Αφροδιτη
The goddess of love, identified in Rome with the ancient Italic goddess Venus. There are two different accounts of her birth: sometimes she is said to be the daughter of Zeus and Dione, and sometimes a daughter of Uranus (the Sky) whose sexual organs, cut off by Cronos, fell in the sea and begot the goddess, 'she who was born of the sea' or 'she who was born of the god's seed'. Aphrodite had scarcely emerged from the sea when she was carried by the Zephyrs first to Cythera and then to the coast of Cyprus. There she was welcomed by the Seasons (the Horae), dressed and adorned and led by them to the home of the Immortals. Lucian records a legend which has it that she was first brought up by Nereus (compare Hera). Later Plato formulated the idea of there having been two Aphrodites, the daughter of Uranus, Aphrodite Urania and the goddess of pure love, and the daughter of Dione, Aphrodite Pandemia or Aphrodite of the populace, goddess of common love. But this distinction is a late philosophical concept, unknown in the early forms of the myths about the goddess.
Various legends formed round Aphrodite, consisting not of a coherent story but of different episodes in which the goddess played a part. Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the lame god of Lemnos, but she loved Ares the god of war. Homer tells how the two lovers were caught by surprise one morning by the Sun, who told Hephaestus of their affair. The latter set a secret trap in the form of a magic net which only he could handle. One night when the two lovers were both in Aphrodite's bed, Hephaestus closed the net over them and summoned all the Olympian gods, which caused them to rejoice exceedingly. At Poseidon's earnest request, Hephaestus agreed to draw the net back and Aphrodite, covered with shame, fled to Cyprus. The love affair between Aphrodite and Ares resulted in the birth of Eros and Anterus, Deimos and Phobos (Terror and Fear) and Harmonia (who later became the wife of Cadmus at Thebes). To these names is sometimes added Priapus, the god of Lampsacus (the protecting deity of gardens), for some traditions describe Aphrodite as the goddess of gardens, but this is true principally of her Italian character Venus.
The love affairs of Aphrodite were not confined to Ares. When Myrrha, who had become a tree, had given birth to Adonis, Aphrodite gave shelter to the child, who was very beautiful, and put him in the care of Persephone. But the latter would not give him back. The matter was submitted to Zeus to adjudicate and he decided that the youth should spend a third of the year with Persephone, a third with Aphrodite and a third where he wanted. But Adonis actually spent a third of the year with Persephone and two-thirds with Aphrodite. Soon afterwards Adonis was wounded by a wild boar and died, possibly a victim of the jealousy of Ares.
Aphrodite also had a love affair with Anchises, on Mount Ida in the Troad, and by him she had two sons, Aeneas and, according to some traditions, Lyrnus.
Aphrodite's outbursts of anger and her curses were famous. It was she who inspired Eos (the Dawn) with an irresistible love for Orion, in order to punish her for having yielded to Ares, and she vented her anger on the women of Lemnos for not honouring her by making them smell so horribly that their husbands abandoned them for Thracian slave girls. The women of Lemnos in their turn then killed all the men on the island and established a community of women, until the day came when the Argonauts arrived to enable them to beget sons (see Thoas). Aphrodite also punished the daughters of Cinyras in Paphos by compelling them to become prostitutes for strangers (see also Phaedra, Pasiphae, etc).
It was equally dangerous to be in Aphrodite's favour. One day Discord threw an apple intended to be given to whichever of the three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, was the most beautiful. Zeus bade Hermes lead all three up to Mount Ida in the Troad, where they were to be judged by Alexander (known later as Paris). The three goddesses began to argue in his presence, each boasting of her beauty and promising him gifts. Hera offered him worldwide sovereignty; Athena offered to make him invincible in war; Aphrodite promised him the hand of Helen. He chose Aphrodite and thus it was that she was the underlying cause of the Trojan War. Throughout the war she granted her protection to the Trojans, and to Paris in particular. When Paris took on Menelaus in single combat and was about to yield, it was she who snatched him from danger and so caused the incident which reopened the general fighting. Later she similarly protected Aeneas when he was on the point of being killed by Diomedes, who actually wounded her. But the protection offered by Aphrodite could not avert the fall of Troy and the death of Paris. Nevertheless she succeeded in preserving the Trojan race and it was thanks to her that Aeneas, with his father and son and bearing the Penates of Troy, managed to escape from the burning city and seek a country where he could acquire a new fatherland. This was how Aphrodite-Venus became the special protectress of Rome. She was regarded as the ancestress of the Julii, who claimed descent from Iulus, his father Aeneas, and consequently the goddess. For this reason Ceasar built a temple in her honour under the protection of Mother Venus or Venus Genetrix.
Her favourite creatures were doves, a flock of which drew her chariot. Her plants were rose and myrtle.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Hom. Od. 8, 266ff.; Il. 2, 819ff.; 3, 15ff.; 4, 10ff.; 5, 1ff.; 311ff.; 330
- Hesiod, Theog. 190ff.
- Antonius Liberalis, Met. 34
- Apollod. Bibl. 1, 9, 17; 1, 4, 4; 3, 2, 2; 3, 12, 2; 3, 14, 4; Epit. 4, 1
- Lucian, Podagra 87ff.