#apelles

Calumny of Apelles

Artist: Sandro Botticelli (Italian, 1445-1510)

Date: ca. 1495

Medium: Tempera on wood

Collection: Uffizi Galleries, Florence, Italy

Description

Apelles Painting Campaspe

Artist: Willem van Haecht (Flemish, 1593-1637)

Date: c. 1630

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: The Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

Description

Friday, 14 November 2025 

Khairete! On today's post, we'll dive into some different Aphrodite epithets! And how fitting a phrase - as Lady Aphrodite was born from the sea! 

That will be the first one we discuss: Aphrodite Anadyomene, or Aphrodite the goddess rising out of the sea. Many of us have seen the Botticelli painting The Birth of Venus. In fact, that depiction may have been our first ever encounter with any example of Aphrodite! (or Venus!) That painting was most likely based on a painting from Apelles, a painter in Ancient Greece. It was installed in the Temple of Asklepios on the island of Kos, but removed by Augustus and taken to Rome, and according to Theoi.com, "and the Coans were indemnified by a reduction in their taxes of 100 talents". Their sources for this are Strabo, Pliny, Ausonius, and Pausanias. By Nero's time, most of the picture had been effaced (erased/defaced), and it was replaced with another artist's work. (And now I'm invoking Zeus Apomyius, Driver of Flies, to get this damn tiger mosquito to leave me alone!) 

My personal experience with Aphrodite Anadyomene has been quite extensive and fulfilling. It's been a very close aspect of mine; and I personally use the story of Aphrodite risen from the sea as my own canon (canon in the religious sense, not the literary sense). I pray to Aphrodite Anadyomene, I offer her seashells and sea glass and seaweed, I eat (vegan) sushi in honor of her. (This is usually avocado rolls, lol. I'm a vegetarian!) I go to the beach and listen to the waves, or I listen to ocean sounds to sleep. I invite Aphrodite Anadyomene to accompany me on trips to the ocean and the seaside. Thus, I feel quite close to her, to this specific aspect. Aphrodite Anadyomene is one of my favorite aspects of the goddess, and absolutely love the Botticelli painting. (Especially since, as we've seen, the original Apelles painting has not existed since the time of Nero.)

Our next epithet is another one of my favorites: Aphrodite Areia. This means Aphrodite the warlike, and describes the Aphrodite who was dress in full armor like Ares (Pausanias iii. 17. § 5.). It is also said that in Sparta, where this goddess was largely worshipped, there was a statue of her chained due to all the rage built up inside her. (This may be a legend, I do not have direct source for it, and the reason she is chained is speculation.) I do, however, really like that imagery. 

As for my personal experience with Aphrodite Areia, it's also been quite extensive…and intense. Aphrodite Areia, the warlike Areia, shares the passion side of Ares; the drive in war that causes people to fight. And not just in armed conflict - in personal conflict as well; whether that's running a marathon, working through relationship problems, or, as mentioned in one of my recent posts, solving a particularly difficult level in a video game. 

Aphrodite Areia drives me and pushes me to be a better version of myself; in whatever area that is. She pushes me to work out, to challenge myself, to study and to overcome my difficulties. Even now as I'm writing this, I'm going through some problems regarding a certain situation in my life, and I feel her presence around me, pushing me to go further. Aphrodite Areia is that force, that endurance, that stamina, that pushes us further, that pushes us to be better. Aphrodite Areia is the last line of defense and she does not let up. 

A third and final epithet of Aphrodite that we'll discuss today is Aphrodite Dionaia; or Aphrodite of Dione. This epithet comes from Homer's canon that Aphrodite is a daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Dione. It seems a bit odd to me that Homer - whose works are so known and influential even in the modern day (i.e. the concept of the guile hero, the phrase "Trojan horse") - did not influence this aspect; as again, most people would associate Aphrodite as a daughter of Uranus and presumably Tethys, the primordial goddess of the sea, or a daughter of Uranus alone born after Kronos threw his father's manhood into the sea. I believe this comes from the Botticelli & Apelles depictions, especially since Augustus took the painting from Kos to Rome. 

Aphrodite Dionaia is not an aspect I've had much experience with; as I mentioned, my canon is the Aphrodite, daughter of Uranus one. However, I have interacted a couple times. I've prayed, I've led worship ceremonies to Aphrodite Dionaia, and I've looked into her. There just isn't too much on this specific aspect; and there's not much on Dione herself as well. (I do worship the Titaness Dione, but she's rarely mentioned.) It being Homer's canon doesn't mean it was shared by all Greek writers or all of Greece. To me, Aphrodite Dionaia feels like a calm, but subtle and fleeting, presence. I might pray to her for her daughter of Dione aspect, her daughter of a Titaness aspect. To be honest, this is one I'd like to get to know better. 

I hope you enjoyed these few epithets and me going into their histories, meanings, and my personal experiences with them! I'd love to post tomorrow about some Kronos worship, or even just another daily prayer. We'll see how things turn out! 

Had a super-crazy-busy September. Finally getting back to asks....

Patronage & Euergetism in Ancient Greece

Short answer: he absolutely supported the arts, and athletics too. But let’s (briefly) consider the whole tradition, as it has come down to our own world from the Greeks (and Romans), who themselves were just copying royal traditions of the ancient near east.

The word euergetism from the Greek euergeteo (εὐεργετέω), to do good deeds, generally means a gift to the public (art, event, building, park, etc.) from a wealthy individual or family. Both then and now the person’s name might be attached to it: the Pantheon in Rome, although (re-)built by Hadrian, left the name of original temple’s donor right atop the entrance in huge letters: M AGRIPPA L. F. COS TERTIUM FECIT. (Marcus Agrippa, Lucius’s son, made this [temple] when he was third-time consul.) Sometimes a dedication was used to throw shade too. The famous hetaira Phryne supposedly funded (or at least offered to fund) the rebuilding of Thebes’s walls after Alexander sacked the city, but only if they inscribed the new wall: Alexander destroyed these but Phryne of Thespiai, the hetaira, rebuilt them. The scorpion’s sting here requires knowing that Thebes had earlier sacked Thespiai, her hometown, in 371. (ouch)

Patronage is also how artists of all modes worked, from the antiquity till today. Artists who couldn’t scare up a wealthy sponsor either gave up or produced art only at a very slow rate. Today, at least some modern states offer national funding for arts via foundations such as (in the US) The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Of course Trump gutted it, which is all too typical of authoritarian governments who want to squash free expression. Yet the notion of “free expression” for artists would have shocked most ancient and medieval artists. Only the best of the best in unique situations could hope for that. Otherwise, you didn’t dare piss off your patron.

So, both patronage and euergetisms were expected of the wealthy in the ancient world: a “social contract,” if you will. Of course, these patrons then got to determine what the artist created—and didn’t create—but the basic idea has rolled right on down to us. Blue bloods “give back,” then get to slap their name on shit. Carnegie Hall, for example. Andrew Carneige, one of the Robber Barons of the mid/late 1800s, was not exactly a good human being, but… art, buildings, even public libraries (2500+ from 1881 on!) … he donated huge amounts. In fact, he actually gave away much of his wealth to the public, famously saying, “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.” Some modern billionaires (such as Warren Buffet, but also MacKenzie Scott) hold that as a moral obligation. In fact, a major complaint about/critique of the modern tech-bro nouveau riche or “Broligarchy” concerns their FAILURE to buy into this traditional social contract. They don’t seem to believe in it, except insofar as it can benefit one of their businesses.

That level of ostentatious and wholly self-absorbed wealth historically tends to be precede (if not always cause) massive social collapses: the Great Kings of the Late Bronze Age, Sargonid Assyrian kings, some Roman emperors, French nobility before the French Revolution, Russian nobility before the Russian Revolution, etc. We could pick apart why that’s the case, but I mostly want to note it here. Btw, this isn’t to excuse the Robber Barons, and the US hit the Great Depression in part due to their antics. Yet throughout history, royalty and nobility more typically engaged in patronage and euergetism—and not just in the ANE and the West.

So, in Alexander’s world, the wealthy were expected to offer patronage to artists, and to invest in public buildings and public entertainments. Even if plays for the public might charge an entrance fee, that covered only a portion of the cost. Patrons covered the rest. Still true today, either with patrons, or via advertisements. The ancient world didn’t have “advertisement” as we understand it. The only advertisement was to get to stick your name on it—and maybe a saucy reason, as we saw with Phryne and the walls of Thebes.

Prior to Alexander III (the Great), we know especially the Macedonian kings Alexandros I, Archelaos, and Philip II all patronized artists and sponsored public festivals, even quite big ones. Philip was thrilled to get to help fund the Delphic (Pythian) Games. Sure, it was hella expensive, but doing so was viewed as a major feather in his cap. And that’s the perk the wealthy get for their euergetism: social credit. The higher the price-tag, the greater the social clout.

Alexander sponsored many artists and athletic contests, as well as contributed to the construction of temples and other public buildings. As he became super rich, he also became quite lavish with that patronage. He wanted to fund a whole temple in Asia Minor but settled for just part of it when the priests there politely warned him to dial it back a notch. Also when he first arrived in Babylon in 331, he funded the repair of the Esagila and Etemenanki—the major Temple of Bel Marduk and its associated ziggurat. That money was reputedly squandered (or so Arrian claims), causing the guilty priests to give "bad omens” to keep Alexander out of the city when he returned in 333. I doubt this was true, as he was just there half a year before, or at least was at Opis right nearby, so I can’t imagine he didn’t ask then about progress on the repairs. But we know he did punish quite a few for similar misuse of funds: he had the man executed who was in charge of the Tomb of Cyrus but allowed it to be plundered.

Obviously, those things weren’t Greek. He wanted to be seen as a proper Asian king, and after he left the Greek colonies on the Asia Minor coast, his patronage and euergetism tended to be local, to wherever that was. He didn’t reserve the bulk of his money for Greece or Greeks. But he did bring several Greek artists to Asia to do this or that for him. In fact, one of the more famous stories about his patronage was giving Kampaspe his mistress (yes, the same as in my novels) to his favorite artist Apelles, when Apelles supposedly fell in love with her while painting her portrait for Alexander. Alexander kept the painting and Apelles kept the woman. Btw, this tale is almost certainly fake and dates to the Roman era, meant to be an example for Roman emperors of proper support for artists; we’re not even sure Kampaspe was a real person! But I fully intend to make hay from it in future novels.😉

first posted in facebook march 17, 2022

willem van haecht -- "apelles painting campaspe" (ca. 1630)

"campaspe was a supposed mistress of alexander the great ... according to tradition, she was painted by apelles, who had the reputation in antiquity for being the greatest of painters" ... wikipedia

"seeing the beauty of the nude portrait, alexander saw that the artist appreciated campaspe (and loved her) more than he. and so alexander kept the portrait, but presented campaspe to apelles" ... pliny the elder

"in the left foreground, van haecht depicted a story from classical antiquity. it shows apelles painting the portrait of campaspe, the lover of alexander the great. his patron thought the portrait was so beautiful that it could take campaspe’s place, and he presented his lover to apelles as a gift. alexander chose art above nature" ... caption from the mauritshuis