Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/138

 folk-stories—if indeed the present generation has not forgotten even these. For my part, I never heard mention of her in story or otherwise, although her son, the winged Eros, is often named in the love-songs which form a large part of the popular poetry.

Vows and offerings which would in former days have been made to Aphrodite are now made either to suitable saints who have taken her place, such as S. Catharine, or to the Fates ([Greek: Moirais]), who were from of old associated with her. According to a fragment of Epimenides, 'golden Aphrodite and the deathless Fates' were daughters of Cronos and Euonyme. Their sisterly relation was recognised also in cult. Near the Ilissus once stood a temple containing an old wooden statue ([Greek: xoanon]) of Heavenly Aphrodite with an inscription naming her 'eldest of the Fates' ([Greek: presbytera tôn Moirôn]). So venerable a shrine must in old time have witnessed many a petition for success in love; and when we bear in mind the ancient inscription of the statue, it is interesting to find that among the girls of Athens until recent times the custom prevailed of visiting the so-called 'hollow hill ' ([Greek: trypio bouno]) in the immediate neighbourhood to offer to the Fates cakes with honey and salt and to consult them as to their destined husbands.

Sacred also to Aphrodite in old days was a cave in the neighbourhood of Naupactus, frequented particularly by widows anxious to be remarried. At the present day a cave at the foot of Mt Rigani, which may probably be identified as the old sanctuary, is the spot to which girls repair in order to consult the Fates on the all-absorbing question.

Thus it seems that 'golden Aphrodite' has disappeared from the old sisterly group of deities, and that 'the deathless Fates' alone remain to receive prayers and to grant boons which once fell within the province rather of Aphrodite. To the Fates we must now turn.