Aphrodite: The Goddess Of Love

Aphrodite was the goddess of love in Greece. She was also said to have been the most beautiful of all the Goddesses and to have been born from sea foam. Although she was beautiful, some saw her as treacherous and malicious. She was known to have a bewitching power over men that more times than not brought about their own destruction. Aphrodite also involved herself on several occasions with the affairs of the Gods and Goddesses on Mount Olympus, as well as the Greek mortals. Aphrodite was legendary for her beauty, but she was also very vain. It was her vanity that started the Trojan War. (aphrodite, 2015)

As with most Greek gods there are many different versions of her birth. According to Hesiod’s Theogony she was born when Cronus (Saturn) cut off Uranus’ genitalia and cast them into the sea and she arose from the sea foam (aphros) and floated ashore on a scallop shell. Another source claims she was born on the island of Cyprus, while Homer’s Iliad claims she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione.

Aphrodite is best known for being mischievous, flirty, beautiful, and very good at seduction. Aphrodite is known to have flings with other Gods, and mortals like Ares, Adonis, and Ankhises. She is married to Hephaestus, and has over 20 children.

Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus,

but she also had numerous affairs. She is one of the few gods who was married, yet was frequently unfaithful to her husband Hephaestus. The reason behind all of this might be that she had no childhood. Her belief was also that no woman should stay and die a virgin. Aphrodite had many lovers (all gods) such as Ares and Anchises. One day the sun god Helios caught Ares and Aphrodite in their affair. When he told Hephaestus, the smith god decided to plan his revenge. He managed to humiliate his wife and other lovers to the other Olympians. Adonis, Anchises, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaistos, Hermes were some of the lovers of Aphrodite. She had number of children from these gods. (theoi.com, 2015)
Aphrodite also started the Trojan War. Zeus charged Paris with job of judging a beauty pageant between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite (they were the three finalist). Paris ordered them to take off their clothes to see who had the best looking body. Paris couldn’t make up his mind so he resorted to bribery. Hera offered him the rule of Europe and Asia, Athena offered him fame and glory in battle, and Aphrodite offered him the hand of the most beautiful woman, Helen of Troy. He choose Aphrodite, but Helen was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. So when Paris abducted her which brought on the Trojan War. (mythweb.com, 2015)
However, one can tell if the sculpture they are looking at is Aphrodite by far more reasons than just a nude woman, due to the fact that she has many symbols that can clue people in as well.

Aphrodite used a girdle as a way to put people in a trance of love to whoever looked in her direction. Another symbol of hers would be a conch/seashell, which was used as a symbol of femininity. Aphrodite’s symbolic flower was a white rose while her symbolic animal was a dove because doves were associated with goddesses. You may also see objects appear in fives when talking about Aphrodite because it is a symbolic number for her, which has to do with her flawlessness of the five senses. (history rocket,

2015)
From early on, scholars began to differentiate between two different forms of the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite Ourania, celestial goddess born of the sea and associated with spiritual love and Aphrodite Pandemos, the Aphrodite of the common folk, associated with physical desire. The image of Aphrodite Ourania with her foot on a tortoise came to symbolise fidelity in marriage and was believed to be the source of all love for women, while Aphrodite Pandemos was, according to Plato’s Symposium, the source of homosexual male love.
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. She is from Mount Olympus. Aphrodite had many followers, mostly women who prayed to her and made offerings to her to feel in control of their love lives. She was the goddess of love but she also has plenty of affairs herself.