Propoetides

In Greco-Roman mythology, the Propoetides (Ancient Greek: Προποιτίδες) are the daughters of Propoetus from the city of Amathus on the island of Cyprus. In Roman literature, they are treated by Ovid in his Metamorphoses (book 10.238 ff.):

Nevertheless, the immoral Propoetides dared to deny that Venus was the goddess. For this, because of her divine anger, they are said to have been the first to prostitute their bodies and their reputations in public, and, losing all sense of shame, they lost the power to blush, as the blood hardened in their cheeks, and only a small change turned them into hard flints.[1]

The story of Venus and her vengeance on the Propoetides for failing to worship her properly is a common theme in a number of stories and poems written about the goddess.[2]

According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves, Pygmalion determined that he was "not interested in women".[3] This drove him to create a woman of his own in statue form, with whom he then fell in love.

Notes
  1. Ovid's Metamorphoses, book 10, English Translation
  2. Stories of the Wrath of Aphrodite
  3. Morford, Mark (2007). Classical Mythology. Oxford University Press. p. 184.
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