Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty (Roman Venus)
At Homer daughter of Zeus and Dione, according to the poet Hesiod, originated from the foam of the sea (hence the foam-born, Aphrodite Anadyomene = "the one emerging from the sea").
She was the wife of the blacksmith god Hephaistos, whom she deceived with the god of war Ares. Her son of Ares was the god of love Eros (roman. Cupid). The death of her lover Adonis caused her great suffering. Through Anchises she became the mother of Aeneas, the later founder of Rome.
Aphrodite is a non-Greek goddess who came to Greece from the Orient across the sea. The Semitic goddess of fertility, love and heaven, Astarte, unites in her form with the figure of the Asia Minor Mother Deity; the prostitution of the Hierodules (Greek "holy slaves") in the cult of the Aphrodite in Corinth and on the Eryx is of oriental origin.
Among the many places of worship of Aphrodite were Cyprus - Kypros (hence its nickname Kypris), Kythera (hence its nickname Kythereia) and Mount Eryx in Sicily (hence its nickname Erykine), Latin Erycina.
The Trojan war broke out as a result of the judgement of Paris, who, in her quarrel with Athena and Hera, awarded her the Erisapfel as the most beautiful apple.
Myrtle, dove, sparrow and hare were sacred to her. The goddess was often depicted on vases and in plastic (e. g. Aphrodite Kallipygos = Greek "with the beautiful bottom")
Aphrodite of Melos, better known as Venus of Milo. This statue, height 2.04 m, created in the 2nd century BC, attributed to Phidias or Praxiteles (a reproduction), was found on the Greek island of Melos in 1820. It was given as a gift to Louis XVIII. in the Louvre in Paris, where she quickly became one of the treasures of the antiquity collection after her arrival in 1821.
Replica as head impression, material Keramin (high-strength special gypsum) in bronze finish, reduced representation.
