Antik Çağda Güney-Batı Anadolu (Karia) Bölgesi'nde Aphrodite kültü: Aphrodite karakterine analitik bir yaklaşım
Özet
This study aims to determine the cult areas belonging to Aphrodite, a divinity of eastern origin in Hellenic pantheon, through archaeological and ancient literary sources. Each local divine character of the goddess is discussed separately from the Panhellenic one. Considering the differences in economic activities, life patterns and political circumstances of the settlements as shaping impacts on belief system is the motive. Besides some fragments of literary evidence, the available archaeological materials, mainly inscriptions and coins, enable us to determine the existence of the cult in Carian cities of Astyra, Alinda, Tabai, Attuda, Apollonia Salbace, Herakleia Salbace, Antiocheia ad Meandrum, Trapezopolis, Rodos Peraea (including the settlements of Idyma, Phoinix, Hydae/Hyda, Physkos, Stratonicheia-Panamara), Iasos, Miletos, Halicarnassos, Theangela, Herakleia ad Latmus, Ouranion/Uranium, Mylasa, Aphrodisias, Knidos (Tekir) and Old Knidos (Datça-Burgaz). All findings prove her deeply rooted worship from the Archaic age to the end of the Roman Era. The research pertaining to the divine character of Aphrodite particularly by focusing on not only the symbols but also the epithets accepted by the Carians indicate that different aspects of her identity was adapted in each settlement depending on the separate worldly' needs of the worshipping groups of varying economic and socio political structures. It is proved that as an Hellenic version of the Semitic goddess 345Ishtar and a vision of Mother Goddess, Aphrodite was exalted as the sea goddess with the epithet of Euploia on the coastal polisss such as Cnidos and Halicarnassos on the one hand and a divine protectress of inland polis such as Aphrodisias on the other. Moreover her warlike character with the title of Strateia in Iasos and Mylasa and celestial feature with that of Ourania in Aphrodisias, Ouranion and Miletos (Didyma) are her locally recogn^gd personalities. She was regarded as a divine power granting stability and integrity to the socio-political institutions as in Mylasa under the name of Pandemos. Her most general aspect in Caria is seen in the worship that focuses on her unifying caharacter as a mistress of love, marriage and family in Iasos, Miletos, Halicarnassos and Cnidos. She preserved her pertinance throughout antiquity by gifting the couples with fertility as a token to marital continuity to provide communities to serve as the backbones of the polis.