Aphrodite-Goddess of Love

Birth Mythology

Aphrodite is said to have been born when the body of Uranus, the sky god, was dismembered by his son, Cronus.  His cut off genitalia fell in to the sea at Cytherea, a small Ionian island on the southwest tip of the Peloponnese.  Aphrodite came to life from his seed and arose from the foam.  In fact, the Greek word aphros means "foam", thus Aphrodite was born. 

Early Life

From  Cytherea the West Wind carried Aphrodite to Cyprus where the seasons, known as the Horae cared for her.  They dressed her in beautiful exotic clothing and taught her to behave as a seductress.  She became the goddess of sensual love and allurement. Her downfall was that although she truck passion in to the hearts of Gods and humans alike, she gave little to no thought about the consequences or cost to those concerned. 

Tales

There are many scandalous stories of Aphrodite, too many to name here.  Home, a poet with whom we covered his works The Iliad and The Odyssey, tells of her affair with Ares the God of war while her husband, the hideous Hephaestus was working.  Hephaestus had won Aphrodite's hand in marriage after setting a trap for Hera and holding her for ransom.  Aphrodite always hated her husband and preferred Ares and other lovers to him.  The lovers even employed the use of an Alectryon, or rooster, to warn them when day break had arrived because dawn was when Hephaestus would return home from work.  However, the sun god, Helios, saw everything and told Hephaestus who rigged an invisible net to catch the lovers and called the other Gods to ridicule his wife and Ares.   The Olympian Gods laughed and Zeus is even reported to have said laughingly, "I wish I could get caught in such a trap!''


Symbols

The myrtle was her sacred tree, the rose her sacred flower, and the dove her sacred bird.

Children 

Aphrodite and Ares bore several children, two boys and one girl.  The sons, Deimos and Phobos, the daughter, Harmonia.  Their sons appeared in battles to cause havoc in the ranks of enemy soldiers.  Their names have even been given to 2 moons of the planet Mars.  Harmonia their daughter married Cadmus, a Phoenician prince who came to Boetia.  They founded the royal house of Thebes.

The Venus de Milo

There are many paintings and sculptures depicting Aphrodite, however one of the most famous is that of the Venus de Milo.  Discovered in 1820, and the artist unknown.  The arms are broken off, and the mystery of their original position has always fascinated the minds of critics.  What do you think Aphrodite would have been holding or doing with her arms?




Worshipping Aphrodite

The photo to the left depicts the Temple of Aphrodite in Aphrodisias.  Some regarded her as a goddess of the sea from which she was born.  Others such as the Spartans and Thebans worshiped Aphrodite as the goddess of war because of her connection to Ares, god of war.  In general, she was most widely worshiped as goddess of fertility.