Cross My Heart Trivia Quiz

Answer: Aphrodite

Aphrodite featured prominently in Ancient Greek literature and is associated with the concepts of love, lust, beauty, passion and procreation. She enjoyed a cult following and numerous festivals were dedicated to her. The most famous of these being the Aphrodisia, held annually in the month of Hekatombaion (mid-summer). The epicentres of her cults were located in Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth, and Athens.

Ironically, whilst she was the goddess of love and the personification of beauty, she was also held up as a goddess of war, especially in the areas of at Sparta, Thebes and Cyprus. Additional weight can be lent to this when you consider that the origins of the Trojan War lay in Aphrodite winning a beauty contest between herself, Athena and Hera by bribing the judge (Paris) with the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen.

Answer: Aphrodite

Perhaps, in a greater vein than Aphrodite, Venus is one of the most referenced deities of either Roman or Greek mythology. Often depicted in the nude, she has been the subject of numerous works of art, poetry and music. For the Ancient Romans, she was the embodiment of both love and sexuality.

Venus enjoyed a wide cult following and there were numerous festivals held in her name, despite her having little or no origin myth. The most common of these is that she emerged whole, and fully formed, from sea foam that was created by the discarded genitals of the primordial sky god Caelus. She is the mother of Aeneas and, in later tradition, the god of erotic love, Cupid.

Answer: Aphrodite

The use of "purportedly" arises because there are conflicting tales surrounding the origins of Aphrodite. Both Homer, in his tale of the "Iliad" (mid 7th century BCE), and Sappho, in her poem "Ode to Aphrodite" (late 7th/early 6th century BCE) describe her as the daughter of Zeus, the king of the gods, and Dione, the goddess of fertility.

That tale, however, is at odds to the story presented by Hesiod in "Theogony" (8th century BCE). "Theogony" is a poem that describes the genealogies of the Greek gods and this version describes Aphrodite emerging from the foam of the sea off the coast of Cythera, fully formed. This marries with the tale of the birth of Venus in Roman myth only, in Aphrodite's case, the genitals that were severed by Cronus and tossed into the sea were those of Uranus, the personification of the sky.

Answer: Aphrodite

Aphrodite had a long term affair, and a number of children, with Ares, the god of war, as a way to spite her husband, Hephaestus. However, the key observation to note here is that the tryst was between the god of war and the goddess of love, two entities that are the antithesis of each other.

Unlike Hedone, the goddess of pleasure, who Greek mythology records as having an opposite - the Algea, the personifications of pain - there is no single entity that is recorded as her (Aphrodite's) opposite. This is due to the wide range of her patronage - love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation and, in some centres, prostitutes. There is no 'single' god or goddess that rules the total gamut of domains that are the exact opposites of these.

That said, there were a number of gods and goddesses that were the antithesis of individual domains that Aphrodite controlled and, high on this list is Ares, who has already been spoken of above. Then there is Hera. Hera was the champion of marriage and fidelity within that institution, which flew in the face of Aphrodite's pursuit of free love and romantic infatuations. Those romantic pursuits would also have flouted the values of the virgin goddesses in Artemis and Hestia who were both representatives of chastity.

Answer: Aphrodite

Aphrodite entered into a form of arranged marriage with Hephaestus, the god of fire and metalworking. Hephaestus had been exiled from Mount Olympus by Hera and, as revenge, the blacksmith god set a trap that saw Hera enclosed in invisible chains on her golden throne. Desperate to regain his wife Zeus agreed to accede to any demand set by Hephaestus. The god of fire chose the hand of Aphrodite in marriage.

Needless to say, the union was a loveless one, one that the goddess of love found to be humiliating. Consequently, she was unfaithful to her husband and conducted a famous affair with the god of war, Ares. The marriage eventually ended in divorce and Aphrodite continued to engage in a range of trysts with other suitors, both god and mortal.

In most traditional Greek myths, there were no children from the partnership between Aphrodite and the blacksmith god; however, other tales indicate that the goddess of love and desire gave birth to numerous children. The most famous of these came from her couplings with Ares (Eros, Phobos, Deimos among others ) and the mortal prince Anchises (Aeneas).

Answer: Hedone

Hedone is the Ancient Greek personification of pleasure, enjoyment and delight and, from her, stems the concept of hedonism. However, unlike the base indulgencies that are often associated with this doctrine, under Hedone's guidance pleasure was pursued for a higher good and is often associated with the soulful joy that can be derived from art, love and beauty.

Apart from the tale of Hedone's birth, there are no recorded stories about her nor is there any evidence of any cult following. There are few, if any, historical depictions of her, though modern art tends to portray her as a beautiful woman. These are drawn from artist's interpretations rather than any factual knowledge.

Answer: Hedone

In a similar manner to Hedone, Volupta is a minor goddess in the Roman pantheon and her name is Latin for pleasure. She is the daughter of the union between Cupid, the god of erotic love, and Psyche, a woman possessed of supernatural beauty. Cupid is ordered by his mother, Venus, to shoot Psyche with an arrow that will make her fall in love with the first hideous thing she sees, but Cupid accidentally scratches himself with the dart and the first thing he sees is Psyche. He falls in love with her and incurs his mother's wrath.

In line with her patronage of pleasures, Voluptas is said to have kept the company of the Three Graces, three sisters whose representations are in line with Voluptas' ideals; Aglaia, aligned with elegance, Euphrosyne with joyfulness and Thalia, beauty and the blooming of life.

Answer: Hedone

Eros, the god of love, struck his own heart with his arrow and the consequence was to fall deeply in love with the mortal Psyche, a woman who possessed a beauty that rivalled that of the gods. Their marriage was blessed by Zeus and the very essence of their passion arrived in their daughter Hedone. This is evident in Hedone's patronage where the pleasure can be something as simple as a sensation that draws a smile to one's face, or one of pure bliss... or, as one of the rare tales about her reveals, euphoria. Understandably, this was derived from the gene pool that had the love of Eros and the soul of Psyche.

One final point, and it is a remarkable one, is that, despite being born to a mortal woman, Hedone did not arrive, as expected, as a demi-goddess but had the status of being a full goddess from birth.

Answer: Hedone

In the pantheon of Greek mythology, the Algea are not a single god but a coven of three minor deities who are the cause of pain and suffering in all living creatures. Often called the Three Gnashing Women, the clique is made up of Lupe, the representative of pain, Achos, the personification of grief, and Ania, the totem of sorrow. It's not difficult to see that they are in stark contrast to Hedone's blessings of bliss and pleasure.

The Algea are the daughters of Eris, the goddess of chaos and strife. There was no father involved and these three, along with a number of other children borne by Eris, appear to be an act of hers as a sole progenitor.

Answer: Hedone

As a minor deity Hedone's existence is symbolic in nature. She became the embodiment, or the personification, of pure pleasure or bliss. She did not exist as a central character of myth and, as a consequence, there are no romantic tales of epic love told about her.

However, as an emblematic figure she remains notable. One of the best examples of this was her appearance at a festival in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy. Together the pair combined to create an atmosphere of total euphoria for their guests.

While the wine from Dionysus loosened inhibitions, Hedone left her mark on the celebrations by ensuring that the pleasures stirred the souls of the partygoers, rather than their bodies.