Aphrodite: Goddess of Love and Beauty

The Greek gods are unlike any other idols that people had created. The Greeks felt that their gods should be able to go about their daily lives just as humans do, except they would be in charge of certain aspects of life, with superhuman abilities and of course immortality. Aphrodite was chosen as the goddess of love and is believed to embody all things that deal with love, desire, beauty, fertility, and the sea. Some believe also the goddess of vegetation. Many built temples in her honor. Through the years, the idea that she was in charge of love and beauty began to transform into her being a symbol. In modern day we often associate erotic love with Aphrodite.You may also hear her referred to as Venus as that is her Roman name.

Cronus/Kronos:

One legend has it that the goddess of love is actually the daughter of Uranus, well kind of. According to mythology, Uranus was very evil man, mean to his children and wife. His wife teamed up with their son Cronus who decided to send his father out of heaven. In the process he castrated him, and then threw his, umm, well, the castrated object into the sea. When it hit the sea, so did much of Cronus' blood. The blood began to foam as it transformed into a beautiful woman. The sea nymphs enamored by her beauty dressed her in the most beautiful garments made of gold and flowers, where she became known as Aphrodite. It is in this description of her description how she got her name. "Aphro" in Greek means foam, and it was from this foam that she was born.

Zeus:

There is also the myth that she is the daughter of Dionne and Zeus. Her Greek name is Venus, which usually connects her more to this portion of her legend. Ironically, under the Kronos being the father, it is believed that Zeus pursued her to be his wife. When she rejected him, out of jealousy he forced her to marry Hephaestus, noted for his unattractiveness.

Aphrodite is not only seen as the goddess of love, but she also embodies a of very unique personality. Although she is seen as gentle and pure, she is viewed as fierce and well, whorish for lack of a better description. She is unpredictable and complex. But most of all considered very very beautiful.

One thing to understand about her being the goddess of love is understand the kind of love she was to represent. She was definitely not the goddess of marital love that endures forever. No, this was the animal kind of love that takes over you, and is full of passion, and well does not last decades, but is wonderful while it lasts. Often the kind of love we see in movies, but truly that's not real love.

Haphaestus:

It is believed that Aphrodite had many lovers as any true goddess of love would be expected to have, but she only married twice. Her first marriage was to an ugly god of fire named Haphaestus who was crippled by his mother Hera. Hera was tricked by her son Haphaestus because of his resentment of being crippled by his mother, to be imprisoned by a golden throne. Zeus promised the hand of Aphrodite to whoever could release Hera from her prison. Aphrodite convinced Ares to try, for she was madly in love with him. Unfortunately for her, he was unable to, but Haphaestus could, therefore, she became married to him.

An alternate story is that the gods were afraid that her severe beauty would cause jealousy among the gods. Therefore, to compensate for magnitude of beauty she was forced to marry Haphaestus, who was considered deformed and ugly. While another myth says that Zeus was punishing for her arrogance and pride over her beauty by forcing her to marry the ugly Haphaestus.

Ares:

She actually was kind of stuck with him, after She didn't truly love him, and often cheated on him. Most notoriously with the god of war, Ares. Soon she was able to divorce him and married her second husband Ares. He is supposedly her one true love, despite her multiple affairs, where she has had many children, as you would expect any goddess of erotic love to have. Since back when mythology days had no paternity tests, I am unsure of who the fathers are of these children.

Eros:

Her most popular son is one that symbolizes the infamous image of cupid. His name is Eros. He is the god of love who is often the symbol of both Valentine's Day and Sweetheart's Day. Eros fell in love with a mortal by the name of Psyche. Unfortunately Aphrodite was jealous of Psyche because of her extreme beauty, and as any good mother would do told Eros that he must convince her to fall in love with a monster. Eros didn't want to disobey his mother, but wanted to be true to Psyche, so he disguised himself as the hideous being, and agreed to only meet her at night, so she would believe he was truly hideous.

Then one day, Psyche's curiosity got the best of her so she decided to peek on this hideous monster and discovered it was Eros. When Eros discovered this he became enraged and forced her to wander the world alone in misery for the rest of her life. Repentant of this, and overcome by his great love for Psyche he asked Zeus to make her immortal. Zeus granted this wish and Psyche and Eros married.

Children by Ares:

She had three children by Ares; Phobos, Deimos, and Harmonia.

Aphrodite is most infamous for starting the Trojan War. All the gods were invited to the wedding of King Peleus and Thetis, a sea nymph (parents of Achilles). Well, except one, Eris, the goddess of discord. She was not invited. When she found out, she became outraged so she made a plan that would cause complete chaos. She placed a golden apple that she labeled, "to the fairest," at the wedding. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all believed themselves to be the fairest of them all, and felt that the golden apple was intended for them.

First they looked to Zeus to reveal who was the fairest, since he refused, they decided to ask the most handsome man at the wedding who the fairest god was. They all decided the most handsome man was Paris,a noble Trojan. Wanting to be chosen as the fairest, the three bribed Paris through promises.

Hera offered him the chance to rule over the world with her, while Athena promised him to be victorious in war.

Only Aphrodite was able to give him what he wanted. She promised him the love of the most beautiful maiden in the land, Helen of Troy. This would have been okay, except Helen of Troy was already married to the Greek king Menelaus of Sparta. So when Eris took Helen of Troy as his wife, the beginning of the Trojan War began.

• http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/papers/parisaphrodite/aphrodite.html
• http://www.paleothea.com/SortaSingles/Aphrodite.html
• http://www.buzzle.com/articles/aphrodite-goddess-of-love.html
• http://www.greek-gods-and-goddesses.com/aphrodite-greek-goddess-of-love.html
• http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/aphrodite.html
• http://hubpages.com/hub/GreekMythology-Thegodsandgoddessespart2