not even then could Agamemnon
bring my fighting spirit round until he pays me back,
pays full measure for all his heartbreaking outrage!
His daughter…I will marry no daughter of Agamemnon.
Not if she rivaled Aphrodite in all her golden glory,
not if she matched the crafts of dear-eyed Athena,
not even then would I make her my wife! No.
let her father pitch on some other Argive.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 450-478. Despite the best efforts of Odysseus to lure Achilles back to the battle, the Greek warrior is still seething with anger at Agamemnon and refuses to budge. He point black refuses the king’s offer of gifts and a daughter in marriage – not if she rivaled goddesses Aphrodite or Athena would he wed her. He says that Zeus has ripped Agamemnon’s wits away.

With that she loosed from her breasts the breastband,
pierced and alluring, with every kind of enchantment
woven through it…There is the heat of Love,
the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper.
irresistible – magic to make the sanest man go mad.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 14, lines 257-261. Goddess of love Aphrodite gives her beautiful breastband to Hera, after Hera asks to borrow Aphrodite’s love powers to seduce Zeus and distract him from the war. Aphrodite tells Hera that it is woven with every kind of enchantment. Put it between your breasts and you will have whatever your eager heart desires, Aphrodite promises her.

And so Brisets returned, like golden Aphrodite,
but when she saw Patroclus lying torn by the bronze
she flung herself on his body, gave a piercing cry
and with both hands clawing deep at her breasts,
her soft throat and lovely face, she sobbed,
a woman like a goddess in her grief.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 333-338. When Briseis sees Patroclus’s dead body she weeps. In a simile she is likened to the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite and is described as having a lovely face and soft throat.
Close