The goddess of love and fertility draws everyone's attention wherever she is mentioned. Aphrodite and the course of its fame in Ancient Greek history.

Who is Aphrodite?

The goddess of love in Greek mythology, the goddess Aphrodite, one of the twelve deities of Olympus, was associated with love, beauty, and fertility. Later, the Romans incorporated her into their pantheon and renamed her Venus.

The origin of the goddess in Greek mythology

According to the oldest Greek myths, the goddess of love was born when the titan Kronos cut off the sexual organs of her father, Uranus, and threw them into the sea. She is the result of contact between Uranus' sperm and the sea. Aphrodite emerged fully developed from the foam that accumulated on the surface of the water.

What Aphrodite means

A different myth of her birth presents her as the daughter of the ruler of the gods, Zeus, and a lesser goddess named Dione.

The novels

Aphrodite's connection to love is reflected in the many stories about her romantic affairs. She was married to Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmiths. Although she often had love affairs and children with other gods, such as Ares, Hermes, Poseidon, and Dionysus, she craved the wrath of her jealous husband.

Children

Among the many children of the goddess of love, we can mention Deimos and Phobos, whom she begot with Ares, and Erix, son of Poseidon. In addition, she was also the mother of the Roman hero Aeneas, whom she had with the shepherd Anquises.

Aphrodite's love that generated dispute

The beautiful young Adonis was another of Aphrodite's great loves. Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, also fell in love with the young man upon meeting him when he arrived in the underworld after being killed by a boar.

Adonis' death did not taint Aphrodite's affection for him, and a heated dispute began between the two goddesses. Zeus resolved the conflict by instructing the young man to divide his time between the two goddesses.

Aphrodite and the Trojan War

The role of the goddess was one of the factors that led to the start of the Trojan War. During the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, the goddess of discord appeared and threw an apple, to the most beautiful goddess, which led to a dispute between Hera, Athens and Aphrodite.

To avoid conflict, Zeus appointed the Trojan prince Paris as a judge in this contest, forcing him to decide which of the three goddesses was the most beautiful. Each goddess tried to bribe Paris with generous gifts, but the young prince found Aphrodite's offer to give the most beautiful woman in the world as the best.

Paris and Aphrodite

Paris declared Aphrodite the most beautiful of the goddesses, and she kept her promise by helping him win the love of Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. After winning her love, Paris kidnapped Helen and took her to Troy with him. The Greeks' attempts to get him back resulted in the Trojan War.

Influence of the goddess of love on war

Aphrodite continued to influence events during the ten years that the war lasted, at various stages of the conflict she helped the Trojan soldiers.

Meanwhile, Hera and Athens, who were still offended by Paris' choice, came to the Greeks' aid.

The myth of Aphrodite in context

Her inclusion in the Greek pantheon was late in relation to other gods, and her presence was probably adopted from cults of Near Eastern cultures that had similar goddesses.

Aphrodite and Astarte share similar myths regarding their connection to a handsome young lover (Adonis) who died young. This story connects Aphrodite as the goddess of fertility with a god of vegetation, whose cycle in and out of the world of the living represents the cycle of the harvest.

The Importance of Aphrodite's Beauty in Ancient Greek Times

The ancient Greeks placed great importance on physical beauty because they believed that the physical body was a reflection of the mind and spirit. In other words, a beautiful person, according to the ancient Greeks, was more likely to have more desirable mental abilities and personality traits.

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Other names

Throughout the Western world, Aphrodite is recognized as the symbol of love and beauty. But there are different interpretations of Aphrodite based on the two different versions of her birth

Aphrodite Urania: Born of the celestial god Uranus, she is a celestial figure, a goddess of spiritual love.

Aphrodite Pandemos: Born from the union of Zeus and the goddess Dione, she is a goddess of love, lust, and pure physical satisfaction.

The goddess of love is often associated with sea foam and shells due to her origins, but she is also associated with doves, roses, swans, dolphins, and sparrows.

The goddess of love in art and everyday life

She appears in the works of many ancient writers. The legend of her birth is told in Hesiod's Theogony. Aphrodite and her son Aeneas are central to the action in Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid. Not only that, the goddess is also the subject of the most famous work by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles, who completed Aphrodite. Although this statue has been lost, she is known for her manycopies made.

Works and Films

Aphrodite was also the focus of one of Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli's most famous creations, The Birth of Venus (1482-1486). However, Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus continue to represent the ideals of female beauty in modern Western culture. She has appeared as a character in films such as:

• "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988);
• on television as a character in the series "Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995-2001);
• "Hercules: Legendary Journeys" (1995-1999).

Curiosities

Among all the curiosities, we have selected the most famous ones.

• Aphrodite is said to have had no childhood because in all her representations and figurations she was adult and unsurpassed in beauty.
• The second planet of the solar system, Venus, was given this name by the Romans, because they identified that "star" (as it was called at the time) as Aphrodite.
• Aphrodite preferred the virile god Ares the god of war. She also had a fiery relationship with Adonis, a god who stayed young forever and was terribly handsome.
• Aphrodite was never a child. She was always portrayed as an adult, naked and always beautiful; in all the myths she is portrayed as seductive, charming and vain.
• The Homeric Hymn (deities of Greek mythology with hymns) has the number 6 dedicated to the goddess of love.

Concluding Remarks

Finally, Aphrodite, as we have seen, is a very acclaimed goddess, because she is always the most beautiful. In addition, she always had conflicts among the other goddesses, because she caught the attention of all the gods.

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