abilities (which were exceptional) and had to cope with feelings of
worthlessness and depression, which paralleled her feeling when
her mother was away.
When an Aphrodite mother’s inconstant and intense attention is
focused on a son, it affects his future relationships with women as
well as his self-esteem and potential for depression. She creates a
special intimacy between them that seduces the budding man in her
son and draws him to her, and then she turns her attention some-
where else. A rival for her affection—often a new man, sometimes
some other fascination—takes her away, leaving him feeling inad-
equate, devastated, powerless, angry, and sometimes humiliated as
well. The son feels a personal rivalry, a competition he repeatedly
loses with the men in his mother’s life, which are feelings most
daughters are spared. As a grown man, he yearns to have the intens-
ity and the specialness he once felt with his mother, only this time
he wants to be in control. Based on his childhood experience with
his mother, he mistrusts a woman’s fidelity, and may feel incapable
of keeping her affection.
MIDDLE YEARS
The inevitability of aging may be a devastating reality for the
Aphrodite woman if her attractiveness has been her chief source of
gratification. Once she becomes self-conscious or anxious that her
beauty is fading, her attention may shift, preventing her from total
absorption in the other person. She may be unaware that this Aph-
rodite quality—even more than her physical beauty—was what
drew people to her.
At midlife, an Aphrodite woman often also becomes unhappy
with her choice of partners. She may notice how frequently she has
been attracted to unconventional and sometimes unsuitable men.
She may now want to settle down—a possibility she may have
spurned before.
However, the middle years are not difficult for Aphrodite women
who are engaged in creative work. Typically, such women retain
their enthusiasm and still throw themselves into work that interests
them. And now they have more experience to draw inspiration from,
and more highly developed skills with which to express themselves.
Aphrodite: Goddess of Love and Beauty, Creative Woman and Lover