Chapter 19

(T. As.)

Geology.—The Apennines are the continuation of the Alpine chain, but the individual zones of the Alps cannot be traced into the Apennines. The zone of the Brianconnais (seeAlps) may be followed as far as the Gulf of Genoa, but scarcely beyond, unless it is represented by the Trias and older beds of the Apuan Alps. The inner zone of crystalline and schistose rocks which forms the main chain of the Alps, is absent in the Apennines except towards the southern end. The Apennines, indeed, consist almost entirely of Mesozoic and Tertiary beds, like the outer zones of the Alps. Remnants of a former inner zone of more ancient rocks may be seen in the Apuan Alps, in the islands off the Tuscan coast; in the Catena Metallifera, Cape Circeo and the island of Zannone, as well as in the Calabrian peninsula. These remnants lie at a comparatively low level, and exceptingthe Apuan Alps and the Calabrian peninsula they do not now form any part of the Apennine chain. But that in Tertiary times there was a high interior zone of crystalline rocks is indicated by the character of the Eocene beds in the southern Apennines. These are formed to a large extent of thick conglomerates which are full of pebbles and boulders of granite and schist. Many of the boulders are of considerable size and they are often still angular. There is now no crystalline region from which they could reach their present position; and this and other considerations have led the followers of E. Suess to conclude that even in Tertiary times a large land mass consisting of ancient rocks occupied the space which is now covered by the southern portion of the Tyrrhenian Sea. This old land mass has been called Tyrrhenis, and probably extended from Sicily into Latium and as far west as Sardinia. On the Italian border of this land there was raised a mountain chain with an inner crystalline zone and an outer zone of Mesozoic and Tertiary beds. Subsequent faulting has caused the subsidence of the greater part of Tyrrhenis, including nearly the whole of the inner zone of the mountain chain, and has left only the outer zones standing as the present Apennines.

Be this as it may, the Apennines, excepting in Calabria, are formed chiefly of Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Eocene and Miocene beds. In the south the deposits, from the Trias to the middle Eocene, consist mainly of limestones, and were laid down, with a few slight interruptions, upon a quietly subsiding sea-floor. In the later part of the Eocene period began the folding which gave rise to the existing chain. The sea grew shallow, the deposits became conglomeratic and shaly, volcanic eruptions began, and the present folds of the Apennines were initiated. The folding and consequent elevation went on until the close of the Miocene period when a considerable subsidence took place and the Pliocene sea overspread the lower portions of the range. Subsequent elevation, without folding, has raised these Pliocene deposits to a considerable height—in some cases over 3000 ft. and they now lie almost undisturbed upon the older folded beds. This last elevation led to the formation of numerous lakes which are now filled up by Pleistocene deposits. Both volcanic eruptions and movements of elevation and depression continue to the present day on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea. In the northern Apennines the elevation of the sea floor appears to have begun at an earlier period, for the Upper Cretaceous of that part of the chain consists largely of sandstones and conglomerates. In Calabria the chain consists chiefly of crystalline and schistose rocks; it is the Mesozoic and Tertiary zone which has here been sunk beneath the sea. Similar rocks are found beneath the Trias farther north, in some of the valleys of Basilicata. Glaciers no longer exist in the Apennines, but Post-Pliocene moraines have been observed in Basilicata.

References.—G. de Lorenzo, “Studi di geologia nell’ Appennino Meridionale,”Atti d. R. Accad. d. Sci, Fis. e Mat., Napoli, ser. 2, vol. viii., no. 7 (1896); F. Sacco, “L’ Appennino settentrionale,”Boll. Soc. geol. Ital.(1893-1899).

(P. La.)

1The ancient Via Aemilia, built in 109B.C., led over this pass, but originally turned east to Dertona (mod.Tortona).2There are two separate lines from Sampierdarena to Ronco.3This pass was also traversed by a nameless Roman road.4This river (anc. Aesis) was the boundary of Italy proper in the 3rd and 2nd centuriesB.C.5The Monte Conero, to the south of Ancona, was originally an island of the Pliocene sea.

1The ancient Via Aemilia, built in 109B.C., led over this pass, but originally turned east to Dertona (mod.Tortona).

2There are two separate lines from Sampierdarena to Ronco.

3This pass was also traversed by a nameless Roman road.

4This river (anc. Aesis) was the boundary of Italy proper in the 3rd and 2nd centuriesB.C.

5The Monte Conero, to the south of Ancona, was originally an island of the Pliocene sea.

APENRADE,a town of Germany in the Prussian province of Schleswig, beautifully situated on the Apenrade Fjord, an arm of the Little Belt, 38 m. N. of the town of Schleswig. Pop. (1900) 5952. It is connected by a branch line with the main railway of Schleswig, and possesses a good harbour, which affords shelter for a large carrying trade. Fishing, shipbuilding and various small factories provide occupation for the population. The town is a bathing resort, as is Elisenlund close by.

APERTURE(from Lat.aperire, to open), an opening. In optics, it is that portion of the diameter of an object-glass or mirror through which light can pass free from obstruction. It is equal to the actual diameter of the cylinder of rays admitted by a telescope.

APEX,the Latin word (pl.apices) for the top, tip or peak of anything. A diminutive “apiculus” is used in botany.

APHANITE,a name given (from the Gr.ἀφανής, invisible) to certain dark-coloured igneous rocks which are so fine-grained that their component minerals are not detected by the unaided eye. They consist essentially of plagioclase felspar, with hornblende or augite, and may contain also biotite, quartz and a limited amount of orthoclase. Although a few authorities still recognize the aphanites as a distinct class, most systematic petrologists, at the present time, have discarded it, and regard these rocks as merely structural facies of other species. Those which contain hornblende are uniform, fine-grained diorites, vogesites, &c., while when pyroxene predominates they are ascribed to the dolerites, quartz-dolerites, &c. Hence, any rock which is compact, crystalline and fine grained, is frequently said to beaphanitic, without implying exactly to which of the principal rock groups it really belongs.

APHASIA1(from Gr. α, privative, andφάσις, speech), a term which means literally inability to speak, and is used to denote various defects in the comprehension and expression of both spoken and written language which result from lesions of the brain. Aphasic disorders may be classed in two groups:—first, receptive or sensory aphasia, which comprises (a) inability to understand spoken language (auditory aphasia), and (b) inability to read (visual aphasia, oralexia); second, emissive or motor aphasia, under which category are included (a) inability to speak (motor vocal aphasia, oraphemia), and (b) inability to write (motor graphic aphasia, oragraphia). It has been shown that each of these defects is produced by destruction of a special region of the cortex of the brain. These regions, which are termed the speech centres, are, in right-handed people, situated in the left cerebral hemisphere; this is the reason why aphasia is so commonly associated with paralysis of the right side of the body.

A study of the acquisition of the faculty of speech throws light upon the education of the speech centres, and helps to elucidate their physiological interaction and the phenomena of aphasia. The auditory speech centre is the first to show signs of functional activity, for within a few months of birth the child begins tounderstandspoken language. Some months later the motor vocal speech centre begins to functionate. The memories of the auditory word images which are stored up in the auditory speech centre play a most important part in the process of learning to speak. The child born deaf grows up mute. The visual speech centre comes into activity when the child is taught to read. Again, when he learns to write and thus begins to educate his graphic centre, he is constantly calling upon his visual speech centre for the visual images of the words he wishes to produce. From these remarks it will be seen that there is a very intimate association between the auditory speech centre and the motor vocal speech centre, also between the visual speech centre and the graphic centre.

Auditory Aphasia.—The auditory speech centre is situated in the posterior part of the first and second temporo-sphenoidal convolutions on the left side of the brain. Destruction of this centre causes “auditory aphasia.” Hearing is unimpaired but spoken language is quite unintelligible. The subject of auditory aphasia may be compared to an individual who is listening to a foreign language of which he does not understand a word. Word deafness, a term often used as synonymous with auditory aphasia, is misleading and should be abandoned. Auditory aphasia commonly interferes with vocal expression, for themajority of people when they speak do so by recalling the auditory memories of words stored up in the auditory speech centre.Amnesia verbalisis employed to designate failure to call up in the memory the images of words which are needed for purposes of vocal expression or silent thought.

Visual Aphasia or Alexia.—The visual speech centre, which is located in the left angular gyrus, is connected with the two centres for vision which are situated one in either occipital lobe. Destruction of the visual speech centre produces visual aphasia or alexia. Word blindness, sometimes used as the equivalent of visual aphasia, is, like word deafness, a misleading term. The individual is not blind, he sees the words and letters perfectly, but they appear to him as unintelligible cyphers. When the visual speech centre is destroyed, the memories of the visual images of words are obliterated and interference with writing, a consequence ofamnesia verbalis, results. On the other hand, when the lesion is situated deeply in the occipital lobe, and does not implicate the cortex, but merely cuts off the connexions of the angular gyrus with both visual centres, agraphia is not produced, for the visual word centre and its connexion with the graphic centre are still intact (pure, or sub-cortical word blindness).

Motor Vocal Aphasia or Aphemia.—The centre for motor vocal speech is situated in the posterior part of the third left frontal convolution and extends on to the foot of the left ascending frontal convolution (Broca’s convolution). Complete destruction of this region produces loss of speech, although it often happens that a few words, such as “yes” and “no,” and, it may be, emotional exclamations such as “Oh! dear!” and the like are retained. The utterance of unintelligible sounds is still possible, however, and there is neither defective voice production (aphonia) nor paralysis of the mechanism of articulation. The individual can recall the auditory and visual images of the words which he wishes to use, but his memory for the complicated, co-ordinated movements which he acquired in the process of learning to speak, and which are necessary for vocal expression, has been blotted out. In the great majority of cases of motor vocal aphasia there is associated agraphia, a circumstance which is perhaps to be accounted for by the proximity of the graphic centre. When the lesion is situated below the cortex of Broca’s convolution but destroys the fibres which pass from it towards the internal capsule, agraphia is not produced (sub-cortical or pure motor vocal aphasia). Destruction of the auditory speech centre is, as we have seen, commonly accompanied by more or less interference with vocal speech, a consequence ofamnesia verbalis.

Agraphia.—Discussion still rages as to the presence of a special writing centre. Those who favour the separate existence of a graphic centre locate it in the second left frontal convolution. It may be that the want of unanimity as to the graphic centre is to be explained by an anatomical relationship so close between the graphic centre and that for the fine movement of the hand that a lesion in this situation which produces agraphia must at the same time cause a paralysis of the hand. Destruction of the visual speech centre by obliterating the visual memories of words (amnesia verbalis) produces agraphia. Further, several instances are on record in which agraphia has followed destruction of the commissure between the visual speech centre and the graphic centre. As already mentioned, agraphia is very often associated with motor vocal aphasia.

A number of aphasic defects are met with in addition to those already mentioned. Thusparaphasiais a condition in which the patient makes use of words other than those he intends. He may mix up his words so that his conversation is quite unintelligible. In the most pronounced forms he gabbles away, employing unrecognizable sounds in place of words (jargon and gibberish aphasia).Paragraphiais a similar defect which occurs in writing. Both paraphasia and paragraphia may be produced by partial lesions of the sensory speech centres or of the commissures which connect these with the motor centres.Object blindness(syn. mind-blindness) refers to an inability to recognize an object or its uses by the aid of sight alone. The probable explanation would seem to be that the ordinary centre for vision has been isolated from the other sensory centres with which it is connected. Not uncommonly there is associated visual aphasia.Optic aphasiawas introduced to designate a somewhat similar state in which, although the uses of an object are recognized, the patient cannot name it at sight, yet, if it is of such a nature that it appeals directly to one of the other senses, he may at once be able to name it.Tactile aphasia, is a rare defect in which there exists an inability to recognize an object by touch alone although the qualities which, under normal circumstances, suffice for its detection can be accurately described.Amusia, or loss of the musical faculty, may occur in association with or independent of aphasia. There is reason for believing that special receptive and emissive centres exist for the musical sense exactly analogous to those for speech.

The speech centres are all supplied by the left middle cerebral artery. When this artery is blocked close to its origin by anembolusorthrombus, total aphasia results. It may be, however, that only one of the smaller branches of the artery is obstructed, and, according to the region of the brain to which this branch is distributed, one or more of the speech centres may be destroyed. Occlusion of the left posterior cerebral artery causes extensive softening of the occipital lobe and produces pure word blindness. Further, a tumour, abscess, haemorrhage or meningitis may be so situated as to damage or destroy the individual speech centres or their connecting commissures. The amount of recovery to be expected in any given case depends upon the nature, situation and extent of the lesion, and upon the age of the patient. Even after complete destruction of the speech centres, perfect recovery may take place, for the centres in the right hemisphere of the brain are capable of education. This is only possible in young individuals. In the great majority of instances the nature of the lesion is such as to render futile all treatment directed towards its removal. In suitable cases, however, the education of the right side of the brain may be very greatly assisted by an intelligent application of scientific methods.

Bibliography.—Broca,Bulletin de la Société anatomique(1861); Wernicke,Der Aphasische Symptomen-complex(Breslau, 1874); Kussmaul,Ziemssen’s Cyclopaedia, vol. xiv. p. 759; Wyllie,The Disorders of Speech(1895); Elder,Aphasia and the Cerebral Speech Mechanism(1897); Collins,The Faculty of Speech(1897); Bastian,Aphasia and other Speech Defects(1898); Byrom Bramwell, “Will-making and Aphasia,”British Medical Journal(1897); “The Morison Lectures on Aphasia,”The Lancet(1906). See also the works of Charcot, Hughlings Jackson, Dejerine, Lichtheim, Pitres, Grasset, Ross, Broadbent, Mills, Bateman, Mirallié, Exner, Marie and others.

(J. B. T.)

1In 1906 Pierre Marie of Paris expressed views (La Semaine medicale, May 23 and October 17, and elsewhere) upon the question of aphasia which have given rise to much animated controversy, since they are in many respects at complete variance with the classical conception which has been represented in the present article. Marie holds that Broca’s convolution plays no special role in the function of speech. He admits that a lesion in the region of the lenticular nucleus is followed by inability to speak, but this defect is, in his opinion, to be regarded as an anarthria. He further admits the production of sensory aphasia—the aphasia of Wernicke, as he prefers to call it after its discoverer—by lesions which destroy the angular and supramarginal gyri, and the upper two temporo-sphenoidal convolutions, but he regards the essential foundation of sensory aphasia as a diminution of intelligence. There are, in his opinion, no sensory images of language. Motor aphasia is, he believes, nothing more than a combination of sensory aphasia and anarthria. These conclusions have been vigorously attacked, more especially by Dejerine of Paris (La Presse medicale, July 1906 and elsewhere).

APHELION(from Gr.ἀπό, from, andᾔλιος, sun), in astronomy, that point of the orbit of a planet at which it is most distant from the sun. Apogee, Apocentre, Aposaturnium, &c. are terms applied to those points of the orbit of a body moving around a centre of force—as the Earth, Saturn, &c.—at which it is farthest from the central body.

APHEMIA(from Gr.ἀ, without, andφήμη, speech), in pathology, the loss of the power of speech (seeAphasia).

APHIDES(pl. of Aphis), minute insects, also known as “plant-lice,” “blight,” and “green-fly,” belonging to the homopterous division of the order Hemiptera, with long antennae and legs, two-jointed, two-clawed tarsi, and usually a pair of abdominal tubes through which a waxy secretion is exuded. These tubes were formerly supposed to secrete the sweet substance known as “honey-dew” so much sought after by ants; but this is now known to come from the alimentary canal. Both winged and wingless forms of both sexes occur, and the wings when present are normal in number, that is to say two pairs. Apart from their importance from the economic standpoint, Aphides are chiefly remarkable for the phenomena connected with the propagation of the species. The following brief summary of what takes place in the plant-louse of the rose (Aphis rosae), may be regarded as typical of the family, though exceptions occur in other species: Eggs produced in the autumn by fertilized females remain on the plant through the winter and hatching in the spring give rise to female individuals which may be winged or wingless. From these females are bornparthenogenetically, that is to say without the intervention of males, and by a process that has been compared to internal budding, large numbers of young resembling their parents in every particular except size, which themselves reproduce their kind in the same way. This process continues throughout the summer, generation after generation being produced until the number of descendants from a single individual of the spring-hatched brood may amount to very many thousands. In the autumn winged males appear, union between the sexes takes place and the females lay the fertilized eggs which are destined to carry the species through the cold months of winter. If, however, the food-plant is grown in a conservatory where protection against cold is afforded, the aphides may go on reproducing agamogenetically without cessation for many years together. Not the least interesting features connected with this strange life-history are the facts that the young may be born by the oviparous or viviparous methods and either gamogenetically or agamogenetically, and may develop into winged forms or remain wingless, and that the males only appear in any number at the close of the season. Although the factors which determine these phenomena are not clearly understood, it is believed that the appearance of the males is connected with the increasing cold of autumn and the growing scarcity of food, and that the birth of winged females is similarly associated with decrease in the quantity or vitiation of the quality of the nourishment imbibed. Sometimes the winged females migrate from the plant they were born on to start fresh colonies on others often of quite a different kind. Thus the apple blight (Aphis mali) after producing many generations of apterous females on its typical food-plant gives rise to winged forms which fly away and settle upon grass or corn-stalks.

Closely related to the typical aphides isPhylloxera vastatrix, the insect which causes enormous loss by attacking the leaves and roots of vines. Its life-history is somewhat similar to that ofAphis rosaesummarized above. In the autumn a single fertile egg is laid by apterous females in a crevice of the bark of the vine where it is protected during the winter. From this egg in the spring emerges an apterous female who makes a gall in the new leaf and lays therein a large number of eggs. Some of the apterous young that are hatched from these form fresh galls and continue to multiply in the leaves, others descend to the root of the plant, becoming what are known as root-forms. These, like the parent form of spring, reproduce parthenogenetically, giving rise to generation after generation of egg-laying individuals. In the course of the summer, from some of these eggs are hatched females which acquire wings and lay eggs from which wingless males and females are born. From the union of the sexes comes the fertile egg from which the parent form of spring is hatched.

See generally G.B. Buckton,British Aphides(Ray Soc. 1876-1883); alsoEconomic Entomology.

(R. I. P.)

APHORISM(from the Gr.ἀφορίζειν, to define), literally a distinction or a definition, a term used to describe a principle expressed tersely in a few telling words or any general truth conveyed in a short and pithy sentence, in such a way that when once heard it is unlikely to pass from the memory. The name was first used in theAphorismsof Hippocrates, a long series of propositions concerning the symptoms and diagnosis of disease and the art of healing and medicine. The term came to be applied later to other sententious statements of physical science, and later still to statements of all kinds of principles. Care must be taken not to confoundaphorismswithaxioms. Aphorisms came into being as the result of experience, whereas axioms are self-evident truths, requiring no proof, and appertain to pure reason. Aphorisms have been especially used in dealing with subjects to which no methodical or scientific treatment was applied till late, such as art, agriculture, medicine, jurisprudence and politics. TheAphorismsof Hippocrates form far the most celebrated as well as the earliest collection of the kind, and it may be interesting to quote a few examples. “Old men support abstinence well: people of a ripe age less well: young folk badly, and children less well than all the rest, particularly those of them who are very lively.” “Those who are very fat by nature are more exposed to die suddenly than those who are thin.” “Those who eject foaming blood, eject it from the lung.” “When two illnesses arrive at the same time, the stronger silences the weaker.” The first aphorism, perhaps the best known of all, which serves as a kind of introduction to the book, runs as follows:—“Life is short, art is long, opportunity fugitive, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult: it is necessary not only to do oneself what is right, but also to be seconded by the patient, by those who attend him, by external circumstances.” Another famous collection of aphorisms is that of the school of Salerno in Latin verse, in which Joannes de Meditano, one of the most celebrated doctors of the school of medicine of Salerno, has summed up the precepts of this school. The book was dedicated to a king of England. It is a disputed point as to which king, some authorities dating the publication as at 1066, others assigning a later date. The dedication gives the following excellent advice:—

“Anglorum regi scribit schola tota Salernae.Si vis incolumem, si vis te reddere sanum,Curas tolle graves: irasci crede profanum:Parce mero: coenato parum; non sit tibi vanumSurgere post epulas: somnum fuge meridianum:Ne mictum retine, nec comprime fortiter anum:Haec bene si serves, tu longo tempore vives.”

“Anglorum regi scribit schola tota Salernae.

Si vis incolumem, si vis te reddere sanum,

Curas tolle graves: irasci crede profanum:

Parce mero: coenato parum; non sit tibi vanum

Surgere post epulas: somnum fuge meridianum:

Ne mictum retine, nec comprime fortiter anum:

Haec bene si serves, tu longo tempore vives.”

Another collection of aphorisms, also medical and also in Latin, is that of the Dutchman Hermann Boerhaave, published at Leiden in the year 1709; it gives a terse summary of the medical knowledge prevailing at the time, and is of great interest to the student of the history of medicine.

APHRAATES(a Greek form of the Persian name Aphrahaṭ or Pharhadh), a Syriac writer belonging to the middle of the 4th centuryA.D., who composed a series of twenty-three expositions or homilies on points of Christian doctrine and practice. The first ten were written in 337, the following twelve in 344, and the last in 345.1The author was early known asḥakkīmā phārsāyā(“the Persian sage”), was a subject of Sapor II., and was probably of heathen parentage and himself a convert from heathenism. He seems at some time in his life to have assumed the name of Jacob, and is so entitled in the colophon to a MS. ofA.D.512 which contains twelve of his homilies. Hence he was already by Gennadius of Marseilles (before 496) confused with Jacob, bishop of Nisibis; and the ancient Armenian version of nineteen of the homilies has been published under this latter name. But (1) Jacob of Nisibis, who attended the council of Nicaea, died in 338; and (2) our author, being a Persian subject, cannot have lived at Nisibis, which became Persian only by Jovian’s treaty of 363. That his name was Aphrahat or Pharhadh we learn from comparatively late writers—Bar Bahlul (10th century), Elias of Nisibis (11th), Bar-Hebraeus, and ‘Abhd-īshō’. George, bishop of the Arabs, writing inA.D.714 to a friend who had sent him a series of questions about the “Persian sage,” confesses ignorance of his name, home and rank, but infers from his homilies that he was a monk, and of high esteem among the clergy. The fact that in 344 he was selected to draw up a circular letter from a council of bishops and other clergy to the churches of Seleucia and Ctesiphon and elsewhere—included in our collection as homily 14—is held by Dr W. Wright and others to prove that he was a bishop. According to a marginal note in a 14th-century MS. (B.M. Orient. 1017), he was “bishop of Mar Mattai,” a famous monastery near Mosul, but it is unlikely that this institution existed so early. The homilies of Aphraates are intended to form, as Professor Burkitt has shown, “a full and ordered exposition of the Christian faith.” The standpoint is that of the Syriac-speaking church, before it was touched by the Arian controversy. Beginning with faith as the foundation, the writer proceeds to build up the Structure of doctrine and duty. The first ten homilies, which form one division completed in 337, are without polemical reference;their subjects are faith, love, fasting, prayer, wars (a somewhat mysterious setting forth of the conflict between Rome and Persia under the imagery of Daniel), the sons of the covenant (monks or ascetics), penitents, the resurrection, humility, pastors. Those numbered 11-22, written in 344, are almost all directed against the Jews; the subjects are circumcision, passover, the sabbath, persuasion (the encyclical letter referred to above), distinction of meats, the substitution of the Gentiles for the Jews, that Christ is the Son of God, virginity and holiness, whether the Jews have been finally rejected or are yet to be restored, provision for the poor, persecution, death and the last times. The 23rd homily, on the “grape kernel” (Is. lxv. 8), written in 344, forms an appendix on the Messianic fulfilment of prophecy, together with a treatment of the chronology from Adam to Christ. Aphraates impresses a reader favourably by his moral earnestness, his guilelessness, his moderation in controversy, the simplicity of his style and language, his saturation with the ideas and words of Scripture. On the other hand, he is full of cumbrous repetition, he lacks precision in argument and is prone to digression, his quotations from Scripture are often inappropriate, and he is greatly influenced by Jewish exegesis. He is particularly fond of arguments about numbers. How wholly he and his surroundings were untouched by the Arian conflict may be judged from the 17th homily—“that Christ is the Son of God.” He argues that, as the name “God” or “Son of God” was given in the O.T. to men who were worthy, and as God does not withhold from men a share in His attributes—such as sovereignty and fatherhood—it was fitting that Christ who has wrought salvation for mankind should obtain this highest name. From the frequency of his quotations, Aphraates is a specially important witness to the form in which the Gospels were read in the Syriac church in his day; Zahn and others have shown that he—mainly at least—used theDiatessaron. Finally, he bears important contemporary witness to the sufferings of the Christian church in Persia under Sapor (Shapur) II. as well as the moral evils which had infected the church, to the sympathy of Persian Christians with the cause of the Roman empire, to the condition of early monastic institutions, to the practice of the Syriac church in regard to Easter, &c.

Editions by W. Wright (London, 1869), and J. Parisot (with Latin translation, Paris, 1894); the ancient Armenian version of 19 homilies edited, translated into Latin, and annotated by Antonelli (Rome, 1756). Besides translations of particular homilies by G. Bickell and E.W. Budge, the whole have been translated by G. Bert (Leipzig, 1888). Cf. also C.J.F. Sasse,Proleg, in Aphr. Sapientis Persae sermones homileticos(Leipzig, 1879); J. Forget,De Vita et Scriptis Aphraatis(Louvain, 1882); F.C. Burkitt,Early Eastern Christianity(London, 1904); J. Labourt,Le Christianisme dans l’empire perse(Paris, 1904); J. Zahn,ForschungenI.; “Aphraates and the Diatessaron,” vol. ii. pp. 180-186 of Burkitt’sEvangelion Da-Mepharreshe(Cambridge, 1904); articles on “Aphraates and Monasticism,” by R.H. Connolly and Burkitt inJournal of Theological Studies(1905) pp. 522-539; (1906) pp. 10-15.

(N. M.)

1Hom. 1-22 begin with the letters of the Syriac alphabet in succession. Their present order in the Syriac MSS. is therefore right. The ancient Armenian version, published by Antonelli in 1756, has only 19 of the homilies, and those in a somewhat different order.

APHRODITE,1the Greek goddess of love and beauty, counterpart of the Roman Venus. Although her myth and cult were essentially Semitic, she soon became Hellenized and was admitted to a place among the deities of Olympus. Some mythologists hold that there already existed in the Greek system an earlier goddess of love, of similar attributes, who was absorbed by the Asiatic importation; and one writer (A. Enmann) goes so far as to deny the oriental origin of Aphrodite altogether. It is therefore necessary first to examine the nature and characteristics of her Eastern prototype, and then to see how far they reappear in the Greek Aphrodite.

Among the Semitic peoples (with the notable exception of the Hebrews) a supreme female deity was worshipped under different names—the Assyrian Ishtar, the Phoenician Ashtoreth (Astarte), the Syrian Atargatis (Derketo), the Babylonian Belit (Mylitta), the Arabian Ilat (Al-ilat). The article “Aphrodite” in Roscher’sLexikon der Mythologieis based upon the theory that all these were originally moon-goddesses, on which assumption all their functions are explained. This view, however, has not met with general acceptance, on the ground that, in Semitic mythology, the moon is always a male divinity; and that the full moon and crescent, found as attributes of Astarte, are due to a misinterpretation of the sun’s disk and cow’s horns of Isis, the result of the dependence of Syrian religious art upon Egypt. On the other hand, there is some evidence in ancient authorities (Herodian v. 6, 10; Lucian,De Dea Syria, 4) that Astarte and the moon were considered identical.

This oriental Aphrodite was worshipped as the bestower of all animal and vegetable fruitfulness, and under this aspect especially as a goddess of women. This worship was degraded by repulsive practices (e.g.religious prostitution, self-mutilation), which subsequently made their way to centres of Phoenician influence, such as Corinth and Mount Eryx in Sicily. In this connexion may be mentioned the idea of a divinity, half male, half female, uniting in itself the active and passive functions of creation, a symbol of luxuriant growth and productivity. Such was the bearded Aphrodite of Cyprus, called Aphrodites by Aristophanes according to Macrobius, who mentions a statue of the androgynous divinity in hisSaturnalia(iii. 8. 2; see alsoHermaphroditus). The moon, by its connexion with menstruation, and as the cause of the fertilizing dew, was regarded as exercising an influence over the entire animal and vegetable creation.

The Eastern Aphrodite was closely related to the sea and the element of moisture; in fact, some consider that she made her first appearance on Greek soil rather as a marine divinity than as a nature goddess. According to Syrian ideas, as a fish goddess, she represented the fructifying power of water. At Ascalon there was a lake full of fish near the temple of Atargatis-Derketo, into which she was said to have been thrown together with her son Ichthys (fish) as a punishment for her arrogance, and to have been devoured by fishes; according to another version, ashamed of her amour with a beautiful youth, which resulted in the birth of Semiramis, she attempted to drown herself, but was changed into a fish with human face (seeAtargatis). At Hierapolis (Bambyce) there was a pool with an altar in the middle, sacred to the goddess, where a festival was held, at which her images were carried into the water. Her connexion with the sea is explained by the influence of the moon on the tides, and the idea that the moon, like the sun and the stars, came up from the ocean.

The oriental Aphrodite is connected with the lower world, and came to be looked upon as one of its divinities. Thus, Ishtar descends to the kingdom of Ilat the queen of the dead, to find the means of restoring her favourite Tammuz (Adon, Adonis) to life. During her stay all animal and vegetable productivity ceases, to begin again with her return to earth—a clear indication of the conception of her as a goddess of fertility. This legend, which strikingly resembles that of Persephone, probably refers to the decay of vegetation in winter, and the reawakening of nature in spring (cf.Hyacinthus). The lunar theory connects it with the disappearance of the moon at the time of change or during an eclipse.

Another aspect of her character is that of a warlike goddess, armed with spear or bow, sometimes wearing a mural crown, as sovereign lady and protectress of the locality where she was worshipped. The spear and arrows are identified with the beams of the sun and moon.

The attributes of the goddess were the ram, the he-goat, the dove, certain fish, the cypress, myrtle and pomegranate, the animals being symbolical of fertility, the plants remedies against sterility.

The worship of Aphrodite at an early date was introduced into Cyprus, Cythera and Crete by Phoenician colonists, whence it spread over the whole of Greece, and as far west as Italy and Sicily. In Crete she has been identified with Ariadne, who, according to one version of her story, was put ashore in Cyprus, where she died and was buried in a grove called after the nameof Ariadne-Aphrodite (L.R. Farnell,Cults of the Greek States, ii. p. 663). Cyprus was regarded as her true home by the Greeks, and Cythera was one of the oldest seats of her worship (cf. her titles Cytherea, Cypris, Paphia, Amathusia, Idalia—the last three from places in Cyprus). In both these islands there lingered a definite tradition of a connexion with the cult of the oriental Aphrodite Urania, an epithet which will be referred to later. The oriental features of her worship as practised at Corinth are due to its early commercial relations with Asia Minor; the fame of her temple worship on Mount Eryx spread to Carthage, Rome and Latium.

In theIliad, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione, a name by which she herself is sometimes called. This has been supposed to point to a confusion between Aphrodite and Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera, Dione being an Epirot name for the last-named goddess. In theOdyssey, she is the wife of Hephaestus, her place being taken in theIliadby Charis, the personification of grace and divine skill, possibly supplanted by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Her amour with Ares, by whom she became the mother of Harmonia, the wife of Cadmus, is famous (Od.viii. 266). From her relations with these acknowledged Hellenic divinites it is argued that there once existed a primitive Greek goddess of love. This view is examined in detail and rejected by Farnell (Cults, ii. pp. 619-626).

It is admitted that few traces remain of direct relations of the Greek goddess to the moon, although such possibly survive in the epithetsπασιφαής, ἀστερία, οὐρανία. It is suggested that this is due to the fact that, at the time of the adoption of the oriental goddess, the Greeks already possessed lunar divinities in Hecate, Selene, Artemis. But, although her connexion with the moon has practically disappeared, in all other aspects a development from the Semitic divinity is clearly manifest.

Aphrodite as the goddess of all fruitfulness in the animal and vegetable world is especially prominent. In the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite she is described as ruling over all living things on earth, in the air, and in the water, even the gods being subject to her influence. She is the goddess of gardens, especially worshipped in spring and near lowlands and marshes, favourable to the growth of vegetation. As such in Crete she is called Antheia (“the flower-goddess”), at Athensἐν κήποις(“in the gardens”), andἐν καλάμοις(“in the reed-beds”) orἐν ἔλει(“in the marsh”) at Samos. Her character as a goddess of vegetation is clearly shown in the cult and ritual of Adonis (q.v.; also Farnell, ii. p. 644) and Attis (q.v.). In the animal world she is the goddess of sexual impulse; amongst men, of birth, marriage, and family life. To this aspect may be referred the names Genetyllis (“bringing about birth”), Arma (ἄρω, “to join,”i.e., in marriage, cf. Harmonia), Nymphia (“bridal goddess”), Kourotrophos (“rearer of boys”). Aphrodite Apaturus (see G.M. Hirst inJournal of Hellenic Studies, xxiii., 1903) refers to her connexion with the clan and the festival Apaturia, at which children were admitted to thephratria. It is pointed out by Farnell that this cult of Aphrodite, as the patroness of married life, is probably a native development of the Greek religion, the oriental legends representing her by no means as an upholder of the purer relations of man and woman. As the goddess of the grosser form of love she inspires both men and women with passion (ἐπιστροφία, “turning them to” thoughts of love), or the reverse (ἀποστροφία, “turning them away”). Upon her male favourites (Paris, Theseus) she bestows the fatal gift of seductive beauty, which generally leads to disastrous results in the case of the woman (Helen, Ariadne). Asμηχανῖτις(“contriver”) she acts as an intermediary for bringing lovers together, a similar idea being expressed inπρᾶξις(of “success” in love, or=creatrix). The two epithetsἀνδροφόνος(“man-slayer”) andσώσανδρα(“man-preserver”) find an illustration in the pseudo-Plautine (in theMercator) address to Astarte, who is described as the life and death, the saviour and destroyer of men and gods. It was natural that a personality invested with such charms should be regarded as the ideal of womanly beauty, but it is remarkable that the only probable instance in which she appears as such is as Aphroditeμορφώ(“form”) at Sparta (O. Gruppe suggests the meaning “ghost,” C. Tumpel the “dark one,” referring to Aphrodite’s connexion with the lower world). The function of Aphrodite as the patroness of courtesans represents the most degraded form of her worship as the goddess of love, and is certainly of Phoenician or Eastern origin. In Corinth there were more than a thousand of theseἱερόδουλοι(“temple slaves”), and wealthy men made it a point of honour to dedicate their most beautiful slaves to the service of the goddess.

Like her oriental prototype, the Greek Aphrodite was closely connected with the sea. Thus, in the Hesiodic account of her birth, she is represented as sprung from the foam which gathered round the mutilated member of Uranus, and her name has been explained by reference to this. Further proof may be found in many of her titles—ἀναδυομένη(“rising from the sea”),εὔπλοια(“giver of prosperous voyages”),γαληναία(“goddess of fair weather”),κατασκοπία(“she who keeps a look-out from the heights”)—in the attribute of the dolphin, and the veneration in which she was held by seafarers. Aphrodite Aineias, the protectress of the Trojan hero, is probably also another form of the maritime goddess of the East (see E. Worner, article “Aineias” in Roscher’sLexikon, and Farnell, ii. p. 638), which originated in the Troad, where Aphrodite Aineias may have been identical with the earth-goddess Cybele. The titleἔφιπποςis connected with the legend of Aeneas, who is said to have dedicated to his mother a statue that represented her on horseback. Remembering the importance of the horse in the cult of the sea-god Poseidon, it is natural to associate it with Aphrodite as the sea-goddess, although it may be explained with reference to her character as a goddess of vegetation, the horse being an embodiment of the corn-spirit (see J.G. Frazer,The Golden Bough, ii., 1900, p. 281).

Like Ishtar, Aphrodite was connected with the lower world. Thus, at Delphi there was an image of Aphroditeἐπιτυμβία(“Aphrodite of the tomb”), to which the dead were summoned to receive libations; the epithetsτυμβώρυχος(“grave-digger”),μυχία(“goddess of the depths”),μελαινίς(“the dark one”), the grave of Ariadne-Aphrodite at Amathus, and the myth of Adonis, point in the same direction.

The cult of the armed Aphrodite probably belongs to the earlier period of her worship in Greece, and down to the latest period of Greek history she retained this character in some of the Greek states. The cult is found not only where oriental influence was strongest, but in places remote from it, such as Sparta, where she was known by the name of Areia (“the warlike”), and there are numerous references in theAnthologyto an Aphrodite armed with helmet and spear. It is possible that the frequent association of Aphrodite with Ares is to be explained by an armed Aphrodite early worshipped at Thebes, the most ancient seat of the worship of Ares.

The most distinctively oriental title of the Greek Aphrodite is Urania, the Semitic “queen of the heavens.” It has been explained by reference to the lunar character of the goddess, but more probably signifies “she whose seat is in heaven,” whence she exercises her sway over the whole world—earth, sea, and air alike. Her cult was first established in Cythera, probably in connexion with the purple trade, and at Athens it is associated with the legendary Porphyrion, the purple king. At Thebes, Harmonia (who has been identified with Aphrodite herself) dedicated three statues, of Aphrodite Urania, Pandemos, and Apostrophia. A few words must be added on the second of these titles. There is no doubt that Pandemos was originally an extension of the idea of the goddess of family and city life to include the whole people, the political community. Hence the name was supposed to go back to the time of Theseus, the reputed author of the reorganization of Attica and its demes. Aphrodite Pandemos was held in equal regard with Urania; she was calledσεμνή(“holy”), and was served by priestesses upon whom strict chastity was enjoined. In time, however, the meaning of the term underwent a change, probably due to the philosophers and moralists, by whom a radical distinction was drawn between Aphrodite Urania and Pandemos. According to Plato(Symposium, 180), there are two Aphrodites, “the elder, having no mother, who is called the heavenly Aphrodite—she is the daughter of Uranus; the younger, who is the daughter of Zeus and Dione—her we call common.” The same distinction is found in Xenophon’sSymposium(viii. 9), although the author is doubtful whether there are two goddesses, or whether Urania and Pandemos are two names for the same goddess, just as Zeus, although one and the same, has many titles; but in any case, he says, the ritual of Urania is purer, more serious, than that of Pandemos. The same idea is expressed in the statement (quoted by Athenaeus, 569d, from Nicander of Colophon) that after Solon’s time courtesans were put under the protection of Aphrodite Pandemos. But there is no doubt that the cult of Aphrodite was on the whole as pure as that of any other divinities, and although a distinction may have existed in later times between the goddess of legal marriage and the goddess of free love, these titles do not express the idea. Aphrodite Urania was represented in Greek art on a swan, a tortoise or a globe; Aphrodite Pandemos as riding on a goat, symbolical of wantonness. (For the legend of Theseus and Aphrodite hepitagia, “on the goat,” see Farnell,Cults, ii. p. 633.)

To her oriental attributes the following may be added: the sparrow and hare (productivity), the wry-neck (as a love-charm, of which Aphrodite was considered the inventor), the swan and dolphin (as a marine divinity), the tortoise (explained by Plutarch as a symbol of domesticity, but connected by Gruppe with the marine deity), the rose, the poppy, and the lime tree.

In ancient art Aphrodite was at first represented clothed, sometimes seated, but more frequently standing; then naked, rising from the sea, or after the bath. Finally, all idea of the divine vanished, and the artists merely presented her as the type of a beautiful woman, with oval face, full of grace and charm, languishing eyes, and laughing mouth, which replaced the dignified severity and repose of the older forms. The most famous of her statues in ancient times was that at Cnidus, the work of Praxiteles, which was imitated on the coins of that town, and subsequently reproduced in various copies, such as the Vatican and Munich. Of existing statues the most famous is the Aphrodite of Melos (Venus of Milo), now in the Louvre, which was found on the island in 1820 amongst the ruins of the theatre; the Capitoline Venus at Rome and the Venus of Capua, represented as a goddess of victory (these two exhibit a lofty conception of the goddess); the Medicean Venus at Florence, found in the porticus of Octavia at Rome and (probably wrongly) attributed to Cleomenes; the Venus stooping in the bath, in the Vatican; and the Callipygos at Naples, a specimen of the most sensual type.

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