Aphrodite (Latin: Venus) is the classical Greek goddess of love, lust, beauty, and sexual reproduction.

She was also called Kypris and Cytherea after the two places, Cyprus and Cythera, which claimed her
birth. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. Myrtle, dove, sparrow, and swan are sacred to her.
Aphrodite has numerous equivalents: Inanna (Sumerian counterpart), Astarte (Phoenician), Turan
(Etruscan), and Venus (Roman). She has parallels to Indo-European dawn goddesses such as Ushas or
Aurora. According to Pausanias, the first men to establish her cult were the Assyrians, after the
Assyrians the Paphians of Cyprus and the Phoenicians who live at Ascalon in Palestine; the
Phoenicians taught her worship to the people of Cythera.It is said Aphrodite could make any man fall in
love with her by them just laying eyes on her. The name Άφροδίτη was connected by popular
etymology with Άφρός (Aphros) "foam", interpreting it as "risen from the foam" and embodying it in
an etiological myth that was already known to Hesiod. It has reflexes in Messapic and Etruscan
(whence April), which were probably borrowed from Greek. Though Herodotus was aware of the
Phoenician origins of Aphrodite, linguistic attempts to derive the name Aphrodite from Semitic Aštoret,
via undocumented Hittite transmission, remain inconclusive. A suggestion by Hammarström, rejected
by Hjalmar Frisk, connects the name with πρύτανις, a loan into Greek from a cognate of Etruscan
(e)pruni, "lord" or similar. An etymology from Indo-European abhor "very" + dhei "to shine" is offered
by Mallory and Adams.

The epithet Aphrodite Acidalia was occasionally added to her name, after the spring she used to bathe
in, located in Boeotia. She was also called Kypris or Cytherea after her alleged birth-places in Cyprus
and Cythera, respectively. The island of Cythera was a center of her cult. She was associated with
Hesperia and frequently accompanied by the Oreads, nymphs of the mountains.
Aphrodite had a festival of her own, the Aphrodisiac (also referred to as Aphrodisia), which was
celebrated all over Greece but particularly in Athens and Corinth. At the temple of Aphrodite on the
summit of Acrocorinth (before the Roman destruction of the city in 146 BC) intercourse with her
priestesses was considered a method of worshiping Aphrodite. This temple was not rebuilt when the
city was reestablished under Roman rule in 44 BC, but it is likely that the fertility rituals continued in
the main city near the agora.
Aphrodite was associated with, and often depicted with the sea, dolphins, doves, swans, pomegranates,
apples, myrtle, rose and lime trees, clams,scallop shells and pearls but the swine was prohibited.
By the late 5th century BC, philosophers might separate Aphrodite into two separate goddesses, not
individuated in cult: Aphrodite Ourania, born from the sea foam after Cronus castrated Ouranos, and
Aphrodite Pandemos, the common Aphrodite "of all the folk", born from Zeus and Dione. Among the
neo-Platonists and eventually their Christian interpreters, Aphrodite Ourania figures as the celestial
Aphrodite, representing the love of body and soul, while Aphrodite Pandemos is associated with mere
physical love. The representation of Aphrodite Ouranos, with a foot resting on a tortoise, was read later
as emblematic of discretion in conjugal love; the image is credited to Phidias, in a chryselephantine
sculpture made for Elis, of which we have only a passing remark by Pausanias

Aphrodite of Soli, probably Roman ca. 100BC, Archeological Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Thus, according to Plato, Aphrodite is two goddesses, one older the other younger. The older, Urania, is
the daughter of Ouranos; the younger is named Pandemos, and is the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
Pandemos is the common Aphrodite. The speech of Pausanias distinguishes two manifestations of
Aphrodite, represented by the two stories: Aphrodite Ourania ("heavenly" Aphrodite), and Aphrodite
Pandemos ("Common" Aphrodite).

A universal aspect of the cult of Aphrodite and her precedents that Thomas Bulfinch's much-reprinted
The Age of Fable; or Stories of Gods and Heroes. elided is the practice of ritual prostitution in her
shrines and temples. The euphemism in Greek is hierodule, "sacred servant". The practice was an
inherent part of the rituals owed to Aphrodite's Near Eastern forebears, Sumerian Inanna and Akkadian
Ishtar, whose temple harlots were the "women of Ishtar", ishtaritum. The practice has been documented
in Babylon, Syria and Palestine, in Phoenician cities and the Tyrian colony Carthage, and for Hellenic
Aphrodite in Cyprus, the center of her cult, Cythera, Corinth and in Sicily. Aphrodite is everywhere the
patroness of the hetaira and courtesan. In Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor, hierodules served in the
temple of Artemis.

Aphrodite's legendary birthplace in Paphos, Cyprus.

Birth, rising from the sea

"Foam-arisen" Aphrodite was born of the sea foam near Paphos, Cyprus after Cronus cut off Ouranos'
genitals and threw them behind him into the sea, while the Erinyes emerged from the drops of blood.
Hesiod's Theogony described that the genitals "were carried over the sea a long time, and white foam
arose from the immortal flesh; with it a girl grew" to become Aphrodite. This fully grown up myth of
Venus (the Roman name for Aphrodite), Venus Anadyomene ("Venus Rising From the Sea") was one of
the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost,
but described in Pliny the Elder Natural History.
Thus Aphrodite is of an older generation than Zeus. Iliad (Book V) expresses another version of her
origin, by which she was considered a daughter of Dione, who was the original oracular goddess
("Dione" being simply "the goddess, the feminine form of Δíος, "Dios", the genitive of Zeus) at
Dodona. In Homer, Aphrodite, venturing into battle to protect her son, Aeneas, is wounded by
Diomedes and returns to her mother, to sink down at her knee and be comforted. "Dione" seems to be
an equivalent of Rhea, the Earth Mother, whom Homer has relocated to Olympus, and refers back to a
hypothesized original Proto-Indo-European pantheon, with the chief male god (Di-) represented by the
sky and thunder, and the chief female god (feminine form of Di-) represented as the earth or fertile soil.
Aphrodite herself was sometimes referred to as "Dione". Once the worship of Zeus had usurped the
oak-grove oracle at Dodona, some poets made him out to be the father of Aphrodite.

Aphrodite's chief center of worship remained at Paphos, on the south-western coast of Cyprus, where
the goddess of desire had long been worshipped as Ishtar and Ashtaroth. It is said that she first
tentatively came ashore at Cytherea, a stopping place for trade and culture between Crete and the
Peloponesus. Thus perhaps we have hints of the track of Aphrodite's original cult from the Levant to
mainland Greece.
Adulthood

Aphrodite had no childhood: in every image and each reference she is born adult, nubile, and infinitely
desirable. Aphrodite, in many of the late anecdotal myths involving her, is characterized as vain, ill-
tempered and easily offended. Though she is one of the few gods of the Greek Pantheon to be actually
married, she is frequently unfaithful to her husband. Hephaestus is one of the most even-tempered of
the Hellenic deities; in the narrative embedded in the Odyssey Aphrodite seems to prefer Ares, the
volatile god of war. She is one of a few characters who played a major part in the original cause of the
Trojan War itself: not only did she offer Helen of Sparta to Paris, but the abduction was accomplished
when Paris, seeing Helen for the first time, was inflamed with desire to have her—which is Aphrodite's
realm.
Due to her immense beauty Zeus was frightened that she would be the cause of violence between the
other gods. He married her off to Hephaestus, the dour, humorless god of smithing. In another version
of this story, Hera, Hephaestus' mother, had cast him off Olympus; deeming him ugly and deformed.
His revenge was to trap her in a magic throne, and then to demand Aphrodite's hand in return for Hera's
release. Hephaestus was overjoyed at being married to the goddess of beauty and forged her beautiful
jewelry, including the cestus, a girdle that made her even more irresistible to men. Her unhappiness
with her marriage caused Aphrodite to seek out companionship from others, most frequently Ares, but
also Adonis.

Aphrodite and Psyche

Aphrodite figures as a secondary character in the Tale of Eros and Psyche, which first appeared as a
digressionary story told by an old woman in Lucius Apuleius' novel, The Golden Ass, written in the
second century A.D.. In it Aphrodite was jealous of the beauty of a mortal woman named Psyche. She
asked Eros to use his golden arrows to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest man on earth. Eros
agreed but then fell in love with Psyche on his own, by accidentally pricking himself with a golden
arrow. Meanwhile, Psyche's parents were anxious that their daughter remained unmarried. They
consulted an oracle who told them she was destined for no mortal lover, but a creature that lived on top
of a particular mountain, that even the gods themselves feared. Eros had arranged for the oracle to say
this. Psyche was resigned to her fate and climbed to the top of the mountain. She told the townfolk that
followed her to leave and let her face her fate on her own. There, Zephyrus, the west wind, gently
floated her downwards. She entered a cave on the appointed mountain, surprised to find it full of
jewelry and finery. Eros visited her every night in the cave and they made passionate love; he
demanded only that she never light any lamps because he did not want her to know who he was (having
wings made him distinctive). Her two sisters, jealous of Psyche, convinced her that her husband,
(Eros)was a monster and she should strike him with a dagger. So one night she lit a lamp, but
recognizing Eros instantly,she dropped her dagger.The sound awoke Eros, and he fled.
When Psyche told her two jealous elder sisters what had happened, they rejoiced secretly and each
separately walked to the top of the mountain and did as Psyche described her entry to the cave, hoping
Eros would pick them instead. Eros was still heart broken and did not pick them and they fell to their
deaths at the base of the mountain.
Psyche searched for her love across much of Greece, finally stumbling into a temple to Demeter, where
the floor was covered with piles of mixed grains. She started sorting the grains into organized piles and,
when she finished, Demeter spoke to her, telling her that the best way to find Eros was to find his
mother, Aphrodite, and earn her blessing. Psyche found a temple to Aphrodite and entered it. Aphrodite
assigned her a similar task to Demeter's temple, but gave her an impossible deadline to finish it by. Eros
intervened, for he still loved her, and caused some ants to organize the grains for her. Aphrodite was
outraged at her success and told her to go to a field where deadly golden sheep grazed and get some
golden wool. Psyche went to the field and saw the sheep but was stopped by a river-god, whose river
she had to cross to enter the field. He told her the sheep were mean and vicious and would kill her, but
if she waited until noontime, the sheep would go into the shade on the other side of the field and sleep;
she could pick the wool that stuck to the branches and bark of the trees. Psyche did so and Aphrodite
was even more outraged at her survival and success. Finally, Aphrodite claimed that the stress of caring
for her son, depressed and ill as a result of Psyche's unfaithfulness, had caused her to lose some of her
beauty. Psyche was to go to Hades and ask Persephone, the queen of the underworld, for a bit of her
beauty in a black box that Aphrodite gave to Psyche. Psyche walked to a tower, deciding that the
quickest way to the underworld would be to die. A voice stopped her at the last moment and told her a
route that would allow her to enter and return still living, as well as telling her how to pass Cerberus,
Charon and the other dangers of the route. She was to not lend a hand to anyone in need. She baked
two barley cakes for Cerberus, and took two coins for Charon. She pacified Cerberus, the three-headed
dog, with the barley cake and paid Charon to take her to Hades. On the way there, she saw hands
reaching out of the water. A voice told her to toss a barley cake to them. She refused. Once there,
Persephone said she would be glad to do Aphrodite a favor. She once more paid Charon, and gave the
other barley cake to Cerberus.
Psyche left the underworld and decided to open the box and take a little bit of the beauty for herself,
thinking that if she did so Eros would surely love her. Inside was a "Stygian sleep" which overtook her.
Eros, who had forgiven her, flew to her body and wiped the sleep from her eyes, then begged Zeus and
Aphrodite for their consent to his wedding of Psyche. They agreed and Zeus made her immortal.
Aphrodite danced at the wedding of Eros and Psyche and their subsequent child was named Pleasure,
or (in the Roman mythology) Voluptas.
Adonis
Aphrodite was Adonis' lover and a surrogate mother to him. Cinyras, the King of Cyprus, had an
intoxicatingly beautiful daughter named Myrrha. When Myrrha's mother commits Hubris against
Aphrodite by claiming her daughter is more beautiful than the famed goddess, Myrrha is punished with
a neverending lust for her own father. Cinyras is repulsed by this, but Myrrha disguises herself as a
prostitute, and secretly sleeps with her father at night. Eventually, Myrrha becomes pregnant and is
discovered by Cinyras. In a rage, he chases her out of the house with a knife. Myrrha flees from him,
praying to the gods for mercy as she runs. The gods hear her plea, and change her into a Myrrh tree so
her father cannot kill her. Eventually, Cinyras takes his own life in an attempt to restore the family's
honor.
Myrrha gives birth to a baby boy named Adonis. Aphrodite happens by the Myrrh tree and, seeing him,
takes pity on the infant. She places Adonis in a box, and takes him down to Hades so that Persephone
can care for him. Adonis grows into a strikingly handsome young man, and Aphrodite eventually
returns for him. Persephone, however, is loath to give him up, and wishes Adonis would stay with her
in the underworld. The two goddesses begin such a quarrel that Zeus is forced to intercede. He decrees
that Adonis will spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third of the year with Persephone, and a
third of the year with whomever he wishes. Adonis, of course, chooses Aphrodite.
Adonis begins his year on the earth with Aphrodite. One of his greatest passions is hunting, and
although Aphrodite is not naturally a hunter, she takes up the sport just so she can be with Adonis. They
spend every waking hour with one another, and Aphrodite is enraptured with him. However, her
anxiety begins to grow over her neglected duties, and she is forced to leave him for a short time. Before
she leaves, she gives Adonis one warning: do not attack an animal who shows no fear. Adonis agrees to
her advice, but, secretly doubting her skills as a huntress, quickly forgets her warning.
Not long after Aphrodite leaves, Adonis comes across an enormous wild boar, much larger than any he
has ever seen. It is suggested that the boar is the god Ares, one of Aphrodite's lovers made jealous
through her constant doting on Adonis. Although boars are dangerous and will charge a hunter if
provoked, Adonis disregards Aphrodite's warning and pursues the giant creature. Soon, however,
Adonis is the one being pursued; he is no match for the giant boar. In the attack, Adonis is castrated by
the boar, and dies from a loss of blood. Aphrodite rushes back to his side, but she is too late to save him
and can only mourn over his body. Wherever Adonis' blood falls, Aphrodite causes anemones to grow
in his memory. She vows that on the anniversary of his death, every year there will be a festival held in
his honor.
On his death, Adonis goes back to the underworld, and Persephone is delighted to see him again.
Eventually, Aphrodite realizes that he is there, and rushes back to retrieve him. Again, she and
Persephone bicker over who is allowed to keep Adonis until Zeus intervenes. This time, he says that
Adonis must spend six months with Aphrodite and six months with Persephone, the way it should have
been in the first place.
Adonis, as a Dying God Archetype, represents the cycle of vegetation. His birth is like the birth of new
plants; his maturation like the ripening of the plant. Once the crop is harvested, it dies--like Adonis
returning to the underworld. The new seeds are then placed again in the ground, where they grow into
new life, like Adonis returning to the earth to be with Aphrodite.

The Judgement of Paris

The gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis
(the eventual parents of Achilles). Only the goddess Eris (Discord) was not invited, but she arrived with
a golden apple inscribed with the word kallistēi ("to the fairest one") which she threw among the
goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the
apple. The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the
goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, of Troy. Hera tried to bribe Paris with Asia Minor,
while Athena offered wisdom, fame and glory in battle, but Aphrodite whispered to Paris that if he
were to choose her as the fairest he would have the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as a
wife, and he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen. The other goddesses were enraged by this
and through Helen's abduction by Paris they brought about the Trojan War.

Pygmalion and Galatea

Pygmalion was a sculptor who had never found a woman worthy of his love. Aphrodite took pity on
him and decided to show him the wonders of love. One day, Pygmalion was inspired by a dream of
Aphrodite to make a woman out of ivory resembling her image, and he called her Galatea. He fell in
love with the statue and decided he could not live without her. He prayed to Aphrodite, who carried out
the final phase of her plan and brought the exquisite sculpture to life. Pygmalion loved Galatea and
they were soon married.
Another version of this myth tells that the women of the village in which Pygmalion lived grew angry
that he had not married. They all asked Aphrodite to force him to marry. Aphrodite accepted and went
that very night to Pygmalion, and asked him to pick a woman to marry. She told him that if he did not
pick one, she would do so for him. Not wanting to be married, he begged her for more time, asking that
he be allowed to make a sculpture of Aphrodite before he had to choose his bride. Flattered, she
accepted.
Pygmalion spent a lot of time making small clay sculptures of the Goddess, claiming it was needed so
he could pick the right pose. As he started making the actual sculpture he was shocked to discover he
actually wanted to finish, even though he knew he would have to marry someone when he finished.
The reason he wanted to finish it was that he had fallen in love with the sculpture. The more he worked
on it, the more it changed, until it no longer resembled Aphrodite at all.
At the very moment Pygmalion stepped away from the finished sculpture Aphrodite appeared and told
him to choose his bride. Pygmalion chose the statue. Aphrodite told him that could not be, and asked
him again to pick a bride. Pygmalion put his arms around the statue, and asked Aphrodite to turn him
into a statue so he could be with her. Aphrodite took pity on him and brought the statue to life instead.

In one version of the story of Hippolytus, Aphrodite was the catalyst for his death. He scorned the
worship of Aphrodite for Artemis and, in revenge, Aphrodite caused his stepmother, Phaedra, to fall in
love with him, knowing Hippolytus would reject her. In the most popular version of the story, the play
Hippolytus by Euripides, Phaedra seeks revenge against Hippolytus by killing herself and, in her
suicide note, telling Theseus, her husband and Hippolytus' father, that Hippolytus had raped her.
Hippolytus was oath-bound not to mention Phaedra's love for him and nobly refused to defend himself
despite the consequences. Theseus then cursed his son, a curse that Poseidon was bound to fulfil and so
Hippolytus was laid low by a bull from the sea that caused his chariot-team to panic and wreck his
vehicle. This is, interestingly enough not quite how Aphrodite envisaged his death in the play, as in the
prologue she says she expects Hippolytus to submit to lust with Phaedra and for Theseus to catch the
pair in the act. Hippolytus forgives his father before he dies and Artemis reveals the truth to Theseus
before vowing to kill one Aphrodite loves (Adonis) for revenge.
Glaucus of Corinth angered Aphrodite and she made her horses angry during the funeral games of King
Pelias. They tore him apart. His ghost supposedly frightened horses during the Isthmian Games.
Aphrodite was often accompanied by the Charites.
Aphrodite was one of the goddesses to be mocked by Momus, which resulted in his expulsion from
Olympus.
In book III of Homer's Iliad, Aphrodite saves Paris, when he is about to be killed by Menelaos.
Aphrodite was very protective of her son, Aeneas, who fought in the Trojan War. Diomedes almost
killed Aeneas in battle but Aphrodite saved him. Diomedes wounded Aphrodite and she dropped her
son, fleeing to Mt. Olympus. Aeneas was then enveloped in a cloud by Apollo, who took him to
Pergamos, a sacred spot in Troy. Artemis healed Aeneas there.
She turned Abas to stone for his pride.
She turned Anaxarete to stone for reacting so dispassionately to Iphis' pleas to love him, even after his
suicide.
Aphrodite helps Hippomenes to win a footrace against Atalanta to win Atalanta's hand in marriage,
giving him three golden apples to distract her with. However, when the couple fails to thank Aphrodite,
she turns them into lions.