Bows and Eros: Hunt as Seduction in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite

This paper examines the seduction strategies used by Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and sexual mixis (“mingling”), in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, and especially her deliberate appropriation of the hunting imagery and accoutrements typically associated with Artemis, virgin goddess of the hunt. When Aphrodite assumes her disguise as a “virgin huntress” to seduce the Trojan cattleman, Anchises, she presents an ambiguous figure that suggests both vulnerability to sexual initiation (virginity) and aggressive intent to dominate prey (hunting). This paper explores Aphrodite’s clever act of “attribute piracy” as a narrative strategy intended to negotiate the intersection of the erotic borders between mortal and immortal that the goddess of sexual mixis instigates and over which she holds sway.