By Elani Temperance
[Snip] An epithet is an attachment to the name of a God or Goddess, used to indicate either a specific domain of the Deity, a specific origin myth or region from which the Deity came, or an entirely different entity, through either domain or origin.
An example; Aphrodite is the Goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She’s either born from Zeus as His daughter or from the sea foam after Kronos castrated His father Ouranos. In the latter case, Aphrodite is the daughter of Ouranos, a Titan and a half-sister to Zeus. some historians claim Aphrodite was actually an imported Goddess (hence the different creation myths) and used to be a Goddess of war. Some of Aphrodite’s epithets include:
Aphrodite Paphos – Aphrodite of Paphos
Aphrodite Diôniaia – Daughter of Dione, daughter of Zeus
Aphrodite Anadyomenê – Risen from the sea Aphrodite
Aphrodite Philommeides – Laughter-loving Aphrodite
Aphrodite Areia – Warlike Aphrodite
What’s been said…