Two completely different schools of thought exist regarding Aphrodite’s birth. The poet Homer believed that Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and the Titan Dione. Hesiod, however, stated in his work, Theogony, that Aphrodite had been born from sea-foam. Once born, she was carried across the waves by the West Wind, thereby making Aphrodite one of the most ancient of all the deities, going as far back as the beginning of creation itself. Hesiod based his theory upon the fact that when Uranus and Gaea’s son, Cronos, castrated Uranus, he threw his father’s severed genitals into the sea which began to churn and foam around them causing sea-foam, and it was from that sea-foam that the Goddess Aphrodite arose fully grown.
Hesiod’s version of the Creation Myth depicted Aphrodite as being “Aphrodite Urania,” or the “Celestial Aphrodite.” That title came into existence during an argument regarding whether two separate forms of eros, or love, exist and whether those two forms of love correspond to the two unique aspects of Aphrodite. Since the act of separating the Heavens and the Earth had caused her birth, while concurrently creating the world, Hesiod believed that Aphrodite must be seen as a Goddess who has existed since the beginning of time.
The Homeric version of Aphrodite’s “birth” depicted her as being one of the youngest of the Greek deities, thereby making her a minor Goddess when compared to other deities in the Greek pantheon. When Homer wrote The Iliad, he portrayed Aphrodite as the daughter of Zeus and Dione. This particular aspect of Aphrodite became known as “Aphrodite Pandemos,” or as the “Common Aphrodite,” and it was for that reason that he considered her to be the baser of the two Goddesses, who was associated with physical pleasure and sexual satisfaction.
In a later period in time, a minor Roman Goddess named Venus was identified with Aphrodite, and it was in that particular aspect that Aphrodite appeared in the poet Virgil’s Aeneiad, which tells the story of the founding of Rome. Venus was the Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty, and with her appeared Cupid who was love’s messenger.
When the Romans identified Aphrodite as being an aspect of Venus, they translated her into a Goddess who was associated with gardens. The aspect of Venus took on the characteristics of a gracious Mother Goddess, archetypal of pure female love and beauty, rather then the other aspect of Aphrodite who was portrayed as having a very uninhibited and sexual side. Not only was the more sexual aspect of Aphrodite unfaithful to her own husband, she was also extremely attractive to every man and God who ever had the extreme pleasure of crossing her path. Venus, on the other hand, believed in long-term relationships, kept a clean home and was invoked by people who wished to purify their homes.
Hesiod’s version of Aphrodite’s “birth,” claimed that she arose from sea-foam and was then carried by the ocean to what is believed to be either Cyprus or Cythera, where she washed up on its shore. Waiting there to greet her were the Three Graces, who had been placed there to act as her attendants. The Graces dressed Aphrodite in the most exquisite garments and the rarest of jewels, so that she would be appropriately dressed to ascended Mount Olympus. When Aphrodite arrived on Mount Olympus the Gods were all there, waiting to welcome her, and when they realized how beautiful she actually was, they immediately granted her the honor of becoming an Olympian.
Aphrodite had a ritual which she performed each and every year without fail. She returned to the island upon whose shores she had originally washed up, and then she dove into the ocean. When she returned to the shore, her face and figure were perfect, just as they had been that very first time, and there appeared to be an innocence and a purity about her as though she had just been born.
When Aphrodite arrived on Mount Olympus, Zeus became extremely concerned when he began to realize that every God, including himself, would soon begin to fight each other in order to win Aphrodite’s hand in marriage. Aphrodite was one of the most sexually free of all the Goddesses in the ancient Greek Pantheon, and she was at her best when she was surrounded by gaiety and glamour.
Indeed, many of the Gods did propose marriage to Aphrodite, but she refused each and every one of them. Zeus finally became so angry with Aphrodite for refusing to select a husband that he forced her into marrying Hephaestus, the homely and lame God of Fire and Smithy to the Gods. Hephaestus was the most hardworking of all the Gods, and he was thrilled by the fact that Aphrodite had become his wife. In fact, whenever Hephaestus looked at Aphrodite, it was as though he was looking at perfection itself.
In a moment of joy, Hephaestus decided to prove to Aphrodite exactly how much he loved her, so he created lavish jewels for her. More importantly, however, was the fact that he also forged a girdle for her, which he created from the finest gold and jewels. Hephaestus then added filigree work to it containing a magickal spell, which made every man and God fall madly in love with her whenever she was wearing it. One can only assume that Hephaestus was either extremely naïve, or else completely stupid, since Aphrodite was already too irresistible as it was, and because every man who saw her, immediately desired her anyway.
Aphrodite was extremely unhappy in her marriage to Hephaestus, and she saw nothing wrong with breaking her marriage vows. While she may have refused to have sex with her husband, she was unfaithful to him when she became lovers with Ares, the handsome God of War. Hephaestus eventually learned about Aphrodite’s affair, and the manner of his revenge was described in Homer’s Odyssey.
The Odyssey tells how Helios, the Sun God, accidentally caught the lovers by surprise when they had unintentionally overslept one morning. Helios immediately went to Hephaestus and told him what he had seen. In order to exact his revenge, Hephaestus decided to entrap the lovers by using an invisible net, which only he was able to control. Late one night while the lovers lay asleep in Aphrodite’s bed, Hephaestus cast the net over them and then kept them captive until all the Gods on Olympus had arrived.
The Gods were mildly amused by what they saw, and they just stood there looking at the lovers until Poseiden, the God of the Sea, finally requested that Hephaestus withdraw the net. Since Aphrodite had already been caught and shamed by her husband, it was believed that she fled to Cyprus. In reality, however, Hephaestus’ trap did little if any good in keeping his sexually active wife in his bed. The beautiful Goddess did not stop her adulterous ways, and she produced a great many children by both mortals and Gods alike, although not one of them was ever conceived with her husband.
Aphrodite and Ares produced Eros, Anteros, Deimos, Phobos and Harmonia. Eros, who the Romans knew as Cupid, was known to frequently cause mischief by using his quiver of arrows and his bow. Cupid’s arrows were very special arrows because they were actually arrows of love. When someone was hit by one of Cupid’s arrows, they immediately fell madly in love with the first person they happened to gaze upon.
While some people might look upon a relationship between Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Ares, the God of War as being incongruous, those two deities, intrinsically shared the exact same nature. Aphrodite was a completely independent Goddess, and she refused to be controlled by even the most powerful of the Gods. Through the use of her own free will, she did exactly as she pleased and she refused to be dominated by anyone. Aphrodite’s liberal point of view regarding sex may have caused some people to see her as being frivolous, or even promiscuous, but those reasons were not why people condemned her. The most frightening thing about Aphrodite was her totally uncontrollable nature. Ares’ nature was quite similar to that of Aphrodite, and he was looked upon as being quite unpredictable, and having emotions that ranged the entire gamut, from cowardice to extreme rage. Aphrodite had little to no interest in societal mores. Just by looking at the number of children she conceived with Ares, it can easily be seen how free her views on sex actually were. Then, to make matters worse, she actually passed off Phebos, Deimos, Anteros and Harmonia as being Hephaestus’ children.
What makes Greek mythology so fascinating is the fact that even the Gods were not immune to suffering. Neither were they immune to the same pain and passion that mortals so frequently experience. No exception existed, not even for a Goddess like Aphrodite. Aphrodite was not immune to the sexual passion which others felt towards her, and she both loved and was loved, by many mortals and Gods alike.
Besides having several Gods as her lovers, Aphrodite had some mortal lovers as well. The most important mortal was the Trojan shepherd named Anchisis, who was the father of her son, Aeneas. Her most independent lover was the handsome young God named Adonis. Adonis was originally a Semitic nature deity, who has frequently been considered to be an aspect of Tammuz, the Goddess Ishtar-Astarte’s consort. Adonis was killed during a boar hunt, and from that point on women lamented his death at the festival of Adonia. The Cult of Adonis, which was extremely similar to the Cult of Tammuz, was connected to the Underworld, while Aphrodite was connected to the dead at Delphi.
Many of the myths about Aphrodite deal with love and desire, but there are also other myths which deal with Aphrodite’s own suffering, when it was she who became a victim of love. Aphrodite’s love affair with Adonis is an prime example of how passion can wield a double-edged sword, and Aphrodite was extremely vulnerable when it came to Adonis.
Aphrodite produced a great many children with her myriad of lovers, and each one of them was associated with various aspects of love and sexuality. Some stories claim that she mated with Zeus, and that it was through that union that they produced Eros, who is considered to be the creator of sensual love. More often then not, however, it is usually believed that Eros was one of her children with Ares. Aphrodite is also believed to have produced Anteros with Ares. Anteros had a unique obcession, which caused him to punish every man and God alike, who did not return the love which others felt for them. Aphrodite also had an affair with Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia, who also happened to be her brother-in-law, and that particular liason produced Hermaphroditus, who was completely unique, since he was born half male and half female. Aphrodite also had a child with Poseiden whose name was Eryx. Eryx is also the name of a mountain at the western end of Sicily where the remains of a famous temple dedicated to the Semetic Aphrodite still stands.
One of Aphrodite’s mortal children was her son Aenaes, who was conceived with the shepherd Anchises. It was Aenaes who founded the Nation of Italy, thereby becoming the mythical ancestor of the Roman people. Some traditions lay claim to the fact that Aphrodite conceived another child with Anchises, and the name of that child was Lyrnus.
Aphrodite must have been an extremely busy Goddess, since she gave birth to so many children. All of her children were born from six different liasons, although not one of them was ever conceived with her husband. Just by the sheer number of children that she had, it is easy to see how powerful Aphrodite’s control over love actually was. It was through her many children that Aphrodite gained great power in every area of human emotion; and it is for that reason that Aphrodite’s influence became much more widespread then the influence of many other Greek deities.
Aphrodite was the Greek counterpart of a variety of other Goddesses of Love, who were worshipped by cults in various eastern civilizations. Included in that list are the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, the Babylonian Goddess Ishtar, and the Syro-Palestinian Goddess Astarte. The Greek historian, Herodotus wrote in Histories, that Aphrodite’s oldest place of worship as Aphrodite Ourania was at Askalon, on the coast of Palestine, and that she had actually developed from the ancient semetic Goddess of Love Ishtar-Astarte, who originated prior to 1000 B.C.E. Many modern historians believe that Aphrodite was introduced to Greece via Cyprus and other nearby islands, when Phoenician traders brought her worship with them to those ports.
The Goddesses Aphrodite and Astarte were extremely similar to each other. The followers of these two Goddesses worshipped them by burning incense and sacrificing doves. The use of doves in the worship of a Goddess has only existed in these two Goddesses’ cults. Another characteristic also existed in the worship of Aphrodite and Astarte. That was their followers’ practice of what is frequently referred to as “sacred prostitution.” There was never any “true” prostitution involved in their worship; it was simply that those two Goddesses’ priestesses used sexual intercourse as a way of worshipping them. Even though many prostitutes may have looked upon Aphrodite as their patron, what should be noted is that the fact that the worship of Aphrodite in public was an extremely solemn affair. Interestingly, as well, is the fact that the various myths which surround these two Goddesses appear to be similar; and perhaps the greatest similarity of all, was the likeness of Aphrodite’s son and lover Adonis to Ishtar’s beloved Tammuz.
While some people may have considered Aphrodite to be nothing more then a minor Goddess when compared to Apollo or Athena, Aphrodite’s power over love was extremely influential. Her ability to control men’s innermost feelings such as love or passion was quite unique, and totally unlike the powers of any of the other Greek deities. Aphrodite used this power to help her faithful followers, and she is believed to have been very generous with her assistance. However, if someone happened to command her wrath, then they would quickly discover that her anger was, indeed, a powerful force, and that she was someone who should never be reckoned with.
Aphrodite did perform some acts of great kindness, which help exemplify the fact that there actually was some good in her. There once lived a man named Pygmalion who was unable to love any of the women that he knew. That occurred because he believed that they all lived sinful lives. One day, Pygmalion sculpted a statue of a woman out of solid ivory, and then he treated it and cared for it as though it actually was his wife. Aphrodite listened to Pygmalion’s prayers, and then she granted them, bringing the statue, which he had so lovingly cared for, to life. Pygmalion and the woman who had once been that statue actually married, and Aphrodite even attended their wedding.
Another story exists which was set in the Homeric tradition, in which Aphrodite was the daughter of Dione and Zeus. This story took place when the Trojan War was still being fought. Hera and Athena were both enemies of Troy, while Aphrodite supported Paris and the Trojans. In this myth, Homer described how Aphrodite intervened in a battle so that she could save her son, Aeneas, who also had an alliance with Troy.
When Aphrodite arrived at the battle scene the Greek hero, Diomedes, was about to kill Aeneas, so Aphrodite threw herself between them, in an attempt to do whatever she could to stop him from killing her son. Diomedes, however, quickly turned on Aphrodite and attacked her, inflicting a wound upon her wrist with his spear, which caused icor to flow from it. Icor is the name of the substance which flowed through the Gods, which was similar to what blood is to mortals. Since she had been wounded, Aphrodite was not able to save her son, but luckily for him the God Apollo, who was also allied with Troy, arrived, and it was he who saved Aenes’ life. Aphrodite’s wound caused her great pain, so she went to find her brother, Ares, the God of War who was just standing around admiring the battle. Aphrodite borrowed Ares’ chariot, so that she could return to Olympus, and when she arrived there she was completely in tears, and she ran to becomforted by her mother, Dione. After a short while, Dione finally calmed Aphrodite down, and also caused the wound to disappear. Her father, however, was not as consoling as mother had been, and he admonished Aphrodite for even going to the battle. Then he suggested that she leave matters of war to those particular deities who were associated with it, such as Ares or Athena. Zeus simply wanted his daughter to settle down, get married, have children and be a good and devoted wife. The saving of Aenaes’ life was actually an act of great historical significance, however, because once he returned from the war as a great hero, Aenaes’ travels took him to Italy, where he founded the city of Rome, and a line of Roman Emperors.
Aphrtodite had a tendency to cause both good things and bad things to happen at the same time. At the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Eris tossed a golden apple into the crowd of wedding guests, and upon the apple was inscribed “for the fairest.” A quarrel then developed among Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, because each Goddess believed that the apple was specifically meant for her. To solve that disagreement the Olympians held a contest, in which the one most beautiful Goddess would be chosen, and they all agreed to let Paris be the judge. In the end, Paris decided that Aphrodite was the most beautiful, rather then Hera or Athena, because even though Hera had attempted to bribe him with power, and Athena with victory in battle, Aphrodite won because she offered Paris the one thing he could not refuse;the love of the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen of Sparta, soon to become Helen of Troy. Paris quickly proceeded to whisk Helen away with him to Troy, and it was that incident which became one of the main events that caused the ten-year Trojan War. It was because of that action, as well, that the Gods began to understand exactly how powerful the emotion of love actually is, and how it can also effect human actions and emotions. If it did nothing else, it made the Gods extremely aware that Aphrodite, who was gifted with these powers, had the ability to influence almost every major event in history.
Besides using her power to do destructive things, Aphrodite also used them to do good, and her powers affected a wide variety of things other then just causing people to fall in love. Aphrodite was gifted with a great power that affected men and Gods alike, and no matter whether she may have liked you or hated you, she always entered into that relationship wholeheartedly and without any reservation.
Aphrodite was a most amazing Goddess, whose powers were so much greater then those of the minor deity, which Homer believed her to be. The scope of her powers was actually so great, that it could affect almost every single thing on Earth; and it was that which helped make Aphrodite the truly amazing Goddess that she was.
