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Aphrodite (In Rome Venus)

Aphrodite is the Goddess of love, beauty and fertility. Hesiod says that she grew from the foam that gathered around the severed genitals of Titan Ouranos after they were thrown into the sea by his son Kronos. Kronos cut of Ouranos genitals, because Ouranos seduced his wife. This would make Aphrodite the oldest Olympian God. In a text by Homer, there is another story of how Aphrodite was born. He says Aphrodite is a daughter of Zeus, the king of the Gods, and Goddess Dione. The story were she is their daughter is more common than Hesiods story. Sometimes Aphrodite is even called Dionaie (daughter of Dione) in poems. She drifted in the sea after her birth, before stepping ashore on Cyprus. In Iliad she is also called Kypris, Lady of Cyprus, were her cult was very old and of non-Greek origin, and she also had an ancient association with Cythera off the southeastern corner of the Peloponnese. Her shrine at Cythera was thought to be the earliest in Greece, built by Phoenicians. She is a Goddess of Semitic origin were she was called Astarte or Ishtar.

Aphrodite is also very closely associated with water and sea, and she is very often shown with a shell or dolphins. Sailors honored her as their protector and believed that she could bring them victory in sea-battles. Surprisingly she was also worshipped as a war Goddess at Cythera and Sparta especially, and bringer of victory in Argos. Aphrodite is regularly associated with Eros, the personification of amorous desire, who fulfills his purposes by inspiring love in Gods and mortals alike. In Hesiods Theogony he is said to be the primordial cosmic power, and that he attended Aphrodite from the time of her birth, and that he accompanied her to Olympus. In a later text Eros is said to be son of Aphrodite and Ares. Eros often helped Aphrodite mess around with the life of mortals.

One of the most famous tales of Aphrodite is the tale of her love for Adonis. Myrrha, daughter of Theias, king of Assyria, refused to honor Aphrodite. Aphrodite was furious and in revenge inspired Myrrha with incestuous passion for her own father. One time she slipped into his bed under the cover of darkness and Theias slept with her for twelve nights without realizing who she was. Finally he realized that he had slept with his own daughter and in horror Theias chased her with the sword. Before he was able to catch Myrrha, she prayed to the Gods to help her, and after hearing her plea they turned her into a tree that bears her name, the myrrh-tree. Her father committed suicide shortly after. Myrrha was pregnant and in time the tree broke open and Adonis was born. Adonis was so beautiful that Aphrodite didn´t want to share him with other Gods, and hid him in the underworld with Persephone. Persephone was also so enchanted with his beauty that she also wanted to keep him. Zeus, after consulting Kalliope the Muse of epic poetry, decided that Adonis was to spend one third of the year with Aphrodite, one third with Persephone and one third by himself, tough he decided to spend his own third also with Aphrodite. Aphrodite tried to keep Adonis safe, but one time when he went hunting a wild boar killed him. Some texts describes his death as an accident, some say Ares killed him out of jealousy and some that Artemis killed him as revenge for Aphrodite for having caused the death of her own favorite Hippolytos.

Aphrodite was married to Hephaistos, God of fire and smithies. Hephaistos was son of Hera, who had deformed legs. Marriage between Aphrodite and Hephaistos was arranged by Zeus, the king of Gods. Aphrodite did not love Hephaistos, but was forced to be with him although she was in love with Ares, God of war. Helios, God of sun, who can see everything from the sky found out Aphrodite and Ares were having an affair and told about it to Hephaistos. Hephaistos was angry, but too scared to comfort Ares, so he did plan a trap for his unfaithful wife and her lover. He fashioned a subtle net which was strong but invisible and spread it around his bed, causing the guilty couple to be caught up in it when they lay down. Hephaistos then summoned other gods to witness the sight. Gods did not take the affair so seriously that Hephaistos had hoped, and he just had to get used to having an unfaithful wife.Aphrodite and Ares had three children, two sons Deimos and Phobos (panic and fear) the terrible gods who strike confusion into the close-packed ranks of men fighting war, and a daughter Harmonia, Goddess of harmony and joy.

Thetis, Goddess of rivers and oceans, married Peleus, a mortal man, and all Gods were invited to join the feast. Eris, Goddess of dissent and strife, and comrade and sister of Ares, was not invited. She was furious, and decided to sabotage their wedding. In the middle of the wedding-feast she trough a golden apple in front of Goddesses Aphrodite, Athena and Hera, with the text ”to the most beautiful”. Zeus ordered that Paris, son of Priam and Hekabe, was to decide who of the Goddesses were the most beautiful. Paris judged in favor of Aphrodite because she did promise that he could marry Helen, the beautiful wife of the Trojan king. There is little left from the original text that tells the story and only the part about Aphrodite's offering is completely preserved, but its said that Hera offered royal sway to Paris, and Athena promised success in war. The promise Aphrodite made to Paris led to the infamous war of Troy. Aphrodite had also a son Aineias with the mortal man Anchises. Aineias accompanied Paris in the Trojan war at the order of Aphrodite. In battle warrior Diomedes, who was Athena's favorite, tried to kill Aineias, and when Aphrodite comes to aid her son Diomedes stabs her. Aphrodite flees to Olympus and Apollo comes to rescue Aineias from Diomedes. Homer writes about the wound suffered by Aphrodite, which caused ”divine blood Ichor, such as runs throughout the veins of blessed Gods” to flow out. Aphrodite revenged Diomedes by making his wife fall in love with another man and after Diomedes returned home from the war, the lovers tried to kill him. They did not succeed, and Diomedes did seek protection from Athena's temple and after that was protected by her against the anger of Aphrodite.

Sacred Days :

The month April is named after Aphrodite.

Sources:

Michael Jordan, Encyclopedia of gods 2002

Michael Senior, Who´s who in mythology 1985

Elizabeth Hallan, Mytologian Jumalat (Gods and Goddesses, 96) 1997

Nigel Pennick, the Pagan book of days 1992

Arthur Cotterell, Mytologia: Jumalia, Sankareita, Myyttejä 2005

Robin Hard, the Routledge handbook of Greek mythology 2004