Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 45-67

 Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 45-67

45-52: And Zeus put in her own heart a desire to mingle with a mortal man; in order that she not be deprived of a mortal bed, and in order that Aphrodite, who laughs sweetly and loves to smile, never boast among the gods that she made gods and goddesses mix with mortal men and women.

53-67: He put in her heart a desire for Anchises, a cowherd on Ida like the gods in form. When Aphrodite saw her, she fell in love; she went to her temple at Paphos and closed the doors; the Charites bathed and oiled her, and she put on beautiful clothing. She rushed toward Troy high and easily in the clouds. 

Anchises, another Trojan prince cowherding on Mt. Ida -- cf. his son Aeneas (Il. 20), Paris (Cypria, not in Il. I think); and also other stray relatives like Melanippus (Il. 15.547). Some discussion in Gutzwiller: https://books.google.com/books?id=rJmFvRNHbo4C&pg=PA27. Lots of emphasis among the Trojans on pasturing; increasingly thinking that there are no references in early epic to Trojan agriculture.

Zeus is concerned about Aphrodite boasting; a threat of smiling female erotic speech undercutting his power. He puts her in her place by turning the tables and making her subject to her own erotic power; the three virgin goddesses also undercut her by indicating the limits to Aphrodite's power.

I know we're not supposed to play the game of Homeric realia, but I am still curious about what an archaic audience would have been visualizing for details of Aphrodite closing the shining doors to her temple in Paphos: what would those doors be like? what would the temple be like? was there a temple at Paphos?

ἐς Κύπρον δ᾽ ἐλθοῦσα θυώδεα νηὸν ἔδυνεν,

ἐς Πάφον: ἔνθα δέ οἱ τέμενος βωμός τε θυώδης.

ἐνθ᾽ ἥ γ᾽ εἰσελθοῦσα θύρας ἐπέθηκε φαεινάς:

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