Dividing Aphrodite:
Ptolemaic Propaganda in Theocritus

Lindsay G. Samson (The University of Iowa)

The poets of Ptolemaic Egypt were faced with a specific problem in creating an image for the queen: it had to communicate power and divinity to two vastly different cultures.  The solution was found in a melding of Greek Aphrodite and Egyptian Isis.  In order for these two goddesses to become one, Aphrodite’s generative nature was emphasized and her licentious, deceptive qualities diminished.  As a court poet for the Ptolemaic regime, Theocritus focused on the queen’s likeness to the new Aphrodite.  In this paper I intend first to establish what characteristics of Aphrodite were emphasized and why, and second to illustrate how Theocritus creates this new image of Aphrodite, and so the queen.

The vision of Aphrodite created for the Ptolemaic queens differs from the previous Greek conception of the goddess as both generative (Urania) and carnal (Pandemos).  In association with the queen, the positive, creative aspects of Aphrodite were stressed.  Isis, already established as the representation of an ideal queen for the Egyptians, provided a template for this new Aphrodite, and so communicated the same message of pharaonic power to Greeks and Egyptians alike, or as Koenen states, “...the ideas of pharaonic kingship were translated into Greek forms.”[1] 

The sexual nature of Aphrodite as a model for the queen is especially troubling for the Greeks once the marriage between king and queen becomes incestuous.  In order to reconcile these issues, Aphrodite is either Pandemos or Urania, but never the both at the same time, and each time she is Pandemos she is not associated with those queens who were incestuously married.

In four Idylls (1, 2, 15, and 17) Theocritus uses both titles, Aphrodite and Cypris, however, they seem to refer to two distinct aspects of the goddess: “Aphrodite” referring to Urania and “Cypris” referring to Pandemos.  For example, in Idyll 1 (95-8), a rather incensed Cypris comes to Daphnis.  In lines 138-40, however, Theocritus introduces a kinder figure in Aphrodite who wants to restore Daphnis’ health.  These are two separate deities, one reproachful, the other compassionate; one Cypris, the other Aphrodite.  It is through the separation of Aphrodite, reflected in the titular detachment of Cypris from Aphrodite, that Theocritus is able to create an image for his queen acceptable to Greek and Egyptian sensibilities.