estriction and manipulation. A girdle is worn to make a womans figure appear more curvaceous and virile, it is meant to produce attractiveness. Correspondingly, Aphrodite is known as an opportunist with very skillful techniques. However her tactics are commonly childish which can only be expected when her weapon is an undergarment. Writes Stephen L. Harris and Gloria Platzner of California State University, Aphrodite is variously redefined as a flirt who seduces men for the fun of it, as a mistress or lover, or as a whore. Consequently, she remains alluring, but her power is drastically diminished: in a world in which marriage is sanctified, she has no legitimate social place (Harris & Platzner pg. 98). So it is such that despite an outward presence of incomparability, Aphrodite falls despite herself into the common role of the beautiful temptress. The nature of her myth is much in the same trend as the biblical figures of Jezebel, Delilah and perhaps even Eve. Her femininity is her flaw and her curse. Perhaps it is unfair to put all of the blame on Aphrodite herself. After all mythical beings are designed to serve as a representation of the mortal race, only on a higher scale. The myth of Aphrodite, in the light of the symbol, is a statement on the calamity of the female race. That is to say that perhaps in the creation of this story the Ancient Greeks had in mind a bit of modern feminist theory. Throughout history Greek women were among the most liberated, this being seen anywhere from the land and business owning Spartan women to the renowned women of Lesbos.Perhaps we should look at the words of one of the earliest modern feminists, Mary Wollstonecraft a celebrated female author in the 18th century in attempts to distinguish something close to a middle ground. In her eminent essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, she writes: Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken notions of female excellence, that I ...
