Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love and
Beauty.
and according to Hesiod’s Theogony, she was
born from the foam in the waters of Paphos, on the island of Cyprus.
She supposedly arose from the foam
when the Titan Cronus slew his father Uranus and threw his genitals into the
sea.
However, according to Homer, in
Iliad, Aphrodite may instead be the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
As with so many Greek deities, there are many
stories about the origins of the gods.
Many gods believed that her beauty
was such that their rivalry over her would spark a war of the gods.
Because of this, Zeus married Aphrodite to
Hephaestus – he wasn’t seen as a threat because of his ugliness and deformity.
Despite this marriage to Hephaestus,
Aphrodite had many lovers.
Her lovers include both gods and men –
including the god Ares and the mortal Anchises.
She also played a role in the story
of Eros and Psyche in which admirers of Psyche neglected to worship Venus
(Aphrodite) and instead worshipped her. For this, Aphrodite enlisted Eros
(Cupid) to exact her revenge but the god of love instead falls in love with the
girl.
Later, Aphrodite was both Adonis’s
lover and his surrogate mother.
This led to a feud with Persephone in which
Zeus decreed Adonis should spend half of the year with Aphrodite and half of
the year with Persephone.
Facts about Aphrodite.
Aphrodite was the goddess of
fertility, love, and beauty.
Two different stories explain the
birth of Aphrodite. The first is simple: She was the child of Zeus and Dione.
According to the second story,
however, Aphrodite rose from the foam of the sea.
Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus,
but Aphrodite did not enter into this union of her own volition.
She and Ares conceived Harmonia, who
eventually married Herodotus.
She was the mother of Hermaphroditus
by Hermes.
Aphrodite and her son Eros (Cupid)
teamed up to cause Zeus to fall in love with a human named Europa.
Aphrodite loved Adonis.
She saw him when he was born and determined
then that he should be hers. She assigned Persephone to his care, but
Persephone fell in love with Adonis.
also and would not give him back. Finally,
Zeus had to mediate.
He judged that Adonis should spend
half the year with each
Aphrodite used a swan-drawn car to
glide easily through the air.
Although Aphrodite and Hera were not
friends.
Hera went to the Goddess of Love for help as
she endeavored to assist the heroes in their Quest of the Golden Fleece.
Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena were the
top three contenders for a gold apple marked “For the Fairest.”
They asked Zeus to judge the contest, but he
refused.
Paris, son of the King of Troy, judged the
contest instead. Each of the three goddesses promised him something in return;
he chose Aphrodite as the winner of the apple. This story of the Judgment of
Paris was considered to be the real reason behind the Trojan War.
During the Trojan War, Aphrodite
fought on the side of Paris.
Aphrodite rescued Paris from
Menelaus by enveloping him in a cloud and taking him back to Troy.
Aphrodite owned a girdle that
contained her enchantments; Hera borrowed it once to seduce Zeus in order to
distract him from the Trojan War.
Aphrodite gave Harmonia a necklace
that brought disaster to a later generation.
Prostitutes considered the Goddess
of Love their patron.
Aphrodite had a few mortal lovers.
One of the most notable was the Trojan shepherd Anchises. The two of them
conceived Aeneas.
Corinth was the center of
Aphrodite’s worship.
Early Greek art depicted the goddess
as nude.
She was the model for the famous
sculpture Venus de Milo.
Aphrodite and Cupid initiated the
love between Jason (hero of the Quest of the Golden Fleece) and the daughter of
the Colchian King.
goddess of : Love, Beauty.
Symbols:The Dove, seashells, sea
foam, mirrors, Girdle, Rose, Lettuce, Apple, Goose, Rabbit.
Sacred animals: Dove.
Parents: Uranus, or Zeus and Dione.
Consort: Hephaestus, Ares, Poseidon,
Hermes, Dionysus, Adonis, and Anchises.
Children: Eros, Phobos, Deimos,
Harmonia, Pothos, Anteros, Himeros, Hermaphroditos, Rhode, Eryx, Peitho,
Eunomia, The Graces, Priapus, Aeneas .
Aphrodite and Hephaestus.
Never had there been such sensual
beauty and impeccable taste.
born of the sea foam created by the mutilation
of Uranus by his son Kronos adorned in birth with pearls scallop shells and clams.
A new era of love had been
introduced! Henceforth there would be candlelit dinners, heart-rending arias in
operas, high-heeled shoes and bright red lipstick .
Romance was here and planning to
stay.
A goddess so beautiful and divine,
flowers sprang upon her every footstep. Goddess of Love and Beauty indeed.
Every Greek god and goddess was
dying to meet her. The Horae (Hours) welcomed her to step ashore and adorned
her with the finest gold ornaments and cloth.
then brought Aphrodite to Mount Olympus to
present her to Zeus and the other gods and goddesses.
Zeus, in his infinite wisdom,
instantly recognized the threat this beautiful goddess to the welfare of all of
Olympus.
with her extreme beauty that captivated any
eye that saw it, she caused many fights in order to gain her much wanted
attention.
Zeus mandated she must be married at once (in
an attempt to quell any conflicts over her) and awarded the goddess to his son,
Hephaestus, god of the forge.
It was pretty good for Hepheastus, who got
hooked up with one of the most beautiful goddesses ever known, but not so much
for Aphrodite who was stuck with Hepheastus.
the lame blacksmith, who wasn’t the most
attractive of men. However Hephaestus was a reliable and hardworking, and
worked tediously to make his wife beautiful jewelry.
including Aphrodite’s famous girdle, which
made her even more beautiful and irresistible, which wasn’t the greatest of
ideas on Hepheastus’s part.
The Greek goddess Aphrodite, however did not
want to be stuck with plain Hephaestus all her life.
Aphrodite was well renowned for her numerous
love affairs she’s had which resulted in many offspring by her various lovers.
Her most notable lovers were the gods Ares,
Dionysius, Hermes, Poseidon, and the mortal, Adonis.
Except for a few occasions when he was
overwhelmed with jealousy or resentment, Hephaestus seemed to accept this
arrangement, happy to just have and hold her when he could.
Indeed, their marriage seemed
companionable, with little passion perhaps, but little conflict as well.
Aphrodite and Adonis.
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In the Elysian Fields, hidden in the
shades of Hades, lives Adonis.
Born from Smyrna, pregnant woman
turned into a tree by the gods to spare her life, the child was cared for by
Persephone, the queen of the dead.
It is said that she and Aphrodite
fell in love with the child. But the truth is Aphrodite was miserable on earth
with her husband.
and Persephone was miserable in Hades
with her spouse. Persephone also missed her dear mother on the surface.
While Persephone was on the surface,
Aphrodite came up with a plan. Aphrodite would pretend to be struck by one of
the arrows of Eros, causing her to fall in love with the child at birth.
Persephone would take care of the child, and
Aphrodite would see the child in the Elysian Fields.
In reality, a nursemaid of the Fields would
take care
of Adonis while Aphrodite and
Persephone hid in a corner of the Fields.
far away from the prying eyes. There
they gave into their longing for each other.
It was there they satisfied their
needs before they were forced to part. But a new problem loomed around the
horizon.
Adonis grew up and became a man at eighteen.
He could not stay in the Fields any longer. So Aphrodite had to come up with
another plan.
With Persephone, they concocted a
feud where the two fell in love with Adonis' beauty and could not agree on who
should share the right to spend time with the youth.
They'd pretend that their fight was bitter
enough to attract Zeus' attentions. They'd convince Zeus to settle the matter
by letting Aphrodite spend the summer months with the youth and Persephone the
winter months.
They knew Adonis would go along with it
because he was not the brightest youth.
Hephaestus was oblivious to all of
Aphrodite's relationships except for her liaisons with Ares. Hades did not
care.
(He never cared unless someone tried to leave
the realm of the dead.) Aphrodite and Persephone continued with their affair.
That was, until Adonis died. And, of
course, it was at the hands of Ares, as clueless as Adonis, but more jealous
and possessive.
When Adonis died, Persephone sent Aphrodite a
flower, small and blood red.
It was a sign of Persephone's love
for Aphrodite; even though she was in the Underworld and could not plan a
scheme for the two to lie together in the Elysian Fields, there was still hope
for the two of them.
So Aphrodite went back to Hades, the
Underworld, to engage in another staged fight over who owned the rights to
Adonis' body.
Once again, Zeus sided with Aphrodite,
allowing the shade of Adonis to be with the living in the summer and reside in
Hades in the winter.
And once again, the goddesses carried on their
affair in secret, hiding in the Elysian Fields.
escaping their loveless marriages, if only for
brief moments at a time. Pleasure is fleeting, and Aphrodite and Persephone
knew it was the truth.
Trojan War.
Aphrodite somewhat began the Trojan
War.
It began when Aphrodite tempted Paris to
choose her as the fairest goddess with Helen, the fairest mortal of all.
He did choose her, which caused war
with the gods. Also, because Helen was already married to a ruler of Sparta.
The two fell in love, causing not only a
problem, but also a war between the Trojans and the Greeks.