Aphrodite (Twelve Olympians)

APHRODITE:^[1]http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html (Transliteration: Aphroditê) (Greek: Αφροδιτη) (Latin: Aphrodite) (Translation: Venus) was the Olympian goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. She was depicted as a beautiful woman often accompanied by the winged godling Eros (Love). Her attributes included a dove, apple, scallop shell and mirror. In classical sculpture and fresco she was usually depicted nude.

Aphrodite:^[2]http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Aphrodite/aphrodite.html was the goddess of love, desire and beauty. Apart from her natural beauty, she also had a magical girdle that compelled everyone to desire her.

There are two accounts of her birth. According to one, she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione, the mother goddess worshipped at the Oracls of Dodona. However, the other account, which is more prevalent, informs us that she arose from the sea on a giant scallop, after Cronus castrated Uranus and tossed his severed genitals into the sea. Aphrodite then walked to the shore of Cyprus. In a different version of the myth, she was born near the island of Cythera, hence her epithet “Cytherea”.

Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus; however, she had an affair with her brother Ares, god of war. When Hephaestus found out about the affair, he devised a plan and managed to humiliate his wife and her lover to the other Olympians. Her holy tree was the myrtle, while her holy birds were the dove, the swan, and the sparrow.

Aphrodite represented sex, affection, and the attraction that binds people together.

Aphrodite Is also called Venus, Afrodite.

Aphrodite: (Ἀφροδίτη, Aphroditē)^[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures Goddess of beauty, love, desire, and pleasure. Although married to Hephaestus she had many lovers, most notably Ares, Adonis, and Anchises. She was depicted as an extraordinarily beautiful woman, with poets praising the radiance of her smile in particular. Her symbols include roses and other flowers, the scallop shell, and the myrtle wreath. Her sacred animals include doves and sparrows. Her Roman counterpart is Venus.

Aphrodite:^[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite (i/æfrəˈdaɪti/ af-rə-dy-tee; Greek: Ἀφροδίτη) is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus.^[5]Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. She is identified with the planet Venus.

As with many ancient Greek deities, there is more than one story about her origins. According to Hesiod‘s Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus‘s genitals and threw them into the sea, and she arose from the sea foam (aphros). According to Homer‘s Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. According to Plato (Symposium, 180e), these two origins were of entirely separate entities: Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos.

Because of her beauty, other gods feared that their rivalry over her would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who, because of his ugliness and deformity, was not seen as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers—both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis‘s lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite.

Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, doves, sparrows, horses, and swans were said to be sacred to her. The ancient Greeks identified her with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor.^[6]Reginald Eldred Witt, Isis in the ancient world (Johns Hopkins University Press) 1997:125. ISBN 0-8018-5642-6

Aphrodite had many other names, such as Acidalia, Cytherea, and Cerigo, each used by a different local cult of the goddess in Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these names as referring to the single goddess Aphrodite, despite the slight differences in what these local cults believed the goddess demanded of them. The Attic philosophers of the 4th century, however, drew a distinction between a celestial Aphrodite (Aphrodite Urania) of transcendent principles, and a separate, “common” Aphrodite who was the goddess of the people (Aphrodite Pandemos).