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, swan 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 Head dated 150 B. C.
