Origins

Her Roman analogue is Venus. Her Mesopotamian counterpart was Ishtar. Her Egyptian counterpart is Hathor, and her Syro-Palestinian counterpart was `Ashtart (in standard Greek spelling Astarte); her Etruscan equivalent was Turan. She has parallels to Indo-European dawn goddesses such as Ushas or Aurora.

Worship

The epithet Aphrodite Acidalia was occasionally added to her name, after the spring she used to bathe in, located in Boeotia (Virgil I, 720). She was also called Kypris or Cytherea after her alleged birth-places in Cyprus and Cythera, respectively. The island of Cythera was a center of her cult. She was associated with Hesperia and frequently accompanied by the Oreads, nymphs of the mountains.

Birth

Adulthood

Aphrodite, in many of the myths involving her, is characterized as vain, ill-tempered and easily offended. Though she is one of the few gods of the Greek Pantheon to be actually married, she is frequently unfaithful to her husband. Hephaestus, of course, is one of the most even-tempered of the Hellenic deities; Aphrodite seems to prefer Ares, the volatile god of war. In Homer's Iliad she surges into battle to save her son, but abandons him (in fact, drops him as she flies through the air) when she herself is hurt (Ares does much the same thing). And she is the original cause of the Trojan War itself: not only did she start the whole affair by offering Helen of Troy to Paris, but the abduction was accomplished when Paris, seeing Helen for the first time, was inflamed with desire to have her—which is Aphrodite's realm. Her domain may involve love, but it does not involve romance; rather, it tends more towards lust, the human irrational longing.

Marriage with Hephaestus

Due to her immense beauty, Zeus was frightened that she would be the cause of violence between the other gods. He married her off to Hephaestus, the dour, humorless god of smithing. There is another version of this story. Because Hera, Hephaestus' mother, threw him off Olympus because he was too ugly, he got his revenge by trapping her in a magic throne, then demanding Aphrodite's hand in return for Hera's release. Hephaestus was overjoyed at being married to the goddess of beauty and forged her beautiful jewelry, including the cestus, a girdle that made her even more irresistible to men. Her unhappiness with her marriage caused Aphrodite to seek out companionship from others, most frequently Ares, but also Adonis, Anchises and more. Hephaestus once cleverly caught Ares and Aphrodite in bed with finely wrought chains, and brought all the other Olympian gods together to mock the pair (however, the "goddesses stayed at home, all of them for shame.") Hephaestus would not free them until Poseidon promised Hephaestus that Ares would pay reparations, but both escaped as soon as the chains were lifted and their promise was not kept.

Aphrodite and Psyche

Aphrodite was jealous of the beauty of a mortal woman named Psyche. She asked Eros to use his golden arrows to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest man on earth. Eros agreed but then fell in love with Psyche on his own, or by accidentally pricking himself with a golden arrow. Meanwhile, Psyche's parents were anxious that their daughter remained unmarried. They consulted an oracle who told them she was destined for no mortal lover, but a monster who lived on top of a particular mountain. Psyche was resigned to her fate and climbed to the top of the mountain. There, Zephyrus, the west wind, gently floated her downwards. She entered a cave on the appointed mountain, surprised to find it full of jewellery and finery. Eros visited her every night in the cave and they made love; he demanded only that she never light any lamps because he did not want her to know who he was (having wings made him distinctive). Her two sisters, jealous of Psyche, convinced her to do so one night and she lit a lamp, recognizing him instantly. A drop of hot lamp oil fell on Eros' chest and he awoke, then fled.

Adonis

Aphrodite was Adonis' lover and had a part in his birth. She urged Myrrha or Smyrna to commit incest with her father, Theias, the King of Assyria. Another version says Myrrha's father was Cinyras of Cyprus. Myrrha's nurse helped with the scheme. When Theias discovered this, he flew into a rage, chasing his daughter with a knife. The gods turned her into a myrrh tree and Adonis eventually sprang from this tree. Alternatively, Aphrodite turned her into a tree and Adonis was born when Theias shot the tree with an arrow or when a boar used its tusks to tear the tree's bark off.

The Judgment of Paris

The gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles). Only the goddess Eris (Discord) was not invited, but she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the words "to the fairest," which she threw among the goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and rightful owners of the apple. The goddesses chose to put the matter before Paris, a shepherd known for his solving matters, who later turned out to be a prince of Troy. Hera tried to bribe Paris with the Asia Minor, while Athena offered glory and fame in battle, but Aphrodite whispered to Paris that if he were to choose her as the fairest he would have the most beautiful mortal woman as a wife, and he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen. The other goddesses were enraged by this and through Helen's abduction by Paris they stirred up the Trojan War. This abduction led to the Trojan war because Helen had already been married to a Greek. In this way, the Greeks found out that Paris had taken Helen to far away Troy and so they sieged Troy for an almost endless ten years which led up to Homer's book, The Iliad.

Pygmalion and Galatea

Pygmalion was a sculptor who had never found a woman worthy of his love. Aphrodite took pity on him and decided to show him the wonders of love. One day, Pygmalion was inspired by a dream of Aphrodite to make a woman out of ivory resembling her image, and he called her Galatea. He fell in love with the statue and decided he could not live without her. He prayed to Aphrodite, who carried out the final phase of her plan and brought the exquisite sculpture to life. Pygmalion loved Galatea and they were soon married.

Other Stories

In one version of the story of Hippolytus, Aphrodite was the catalyst for his death. He scorned the worship of Aphrodite for Artemis and, in revenge, Aphrodite caused his step-mother, Phaedra, to fall in love with him, knowing Hippolytus would reject her. In the most popular version of the story, the play "Hippolytus" by Euripides, Phaedra seeks revenge against Hippolytus by killing herself and, in her suicide note, telling Theseus, her husband and Hippolytus' father, that Hippolytus had raped her. Hippolytus was oath-bound not to mention Phaedra's love for him and nobly refused to defend himself despite the consequences. Theseus then cursed his son, a curse that Poseidon was bound to fulfil and so Hipploytus was laid low by a bull from the sea that caused his chariot-team to panic and wreck his vehicle. This is, intersestingly enough not quite how Aphrodite envisaged his death in the play, as in the prologue she says she expects Hippolytus to submit to lust with Phaedra and for Theseus to catch the pair in the act. Hippolytus forgives his father before he dies and Artemis reveals the truth to Theseus before vowing to kill one Aphrodite loves- Adonis in revenge.

Consorts and children

• Deities
  • Ares
    • Anteros
    • Eros (Love)
    • Harmonia (Harmony)
    • Himeros
    • Deimos (Dread)
    • Phobos (Fright)
  • Dionysus
    • Charites
      • Aglaea
      • Euphrosyne
      • Thalia
    • Hymenaios
    • Priapus
  • Hephaestus
  • Hermes
    • Eros (in one tradition)
    • Eunomia
    • Hermaphroditus
    • Peitho
    • Priapus (in some traditions)
    • Rhodos
    • Tyche
• Mortals
  • Adonis
  • Anchises
    • Aeneas
  • Butes
    • Eryx
  • Dinlas

Surnames and titles

• Acidalia
• Anadyomene, the emerging as in Aphrodite Anadyomene, a painting by Apelles
• Cytherea
• Despina
• Kypris
• Hetaira
• Porne, the prostitute
• Kalligloutos
• Kallipygos, she of the beautiful buttocks
• Morpho, the shapely, she of the various shapes
• Ambologera, she who postpones old age
• Aphrodite en koipos
• Genetyllis
• Epitragidia
• Melaina, the black
• Melainis, the black one
• Skotia, the dark
• Anosia, the unholy
• Androphonos, killer of men
• Tymborychos, the gravedigger
• Epitymbidia, she upon the graves
• Basilis, queen
• Persephaessa

In popular culture

• Aphrodite is well-known in popular culture due to several works of art such as the Venus de Milo and Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.
• In film, she has been portrayed by actresses such as Vanna White and Ursula Andress.
• In the Hercules and Xena television series, Aphrodite was played by Alexandra Tydings, who gained a cult following due to her portrayal of Aphrodite as a ditzy valley girl who dressed in pink negligee.
  
  
  • C. Kerényi (1951). The Gods of the Greeks.
  
  Find out more about Aphrodite on Wikipedia