Aphrodite

Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

Depiction
As the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite is usually depicted as a beautiful woman. She is also usually depicted nude and/or accompanied by the winged god of love Eros.

Abode
Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty, gracefulness, pleasure, and procreation.

Attributes
Her most notable attributes include a dove, an apple, a scallop shell, and myrtle. Other, less common, attributes of Aphrodite include a goose, mirror, swallow, iynx, arrow, and poppy. The planet Venus was sacred to her and the month of April as well.

Aphrodite owned a girdle that was forged by her husband Hephaestus. The girdle had the power of making whoever wore it irresistible.

As Aphrodite Urania, the tortoise was sacred to her. Similarly, the ram was sacred to her as Aphrodite Pandemos.

Birth
According to some myths, Aphrodite was born from the sea foam that was created after the castrated genitals of Uranus were thrown into the sea. Other authors and myths state that Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. The myth of her being born from the sea foam is more common and is, therefore, used on this page.

After her birth, she traveled to the island Cythera and then to Cyprus. Wherever she walked, flowers sprang up behind her. She was accompanied by Eros and Himeros.

Marriage
After her birth, Aphrodite ascended to Olympus and was the most beautiful of all the gods and goddesses. Zeus knew that her beauty would cause quarreling between the male gods so he immediately wed her to Hephaestus. Despite her marriage, Aphrodite was unfaithful and had several affairs with other gods and mortals, most notably with Ares. Other gods that she coupled with were Hermes, Dionysus, and Poseidon.

As punishment for her unfaithfulness, Zeus caused her to fall in love with a mortal man named Anchises. Thus, she became the mother of Aeneas and Lyrus.

Adonis
Smyrna was a mortal woman who had not worshipped Aphrodite, which angered the goddess. As punishment, Aphrodite caused Smyrna to fall in love with her father. Since her father did not love her back, she tricked him into copulating with her. After discovering what Smyrna had done, her father tried to kill her but she fled before he was able to. She prayed to the gods and they transformed her into a smurna tree.

In another account, Aphrodite cursed Smyrna because her mother, Cenchreis, angered Aphrodite by claiming that her daughter was more beautiful than Aphrodite. Smyrna fled into the forest after realizing what she had done and was turned into a tree by the gods.

Smyrna had gotten pregnant by her father and so, after nine months, the infant Adonis sprang from the smurna tree. Adonis was incredibly beautiful, even for an infant. Aphrodite was enamored at his beauty and entrusted him to the care of Persephone who was also enamored at the beauty of the infant. After the boy had grown up, Persephone refused to give Adonis back to Aphrodite, which caused a quarrel between the goddesses. Aphrodite went to Zeus and he decided that Adonis should spend four months of the year with Aphrodite, four with Persephone, and the other four with whichever goddess he wanted to spend them with. He always chose to spend his extra four months with Aphrodite, however.

When Ares realized that Aphrodite was more interested in Adonis than she was in him, he either killed Adonis by transforming himself into a boar and attacking him or causing a wild boar to kill Adonis.

Trojan War
During the Trojan War, Aphrodite sided with the Trojans since her son, Aeneas, was a Trojan prince. During the war, she saved Paris from Menelaus and attempted to save Aeneas. When she tried to save Aeneas, she was wounded on the hand by Diomedes and fled back to Olympus with Iris. Back in Olympus, she was made fun of by Hera and Athena. Also, after the death of Hector, Aphrodite protected his body and anointed the corpse with ambrosia.

Other Names

 * Cypris
 * Cytherea
 * Aphrodite Urania
 * Aphrodite Pandemos
 * Venus (in Roman mythology)