Aphroditus orAphroditos (Ancient Greek:Ἀφρόδιτος,Aphróditos,[apʰróditos]) was a version ofAphrodite originating fromAmathus on the island ofCyprus and celebrated inAthens. He is the masculine version of Aphrodite.

Aphroditus was portrayed as having a female shape and clothing like Aphrodite's but also aphallus, and hence, a male name.^[2] This deity would have arrived in Athens from Cyprus in the 4th century BC. In the 5th century BC, however, there existed hermae of Aphroditus, or phallic statues with a female head.^[3]

Aphroditus is the same as the later godHermaphroditos, whose name derives from his being regarded as the son ofAphrodite andHermes.^[4][5] Hermaphroditos first appeared in theCharacters ofTheophrastus.^[6]Photius also explained that Aphroditus was Hermaphroditos, and cited fragments fromAttic comedies mentioning the divinity.^[7]

One of the earliest surviving images from Athens is a fragment (late 4th century BC), found in theAthenian agora, of a clay mould for aterracotta figurine. The figurine would have stood about 30 cm high, represented in a style known asἀνασυρόμενος (anasyromenos), a female lifting her dress to reveal male genitals,^[8] a gesture that was believed to haveapotropaic qualities, averting evil influences and bestowing good luck.^[9]

This combination of the male and female in one divinity and being associated with the moon, both of which were considered to have fertilizing powers, was regarded as having an influence over the entire animal and vegetable creation.^[10]

Aphroditus (Ἀφρόδιτος) seems to be the male version of Aphrodite (Ἀφροδίτη), with the female thematic ending -ē (-η) exchanged for the male thematic ending -os (-ος), as paralleled e.g. in Cleopatra/Cleopatros or Andromache/Andromachus.

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According toMacrobius, who mentions the goddess in hisSaturnalia,Philochorus, in hisAtthis (referred to by Macrobius), identifies this god with theMoon and says that at theirsacrifices men and women exchanged clothing.Philostratus, in describing therituals involved in thefestivals, said that the image or the impersonator of the god was accompanied by a large train of followers in which girls mingled with men because the festivals allowed "women to act the part of men, and men put on woman's clothing and play the woman".^[2]

Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC),Characters 16.10

"On the fourth and seventh days of each month, he directsmulled wine to be prepared, and going himself to purchasemyrtle-wreaths,frankincense andconvolvuluses; he returns to spend the day worshiping the statue of Hermaphroditus."^[11]

Philochorus (c. 337–283 BC),Atthis

Pausanias (c. 110 – c. 180 AD),Description of Greece 1.19.2

Concerning the district called The Gardens, and the temple of Aphrodite, there is no story that is told by them, nor yet about the Aphrodite which stands near the temple. Now the shape of it is square, like that of theHermae, and the inscription declares that the Heavenly Aphrodite is the oldest of those calledFates. But the statue of Aphrodite in the Gardens is the work ofAlcamenes, and one of the most noteworthy things in Athens.^[12]

Alciphron (c. 125 – after 180 AD),Epistles 3.37

Having woven a garland of flowers, I repaired to the temple of Hermaphroditus, to fix it there, in honour of my deceased husband Phaedria [sic] but I was seized there by Moschion and his companions. He had been teasing me to marry him; but I refused, partly through compassion for my young children; and also because my dear Phaedria [sic] is ever in my thoughts.^[13]

Philostratus (c. 190 – c. 230 AD),Imagines 1.2

The torches give a faint light, enough for the revellers to see what is close in front of them, but not enough for us to see them. Peals of laughter rise, and women rush along with men, wearing men's sandals and garments girt in strange fashion; for the revel permits women to masquerade as men, and men to "put on women's garb" and to ape the walk of women.^[14]

Macrobius (c. 400s AD),Saturnalia 3.8.2

There's also a statue ofVenus on Cyprus, that's bearded, shaped and dressed like a woman, withscepter and male genitals, and they conceive her as both male and female.Aristophanes calls her Aphroditus, andLaevius says: Worshiping, then, the nurturing god Venus, whether she is male or female, just as the Moon is a nurturing goddess. In his AtthisPhilochorus, too, states that she is the Moon and that men sacrifice to her in women's dress, women in men's, because she is held to be both male and female.^[15]

• Agdistis
• Ancient history of Cyprus
• Aphrodite of the Gardens
• Paeon of Amathus

• Marie Delcourt (1961).Hermaphrodite: Myths and Rites of the Bisexual Figure in Classical Antiquity. p. 27.
• Walter Burkert (1985).Greek Religion. Harvard University Press. p. 152.ISBN 9780674362819.
• Yves Bonnefoy (1992).Greek and Egyptian Mythologies. University of Chicago Press. p. 171.ISBN 9780226064543.aphroditus.
• Yulia Ustinova (1999).The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom. Brill. pp. 37, 106.ISBN 9004112316.
• Luc Brisson (2002).Sexual ambivalence: androgyny and hermaphroditism in Graeco-Roman antiquity. University of California Press. p. 54.ISBN 9780520223912.
• Signe Isager; Poul Pedersen (2004).The Salmakis inscription and Hellenistic Halikarnassos. University Press of Southern Denmark. p. 60.ISBN 9788778388230.
• Rabun M. Taylor (2008).The Moral Mirror of Roman Art. Cambridge University Press. p. 218.ISBN 9780521866125.
• Marie-Louise Winbladh (2012).The Bearded Goddess. Armida Publications.ISBN 978-9963-706-31-0.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAphroditus.

• The dictionary definition ofAphroditus at Wiktionary
• Hermaphrodism among Gods and Mortals by Edward Carpenter (1914)
• Hermaphrodite Goddesses and Queer Priests - Academic Paper by Jeramy Townsley

• Androgynous and hermaphroditic deities
• Fertility deities
• Greek love and lust deities
• Ancient Cyprus
• LGBTQ in Cyprus
• Lunar deities
• Cypriot mythology
• Aphrodite

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