The distinct reminiscence of Artemis in this story will be noticed later[262]; here we need only notice a few points in the story relating to Eros and his mother. The description of the ‘boy who had wings and in his hand held a bow and many arrows’ is simply and purely classical, according exactly with the Orphic address to him as τοξάλκη, πτερόεντα[263]. The ‘woman at the gate who was the fairest upon earth’ is in all probability the same as ‘the Mother of Eros’ beside the spring, the single personality, by some vagary in the transmission of the story, having become duplicated. The roses, of which the garden was full, are the flower always sacred to Aphrodite, the sweetest emblem of love; and over these it is fitting that the ‘little winged boys’ should hover, brothers as it were of Eros, ever-fresh embodiments of love, to all of whom, in antiquity, Aphrodite was mother[264]. These folk-tales present sufficient evidence that the memory of the name and attributes of Aphrodite survived locally until recent times to warrant the conclusion that her worship, like that of other pagan deities, possessed vitality enough to compete for a long while with Christianity for the favour of the common-folk; but as a personality she is no longer present, I think, to their consciousness; she is at most only a character in a few folk-stories--if indeed the present generation has not forgotten even these. For my part, I never heard mention of her in story or otherwise, although her son, the winged Eros, is often named in the love-songs which form a large part of the popular poetry. Vows and offerings which would in former days have been made to Aphrodite are now made either to suitable saints who have taken her place, such as S. Catharine[265], or to the Fates (Μοίραις), who were from of old associated with her. According to a fragment of Epimenides[266], ‘golden Aphrodite and the deathless Fates’ were daughters of Cronos and Euonyme. Their sisterly relation was recognised also in cult. Near the Ilissus once stood a temple containing an old wooden statue (ξόανον) of Heavenly Aphrodite with an inscription naming her ‘eldest of the Fates’ (πρεσβυτέρα τῶν Μοιρῶν)[267]. So venerable a shrine must in old time have witnessed many a petition for success in love; and when we bear in mind the ancient inscription of the statue, it is interesting to find that among the girls of Athens until recent times the custom prevailed of visiting the so-called ‘hollow hill[268]’ (τρύπιο βουνό) in the immediate neighbourhood to offer to the Fates cakes with honey and salt and to consult them as to their destined husbands[269]. Sacred also to Aphrodite in old days was a cave in the neighbourhood of Naupactus, frequented particularly by widows anxious to be remarried[270]. At the present day a cave at the foot of Mt Rigani, which may probably be identified as the old sanctuary, is the spot to which girls repair in order to consult the Fates on the all-absorbing question[271].