Ambologera (Ancient Greek: Ἀμβολογήρα) was a cultic epithet (term used to characterize) of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, from the Greek ἀναβάλλω and γῆρας, "delaying old age". She had a statue on the acropolis at Sparta under this name, although as there is only one surviving mention of this epithet, from Pausanias' Description of Greece, the precise nature of this cult is uncertain. Some scholars have speculated that Aphrodite Ambologera was proof of Aphrodite's identification with the mandrake plant, which was thought in ancient times to have aphrodisiac powers.
References
- Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Ambologera". In William Smith (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 139.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece iii. 18. § 1
- Plutarch, Symposiacs iii. 6
- Alroth, Brita (1994). Opus Mixtum: Essays in Ancient Art and Society. P.Åströms Förlag. pp. 47–51. ISBN 91-7042-150-1.
- Gildersleeve, Basil Lanneau (1916). "Brief Mention". American Journal of Philology. 37. Johns Hopkins University Press: 505. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Ambologera". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
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