Aphrodite: Greek Goddess of Love, Beauty & Eternal Youth

1. Aphrodite: Greek Goddess of Love, Beauty & Eternal Youth The ancient Greek goddess of beauty-Aphrodite was a much-revered goddess among the ancient Greeks. She was known as Venus in Roman mythology and was the offspring of Uranus. There are many interesting stories about her that will intrigue readers. Let’s throw some light on few of such stories and get to know more about this beautiful Greek goddess of love! Aphrodite’s creation It’s a legend that this Greek goddess of love was created from the foam of severed genitals of god Uranus when his son Cronas threw him into the sea called Paphos. However, she was rumored to be the child born by Dione and Zeus. The Goddess was a much-loved child of Dione but Zeus favored Athena. Aphrodite was also worshipped as a goddess of the sea Since she was rumored to be born out of foam in Paphos, she was worshipped as the goddess of sea and also as a goddess of war. The ancient Spartans considered her as a war goddess. People of Cyprus and Thebes also worshiped her as a war goddess. Aphrodite was the eternal goddess of love and fertility The ancient Greeks believed that Aphrodite was the goddess of fertility and love. She was the goddess who was equally loved and worshipped by ordinary folks as well as prostitutes who considered her as their patron. Few Interesting Trivia About Aprhodite 1.Aphrodite had a mismatched marriage with Hephaestus, which led her to philander and have an affair with Ares, the god of war. Ares was a handsome god and this is what attracted Aphrodite who later on went on

2. to bear Ares’s twins- Phobos and Deimos, Harmonia and Eros-the god of love. 2.Aphrodite had affairs with mortal beings, the most famous being the romantic liaison with Anchises, the Trojan shepherd. She bore two children from this union who were named Aereas and Adonis-the handsome god. 3.Aphrodite was one of the 12 main or primary Greek gods to reside on Mount Olympus and is associated with symbols like swan, rose and dove. 4.Paphos and Amathus were the primary centers of worship of Aphrodite. She was also worshipped on the island of Cythera, the place her cult was born. In Greece, her main center of worship was Corinth. 5.The goddess was one of the most famous muses for many a sculptors and artists. Aphrodite was shown as a nude goddess in most ancient Greek art who was either standing or sitting. The sculptor Praxiteles sculpted a statue of Aphrodite, which is one of the most famous of all. This statue inspired the later Hellenistic sculptors to carve masterpieces like the 2nd century BC statue of Venus de Mio. 6.Aphrodite was so beautiful that gods often fought over her and caused great destruction. Zeus therefore got the goddess married to the ugly Hephaestus who was a deformed god. 7.She was endowed with not just beauty and great fertility, the goddess was highly desirable among both mortals as well as immortals because she always carried a girdle that had magical powers and made everyone desire her. 8.When the ugly Hephaestus discovered the affair between Aphrodite and Ares, his brother, he planned to humiliate both of them in front of other Olympian gods. In addition, he was successful in his plan. 9.This goddess of beauty, pleasure and love was often represented as a beautiful woman accompanied by Eros-the winged godling. She would often carry symbols like mirror, scallop shell, dove and apple. 10.Aphrodite promised Paris, the shepherd prince that he would find love in Helene, the most beautiful woman on earth who would become his wife in return for the golden apple. 11.Aphrodite would punish anyone that rebuffed her worship. For example- when a prince of Troizenos, Hippolytos ridiculed her worship, she cursed him to fall in love with his stepmother Phaidra. This eventually led to his death because of his father Theseus’s curse. Similarly, she punished Hippomenes by forcing him to have sex with his wife in the temple of Rhea.

3. This invoked anger in the goddess Rhea who transformed the couple into lions. Like the above points, there are many other interesting facts about this beautiful and desirable Olympian goddess of love and fertility that would make your imagination soars higher and higher. The goddess remains as one of the chief goddesses of ancient Greece who has always intrigued men and women with her mysteriousness. Hope you all loved reading about her! To know more about Goddess Aphrodite, do read this another great article- https://www.historyly.com/greek-history/famous-greek-goddesses/