Taboo Desires in Greek Myths: Ares, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus
The psychological approaches to mythology I'm choosing to examine are the universality of taboo desires within every human psyche, such as the ones seen in the myth of Ares, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus, as well as archetypal situations or characters, similar to that of humans, like a mother wanting to protect her child, as seen in the myth of Rhea and Cronus. As put by Richard Caldwell: “Myths allow the expression of the unconscious, usually repressed, ideas in a conventional and socially sanctioned form.” In saying this, Caldwell is stating that mythology gives a platform for the restrained desires and fears of humankind. Archetypal situations or characters in mythology are when nonhumans (deities) share similarities with humans, typically in the form of emotions and experiences. This provides the element of human nature, to feel, within myths.
There are rules we follow in society because not doing so would result in condemnation and shame, and having desires classified as taboo is equal parts disruptive and shameful. This does not mean we as humans do not wish for things deemed wrong, thus resulting in myths, theorized by Caldwell as a way for humans to express their wrongful desires without punishment. We see acts of taboo longing exhibited by Ares and Aphrodite in the sense of adultery. Adultery is the act of partaking in sexual relations with someone other than your spouse. Aphrodite, married to Hephaestus, lays with Ares when Hephaestus is gone. The psychological aspect of adultery bores down to this: temptation. It is human nature to be tempted by what we know to be wrong. When Aphrodite gives herself to Ares, she is guided by her temptation to be with someone who shares her beauty, an attribute the lame god Hephaestus does not possess. Discovering Aphrodite’s betrayal of their marriage, Hephaestus becomes enraged. He creates a device of shackles that will entrap the god and goddess in their act of adultery, calling the immortal gods down once he has so they can witness for themselves the wrongful doing of Ares and Aphrodite. Taboos are most frequently paired with human emotional guilt. Those who long to behave as Aphrodite did take pleasure in her punishment because it is as if they too are receiving rebuke for wanting something so despicable to society.
Another form of taboo is called filicide, the act of killing your own child. In the myth of Cronus and Rhea, Cronus swallows his children, doing so because he is driven by anger and fear from a prophecy that states one of his children would become more powerful than he is. While that exact fear isn’t necessarily demonstrated today, there are moments in which parents can become enraged enough with their offspring that they think of murdering them, briefly, even if they would never. Aggression is rooted in anger, and anger is rooted in fear. The myth of Cronus inevitably ends with his demise, slain by one of the children he had thought he already rid the world of. Cronus’s punishment would be satisfactory for a parent ashamed of thinking of killing their own child.
There are certain roles as humans that we all share, as well as common emotions we all have the ability to feel. In mythology, these types of similarities are known as archetypal characters, made up of shared elements between humankind and gods. When Cronus receives the prophecy of his child overpowering him, he starts to swallow all of his and Rhea’s offspring. Rhea, the wife of Cronus, is filled with sorrow and anger as she stands by and witnesses this. Rhea’s ability to feel sadness and rage is where we see the similar relationship between humankind and deities. Because of the human emotions, she is feeling, when it comes to Zeus, her last child, Rhea, in an act of defying all-powerful Cronus, hides Zeus away. She takes the advice from her parents, Uranus and Gaea, tricking an unexpecting Cronus with a stone instead of an infant, and he did not notice the deception. Despite being a non-human Titan, Rhea is experiencing human emotion in the form of rage and sorrow, as well as the human quality a mother has to protect her kin. It is ultimately the love she feels for her sixth and last son Zeus that forces Rhea to trick Cronus. By putting herself in the position she did, Rhea risked her own life in order to ensure her child’s safety, a human emotion of love and natural human instinct of protection that we can relate to.
Alongside archetypal characters are archetypal situations, which are shared experiences between humans and deities. Experienced by Hephaestus from his wife Aphrodite is an archetypal situation known as faithlessness. When Hephaestus discovers Aphrodite’s affair with the god Ares, he becomes enraged, with “evil in his heart”. This human emotion is derived from Aphrodite’s act of betrayal, but the underlying emotion Hephaestus is experiencing is sorrow, for he married a beautiful Goddess despite his birth defects, and the man she chose to partake in infidelity with is physically flawless. When he invites the gods into his home to laugh at and mock Ares and Aphrodite, Hephaestus is doing so out of bitterness he feels towards the overall situation. This myth not only exemplifies the heartbreak of discovering your partner is unfaithful, but what sort of emotions arise from such a discovery. Hephaestus’ reaction to Aphrodite and Ares is human in a raw, simplistic way. “Hephaestus made for his home, grieving in his heart” shows how Hephaestus is feeling as he journeys back home, knowing what he will find once he returns, and perhaps having some semblance of hope it could not be true. “…And wild rage seized him” demonstrates the swift change in Hephaestus’ emotions. He went from sorrow to anger in only a matter of minutes, because it is through seeing it with his own eyes that Hephaestus is realizing it is the truth. We as humans have the tendency to not want to believe something and choose not to until we are forced to acknowledge the realism with our own eyes. Hephaestus entrapping Aphrodite and Ares is both punishment for their wrongdoing, as well as him ensuring Aphrodite will not be happy with Ares, knowing after they are caught in this position they will not come together again. This is the human instinct of projection: Hephaestus is hurt, and he is unhappy, and he wants Aphrodite, the reason for his own sorrow, to feel the same.
Next to Hephaestus’ emotions, we see the gods’ own response to lame god Hephaestus able to capture Ares, who is glorified for his swiftness and wit. Their reaction is summed up into bitter underlying jealousy, perhaps, that Ares holds qualities they do not. When someone has the ability to do something we do not, or even have something we do not, jealousy drives us to demote that person any way we can. The gods find the scene before them amusing, and even make jokes in the expanse of Aphrodite. This can be seen as a bully taking apart his victim, in a way, the natural human instinct born of jealousy.
Myths have numerous psychological approaches, but the two approaches I chose demonstrate strongly the universality of myth, in the sense that all myths have underlying elements that hold true to human beings. It is in archetypal characters like Rhea, who loves her son deeply, that allow us as humans to understand her motives because we have her motives, and have experienced the same sorrow and anger she did.
Despite myths serving as a platform for taboo longings to be written without physical punishment, I can confer from my discoveries that the guilty conscience felt by the writer for his or her wants is what results in most taboo myths ending in punishment. Aphrodite might have been with Ares as she wanted, but the rebuke she received, in the end, would ensure she never laid with him again. Which forces us to ask ourselves if it is worth it, to act on forbidden desires if it will only serve us poorly in the end.
