ABSTRACT
Hermes and Aphrodite are not considered a pair in the standard books on Greek mythology. Traditionally Aphrodite is paired with Ares, who is her lover, or with Hephaestus, who is her husband. Yet, there is firm evidence that the two gods enjoyed common worship in several sanctuaries throughout Greece: in Crete, Arcadia, Attica, Samos and southern Italy.1
Even on the Athenian Acropolis there is a common worship to Aphrodite, Hermes and Eros.2 Since there are so many instances of joint cult, the relationship of the two gods cannot be dismissed as a regional peculiarity, and it must be suspected that the two divinities had common features. It is their common function that will be explored here and it will be related to agegrade initiation. However, a short digression on the term `initiation' is necessary here. One of the main issues addressed by this volume is the validity of Van
Gennep's model forGreek religion. The answer is not simple. On the one hand, Van Gennep's delineation of the tripartite structure of initiation rituals as separation, liminality and reintegration has helped historians of Greek religion to understand the mechanisms of transition from one state to another. On the other hand, each civilization is unique and utilizes its own culture-specific mechanisms and `codes' to express transition; the phases may be more complex than Van Gennep's tripartite structure. For example, each phase may contain tripartite sub-phases. We shall not pursue this theoretical matter here. Suffice it to say that transition of age groups from one category to the next was a concern of ancient Greek society, and that it is unlikely that there was one single rite of passage to adulthood. Rather, we may postulate a series of passages from childhood to preadolescence, from preadolescence to adolescence, from adolescence to adulthood (in short: several initiation rites). Festivalswould have provided the religious and seasonal contexts for passage whereas sanctuaries would have afforded the physical location. What is more important: the transition into an older age group would have been celebrated in connection
