APHRODITE

Aphrodite was an Olympian goddess of love, beauty, pleasure

and procreation. She was the most beautiful of all goddesses in terms of
appearance, but her personality was rather damaged because she is described as
weak and frightened as well as ill-tempered and easily offended. She had many
affairs with both gods and mortals. The reason behind all of this might be that
she had no childhood and never learned how to deal with a relationship. Her belief
was that no woman should stay and die a virgin. Therefore, she gladly helped men
to charm women with love spells. Aphrodite was also the main reason for the
Trojan war when she, in exchange for the golden apple that would make her as
the fairest goddess, promised Paris eternal love from Helen who was thought to be
the most beautiful woman on earth, and of course Paris couldn't resist this offer.
 SHORT STORY OF APHRODITE

Aphrodite, ancient Greek goddess of sexual love and beauty,

identified with Venus by the Romans. The Greek word APRONS means “foam,”
and Hesiod relates in his theology that Aphrodite was born from the white foam
produced by the severed genitals of Heaven, after his son Cronus threw them into
the sea. Aphrodite was, in fact, widely worshiped as a goddess of the sea and of
seafaring; she was also honored as a goddess of war, especially at Sparta , Thebes ,
Cyprus and other places. However, she was known primarily as a goddess of love
and fertility and even occasionally presided over marriage. Although prostitutes
considered Aphrodite their patron, her public cult was generally solemn and even
austere.

Many scholars believe Aphrodite’s worship came to Greece from

the East, and many of her characteristics must be considered Semitic. Although
Homer called her “Cyprian” after the island chiefly famed for her worship, she was
already Hellenized by the time of Homer, and, according to Homer, she was the
daughter of Zeus and Dione, his consort at Do dona. In Book 8 of the Odyssey,
Aphrodite was mismatched with Hephaestus, the lame smith god, and she
consequently spent her time philandering with the handsome god of war, Ares (by
whom she became the mother of Harmonia, the warrior twins Phobos and Deimos,
and Eros, the god of love).

Aphrodite’s mortal lovers, the most important were the Trojan

shepherd Anchises, by whom she became the mother of Aeneas, and the handsome
youth Adonis (in origin a Semitic nature deity and the consort of Ishtar-Astarte),
who was killed by a boar while hunting and was lamented by women at the festival
of Adonia. The cult of Adonis had underworld features, and Aphrodite was also
connected with the dead at Delphi.

Aphrodite’s main centres of worship were at Paphos and

Amathus on Cyprus and on the island of Cythera, a Minoan colony, where in
prehistoric times her cult probably originated. On the Greek mainland, Corinth was
the chief centre of her worship. Her close association with Eros, the Graces
(Charites), and the Horae (Seasons) emphasized her role as a promoter of fertility.
She was honoured by the Roman poet Lucretius as Genetrix, the creative element
in the world. Her epithets Urania (Heavenly Dweller) and Pandemos (Of All the
People) were ironically taken by the philosopher Plato (in the Symposium) to refer
to intellectual and common love; rather, the title Urania was honorific and applied
to certain Asian deities, while Pandemos referred to her standing within the city-
state. Among her symbols were the dove, pomegranate, swan, and myrtle.

Early Greek art represented Aphrodite either as the Oriental, nude-

goddess type or as a standing or seated figure similar to all other goddesses.
Aphrodite first attained individuality at the hands of the great 5th-century-BCE
Greek sculptors. Perhaps the most famous of all statues of Aphrodite was carved
by Praxiteles for the Cnidians; it later became the model for such Hellenistic
masterpieces as the Venus de Milo (2nd century BCE).

The Birth of Aphrodite

According to Hesiod's Theogony, she was born as an adult when

Uranus' testicals fell in the sea, after Cronus castrated him, and that puts her in the
older Titans generation. It is said that she had emerged from the foam which
gathered on surface of the water. However, another source is presented in Homer's
Iliad where she was a descendant of Zeus and Dione, who Homer also placed to
Olympus, which makes her a second generation Olympian goddess. Regardless of
different sources, she is always depicted or has a reference of being born as an
adult, nubile and infinitely desirable. She is also always referred to be among
Olympian gods and was a part of the family on Mount Olympus.

“Love affairs”

Divine lovers

Because of her beauty and uncontrollable desire, she was seen as a

threat to interrupt peace between gods because of jealousy. Zeus married
Aphrodite to Hephaestus, when the god demanded her in order to release Hera
from a magical trap. Zeus also saw this marriage as a solution to prevent others
from their rivalry to possess the goddess of beauty. This, however, didn't stop
Aphrodite to have her affairs. Most notably and most desirable was the one with
Ares, with whom Aphrodite was having a passionate but secret love affair. The
fruits of this affair were Phobos(god of fear) and Deimos(god of terror).Venus and
Mars They usually accompanied Ares into a battle, causing fear and terror before
destruction. And there were also Erotes which include Eros (love),
Anteros(counter-love), Himeros(sexual-desire), Pothos(yearning) and
Harmonia(harmony).

However, for each of these, there are many sources connecting

them to other origins and bloodline. For example, according to Hesiod, Eros is a
primeval god and there are no reference to him by Homer. Aphrodite is also noted
for having an affair with Poseidon who showed her support when Aphrodite and
Ares were chained on the bed by Hephaestus for displaying adultery in his
chambers. She was grateful to Poseidon who managed to get them released from
the chains and she mated with the god of the Sea. Allegedly, she bore him a
daughter Rhodos, a sea-nymph of the island Rhodes. She was also having a short
affair with Dionysus, a god of wine and pleasure. They succumbed into having the
pleasures of love under the influence of wine and Aphrodite then allegedly gave
birth to Priapus(minor god of fertility). She was also seduced by Hermes and gave
birth to Hermaphroditus(minor god of bisexuality and effeminacy). Unlike other
gods, except Ares, Aphrodite was the one who made her move when it came to
Nerites, a young sea-god. She was trying to seduce him and was on the right
course, until she asked him to join her at Olympus. When the god refused, she in
revenge transformed him into a shell-fish.

Mortal lovers

Most notable among mortals was Adonis, a mortal god of

beauty and desire, who was loved by the goddess. He was a god of ever-cycling
rebirth and his cycle was annual in which he lived, died and was reborn and
therefore never aged. When Adonis was born for the first time, he was taken by
Aphrodite who became so obsessed with the him, when he reached boyhood, that
she began neglecting her duties of being a goddess. Therefore, she had given him
to Persephone in the underworld to be taken care of and hidden from the rest of
goddesses and women. Persephone, however, also fell in love with Adonis and
refused to give him back when Aphrodite came for him. Their quarrel became so
fierce that Zeus had to intervene and find a compromise. Afterwards, Adonis was
set to spend four months with Persephone and four months with Aphrodite and for
rest of the months, he was free from clasps of the goddesses.

One day, when Adonis was spending his time in Aphrodite's

care, he went into a forest where he was killed by Ares who had transformed
himself into a wild boar and out of jealousy pierced Adonis with his tusks. Adonis
then passed into the realm of the dead where Persephone welcomed him with open
arms. But Aphrodite went after him and another heated quarrel began, between the
goddesses, over who has the rightful possession over him in this case. Zeus once
again had to interviene and, after a long patient period, they agreed that he would
spend half a year with Aphrodite and half a year with Persephone. Aphrodite also
threw her eyes on a semi-god Phaethon, the Athenian lord. He was carried to Syria
by the goddess who made him a guardian of her temple and bore him a son
Astynoos. Another of her lovers was an Argonaut called Boutes. She saved him on
their voyage for the Golden fleece, when he had fallen asleep and fell into the
water. She carried him off to Italy as her lover and bore him a son Eryx. She was
also interested in Anchises, prince of Dardania, where the goddess seduced him by
transforming herself into the Phrygian princess and making him love with her for
two weeks straight. Aphrodite bore him two sons Aeneas and Lyrus.

Aphrodite as the main cause for Trojan war

Aphrodite was also responsible for Trojan war. It all started

when Eris, a goddess of discord and rivalry, appeared in wedding of king Peleus
and sea-nymph Thetis. Aphrodite, hera, athena, paris Because of her discovery,
that she had not been invited to a wedding, she threw the golden apple, a fruit of
temptation, to a banquet table. The apple should go to "the fairest one". The
problem appeared when Aphrodite, Hera and Athena all started arguing that their
existence suits the entitlement of golden apple. Zeus couldn't decide himself
because all three were very dear to him and therefore passed the decision to a
handsome mortal man called Paris. Athena and Hera promised him power and
glory while Aphrodite promised him eternal love from the most beautiful mortal
woman on earth. That appeared to be Helen of Sparta. Paris chose Aphrodite and
set things in motion as Helen traveled to Troy with Paris and became Helen of
Troy. Aphrodite then naturally supported Paris during the war and convinced her
lover Ares to side with her and the Trojans.

PROFILE
OF APHRODITE
Dolphin, Rose,
Aphrodite, Scallop Shell,
NAMES: Acidalia, Cytherea, SYMBOLS: Myrtle, Dove,
Cerigo Sparrow, Girdle,
Mirror, and Swan

Love, Beauty, SACRED Dove

RULES OVER: Pleasure, ANMALS:
Procreation

Hephaestus, Ares,
Poseidon, Hermes,
TITLE: Lady of Cythera or CONSORTS: Dionysus, Adonis,
Lady of Cyprus and Anchises

Eros, Phobos,
Deimos,
Harmonia, Pothos,
Anteros, Himeros,
Hermaphroditos,
GENDER: Female CHILDRENS: Rhode, Eryx,
Peitho, Eunomia,
The Graces,
Priapus, Aeneas
and Tyche
 PARENTS: Uranus, or Zeus ROMAN NAME: VENUS
and Dione

Facts about Aphrodite

 Aphrodite was the goddess of fertility, love, and beauty.
 Two different stories explain the birth of Aphrodite. The first is simple: She
was the child of Zeus and Dione.
 According to the second story, however, Aphrodite rose from the foam of
the sea.
 Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, but Aphrodite did not enter into this
union of her own volition.
 She and Ares conceived Harmonia, who eventually married Herodotus.
 She was the mother of Hermaphroditus by HERMES.
 Aphrodite and her son Eros (Cupid) teamed up to cause Zeus to fall in love
with a human named Europa.
 Aphrodite loved Adonis. She saw him when he was born and determined
then that he should be hers. She assigned Persephone to his care, but Persephone
fell in love with Adonis also and would not give him back. Finally, Zeus had to
mediate. He judged that Adonis should spend half the year with each.
 Aphrodite used a swan-drawn car to glide easily through the air.
 Although Aphrodite and Hera were not friends, HERA went to the Goddess
of Love for help as she endeavored to assist the heroes in their Quest of the Golden
Fleece.
 Aphrodite, Hera, and ATHENA were the top three contenders for a gold
apple marked “For the Fairest.” They asked Zeus to judge the contest, but he
refused. Paris, son of the King of Troy, judged the contest instead. Each of the
three goddesses promised him something in return; he chose Aphrodite as the
winner of the apple. This story of the Judgment of Paris was considered to be the
real reason behind the Trojan War.
 During the Trojan War, Aphrodite fought on the side of Paris.
 Aphrodite rescued Paris from Menelaus by enveloping him in a cloud and
taking him back to Troy.
 Aphrodite owned a girdle that contained her enchantments; Hera borrowed it
once to seduce Zeus in order to distract him from the Trojan War.
 Aphrodite gave Harmonia a necklace that brought disaster to a later
generation.
 Prostitutes considered the Goddess of Love their patron.
 Aphrodite had a few mortal lovers. One of the most notable was the Trojan
shepherd Anchises. The two of them conceived Aeneas.
 Corinth was the center of Aphrodite’s worship.
 Early Greek art depicted the goddess as nude.
 She was the model for the famous sculpture Venus de Milo.
 Aphrodite and Cupid initiated the love between Jason (hero of the Quest of
the Golden Fleece) and the daughter of the Colchian King.

WHO DOES APHRODITE PROTECTS?

APHRODITE was the goddess of love, beauty and fertility. She

was also a protectress of sailors.The poet Hesiod said that Aphrodite was born
from sea-foam. Homer, on the other hand, said that she was the daughter of Zeus
and Dione.

When the Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of three
Olympian goddesses was the most beautiful, he chose Aphrodite over Hera and
Athena. The latter two had hoped to bribe him with power and victory in battle, but
Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the world.This was
Helen of Sparta, who became infamous as Helen of Troy when Paris subsequently
eloped with her. In the ensuing Trojan War, Hera and Athena were implacable
enemies of Troy while Aphrodite was loyal to Paris and the Trojans.
 IN HOMER

In his epic of the Trojan War, Homer tells how Aphrodite

intervened in battle to save her son Aeneas, a Trojan ally. The Greek hero
Diomedes, who had been on the verge of killing Aeneas, attacked the goddess
herself, wounding her on the wrist with his spear and causing the ichor to flow.
(Ichor is what immortals have in the place of blood.)

Aphrodite promptly dropped Aeneas, who was rescued by Apollo,

another Olympian sponsor of the Trojans. In pain she sought out her brother Ares,
the god of war who stood nearby admiring the carnage, and borrowed his chariot
so that she might fly up to Olympus. There she goes crying to her mother Dione,
who soothes her and cures her wound. Her father Zeus tells her to leave war to the
likes of Ares and Athena, while devoting herself to the business of marriage.
Elsewhere in Homer's Iliad , Aphrodite saves Paris when he is about to be killed in
single combat by Menelaus. The goddess wraps him in a mist and spirits him
away, setting him down in his own bedroom in Troy. She then appears to Helen in
the guise of an elderly handmaiden and tells her that Paris is waiting for her.

Helen recognizes the goddess in disguise and asks if she is being

led once more to ruin. For Aphrodite had bewitched her into leaving her husband
Menelaus to run off with Paris. She dares to suggest that Aphrodite go to Paris
herself.Suddenly furious, the goddess warns Helen not to go too far, lest she be
abandoned to the hatred of Greeks and Trojans alike. "I'll hate you," says the
mercurial goddess, "as much as I love you now."Even though Zeus's queen Hera
and Aphrodite are on different sides in the Trojan War, the goddess of love loans
Hera her magical girdle in order to distract Zeus from the fray. This garment has
the property of causing men (and gods) to fall hopelessly in love with whoever is
wearing it.

Homer calls Aphrodite "the Cyprian", and many of her attributes

may have come from Asia via Cyprus (and Cythera) in Mycenaean times. These
almost certainly mixed with a preexisting Hellenic or Aegean goddess. The ancient
Greeks themselves felt that Aphrodite was both Greek and foreign.
 JASON
Aphrodite involved herself on other occasions in the affairs of
mortal heroes. When Jason asked permission of the king of Colchis to remove the
Golden Fleece from the grove in which it hung, the king was clearly unwilling. So
the goddess Hera, who sponsored Jason's quest, asked her fellow-Olympian
Aphrodite to intervene. The love goddess made the king's daughter Medea fall in
love with Jason, and Medea proved instrumental in Jason's success.

AENEAS
Another time, Zeus punished Aphrodite for beguiling her fellow
gods into inappropriate romances. He caused her to become infatuated with the
mortal Anchises. That's how she came to be the mother of Aeneas. She protected
this hero during the Trojan War and its aftermath, when Aeneas quested to Italy
and became the mythological founder of a line of Roman emperors.

A minor Italic goddess named Venus became identified with

Aphrodite, and that's how she got her Roman name. It is as Venus that she appears
in the Aeneiad , the poet Virgil's epic of the founding of Rome.

And on still another occasion,

HEPHAESTUS
 The love goddess was married to the homely craftsman-god
Hephaestus. She was unfaithful to him with Ares, and Homer relates in the
Odyssey how Hephaestus had his revenge.

IN ART

Elsewhere in classical art she has no distinctive attributes other

than her beauty. Flowers and vegetation motifs suggest her connection to fertility.

Aphrodite was associated with the dove. Another of her sacred

birds was the goose, on which she is seen to ride in a vase painting from antiquity.

Hesiod's reference to Aphrodite's having been born from the sea

inspired the Renaissance artist Botticelli's famous painting of the goddess on a
giant scallop shell. Equally if not better known is the Venus de Milo, a statue
which lost its arms in ancient times.

WAR GODDESS

The ancient travel writer Pausanias describes a number of statues

of Aphrodite dressed for battle, many of them in Sparta. Given the manner in
which the militaristic Spartans raised their girls, it is not surprising that they
conceived of a female goddess in military attire. She also would have donned
armaments to defend cities, such as Corinth, who adopted her as their patroness.
This is not to say that she was a war goddess, although some have seen her as such
and find significance in her pairing with the war god Ares in mythology and
worship.
The two most recent editions of "The Oxford Classical
Dictionary" are at variance over this aspect of the goddess. The 1970 edition sees
her as a goddess of war and traces this to her Oriental roots. It is true that she has
resemblances to Astarte, who is a goddess of war as well as fertility.The 1996
edition of "The Oxford Classical Dictionary", on the other hand, offers several
counterarguments. It sees her being paired with Ares, for instance, not because
they are similarly warlike but precisely because love and war are opposites.

In any case, Aphrodite's primary function was to preside over

reproduction, since this was essential for the survival of the community.

Goddess’s Cult and Symbols

Several ancient sources confirm the eastern origin of

Aphrodite’s worship. Pausanias writes that the Assyrians were the first to worship
Ourania. Her cult was later spread to Paphos in Cyprus and then to Cythera. There
is evidence that the goddess was known by many epithets: The Assyrians called
her Mylitta, the Arabs called her Alitat, the Scythians , Argimpasa and the Persians
called her Mitra.According to Cypriot tradition, the followers of the goddess would
prove their devotion by laying with strangers; a fact attested by the historian
Strabo,who records the existence of over a thousand hetaire, or courtesans, at her
sanctuary at Acrocorinth. Aphrodite’s links to Cyprus and Cythera are clearly
evidenced by additional epithets she had like Cypris, Cythereia and Papheia. In
addition, her most important sanctuaries have been found in Paphos, Idalios and
Amathounta (all ancient cities of Cyprus).

In the Mediterranean, important sanctuaries dedicated to the

goddess have been found in Cnidus, Halicarnassus, Ephesus and Abidus. The cult
of Aphrodite was especially widespread on the islands of Cos and Rhodes, while
on Delos it was believed that a xoano, or wooden idol, of the goddess had been
brought to the island by the hero Theseus. Her myth of being born from the sea
foam, naturally associated the goddess with the sea. Thus, a lot of temples
dedicated to her, are located either along the coasts, or in harbors or capes.
Examples are the temples at Aegeio, Patra, Cnidos, Attica etc.

The goddess’s most important symbol is the breastplate and

belt. According to Homer, Aphrodite gave this belt to Hera, so that she could
charm Zeus. In ancient depictions, she is also shown to be wearing a wreath, which
is also considered to be one of her symbols. Objects of beauty such as the
perfumed clothing she was wearing when she stood before Paris in the famous
beauty contest, as well as her sparkling jewelry, are typical accessories of the
magnificent goddess as well. Plants sacred to the goddess are the rose, myrtle,
anemone, pomegranate, polly and apple. The dove, swan, goose, the tortoise and
the rabbit were some of the representatives from the animal kingdom, who were
considered to be sacred to the goddess. Also, the dolphin symbolized her origin
from the sea.

Marriage with Hephaistos

According to a version of Aphrodite's history, because of her

immense beauty, Zeus feared that the other gods would begin to fight each other
because of it. To avoid this, he forced her to marry Hephaestus, the blacksmith
god, humorless and ugly. In another version of the story, Aphrodite marries
Hephaestus after his mother, Hera, cast the Olympian, considering the very ugly
and deformed to live with the gods. He enacted revenge on his mother by having a
magical throne built, which trapped her. In exchange for the release, he asked to be
given Aphrodite's hand in marriage. Hephaestus is happy to be married to the
goddess of beauty and forged for her beautiful jewelry, including cestus, a gold
belt that made her even more irresistible to men. Aphrodite's displeasure with this
arranged marriage made men look for her company, most often Ares. In the tale
sung by the bard in Alcino room, the sun god, Helios, once spied Ares and
Aphrodite enjoying each other secretly in the hall of Hephaestus. He promptly
reported the incident to the Olympic spouse of Aphrodite. Hephaestus wanted to
catch the couple in flagrante, and so, he made a special, thin and strong network of
diamond to catch the illicit lovers. At the appropriate time, this net was thrown,
trapping Ares and Aphrodite in a passionate embrace. Hephaestus was not yet
satisfied with his revenge, however he invited the gods and goddesses of Olympus
to see the unhappy couple. Some commented on the beauty of Aphrodite, others
eagerly expressed their longing to trade places with Ares, but all mocked and
laughed at the two. Once the couple were loosed, Ares, embarrassed, fled to his
homeland, Thrace, and Aphrodite, embarrassed, fled to Cyphurs.
In the Troia destruction, Aphrodite spoke to her son Aeneas pick up his father, his
wife and go to Troia. Aeneas did as his mother said, and traveled, guided by
Aphrodite, with the Roman name of Venus, wandering in the Mediterranean to
reach the Italian peninsula, where his descendants built Rome. This is reported in
the epic poem by Virgil, Aeneid, maximum work of Latin literature. From this
Roman epic, Venus (Aphrodite in Greek) is now considered the guardian goddess
of Rome. One myth recounts that when Juno (Hera in Greek) tried to open the
doors of Rome to an invading army, Venus sought to thwart her plans by blocking
the way with water.

Sphere of Control

Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, desire, grace,

and sexuality. Even though she is only the goddess of love and beauty, she is one
of the most powerful Olympians, because she has control over looks, love, and
lust.

In early Rome, she was considered a goddess of vegetation. She

protected gardens and vineyards but after the Romans met the Greeks, they
realized that she wasn't meant to be an agricultural goddess. While the Greeks
envisaged her as the proud and vain goddess of beauty, the Romans saw her as the
stern forebearer of their country.

Guardian of Rome

In the Troia destruction, Aphrodite spoke to his son Aeneas pick

up his father, his wife and go to Troia. Eneas did as his mother said, and traveled
guided by Aphrodite with the Roman name of Venus, wandering in the
Mediterranean to reach the Italian peninsula, where his descendants built Rome.
This is reported in the epic poem by Virgil, Aeneid, maximum work of Latin
literature. From this epic Roman, Venus came to be considered the guardian
goddess of Rome. One myth recounts that when Juno (Hera) tried to open the
doors of Rome to an invading army, Venus sought to thwart his plans blocking the
way to the water.

The Lusiadas

The Lusiads poetry of Luís Vaz de Camões writer who tells the
story of Portugal presents Venus(Aphrodite) as the Portuguese patron goddess
becases Venus sees the Portuguese as heirs of the Romans loved and known to be
held by them. Camões was a man of passions, which also celebrated love in his
lyrical, and perhaps why he had chosen the Roman goddess that feeling for
patroness of his people.It follows a riot, with the other Olympians to take
advantage of Dionysus and Venus, until the powerful Mars (Ares) is imposed,
startling Apollo an aside (verse 37). The Venus lover and admirer of warriors made
of Portuguese, remember that not only have earned they can accomplish their feat,
as Jupiter had already decided to grant this favor and should not go back on the
word. The king of the gods agree and closes the council.

APHRODITE

She is famous for being the most beautiful of the goddesses. She even won a
contest.

Winning a Beauty Contest

When the goddess Eris was turned away from a party, she tossed a
golden apple among the other goddesses that said "To the Fairest" on it. The
goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena all wanted the apple. Zeus decided that a
mortal named Paris would decide who deserved the apple.

The three goddesses visited Paris and he had to decide who was the
most beautiful. All three goddesses offered him something if he would chose them.
Hera offered him power, Athena offered him wisdom and fame, and Aphrodite
offered him the love of the most beautiful mortal woman in the world, Helen. Paris
chose Aphrodite. However, when Paris stole Helen from a Greek king and took her
to Troy, he started the Trojan War.

How was Aphrodite usually pictured?

As you might expect, Aphrodite was usually depicted as a young

beautiful woman by the Greeks. She was often pictured with an apple, scallop
shell, dove or swan. Eros, the Greek god of love, was sometimes attending to her in
art. Aphrodite rode a flying chariot that was pulled by sparrows.
 What special powers and skills did she have?

Like all the Greek Olympic gods, Aphrodite was immortal and very
powerful. Her special powers were those of love and desire. She had a belt that had
the power to cause others to fall in love with the wearer. Some of the other Greek
goddesses, such as Hera, would borrow the belt from time to time. Aphrodite had
the ability to cause fighting couples to fall in love again.

APHRODITE'S BRIEF OVERVIEW

 Possesses an extroverted temperament and focuses on relationship/love--she

represents goddess of love (boundless eros) --her primary concerns/interests are
mature, adult relationships, romance, sexuality, beauty and the arts. One account of
Aphrodite’s birth states that she rose up from the foam on the ocean as a naked and
fully developed beautiful woman; and she rode on a scallop shell.
 Origins, in fact, pre-date the ancient Greeks. She is said to be older than
Time. An even more ancient deity exhibiting more aspects than love and beauty,
she can also be recognized as Astarte or Ishtar. Her origins were
Babylonian/Sumerian. Her domain embraced all of nature: vegetable, animal as
well as human. Among her powers were associated with fertility and
growth/harvesting of crops, war, descent to the underworld, birth/life/love/death
and fate. She was also worshiped as sacred ‘prostitute’.
 Represents the uniting of feminine and masculine energies--through sexual
union.
 This goddess includes autonomy similar to ‘virgin’ goddesses yet also
includes aspects of the ‘vulnerable’ goddess such as relationship-oriented. Her
consciousness is both focused , goal-oriented and diffuse , taking in the
relationship between things. Aphrodite does not suffer, however, as did the
‘vulnerable’ goddesses. Although she is known for her numerous sexual liaisons,
she is not bound by any man. However, unlike Athena, Artemis and
Hestia--‘virgin’ goddesses--Aphrodite did give birth to children. Unlike the
‘vulnerable’ goddesses--Demeter, Persephone and Hera--Aphrodite was never a
victim of a man’s unwanted passion for her; the desires were mutual. Unlike her
‘virgin’ sisters, she values emotional experiences with others more than she desires
more solitary goals. Although an independent figure in her own right, this
independence does not preclude emotional involvement with others. On the other
hand, she is not attracted to permanent relational bonds like her ‘vulnerable’
sisters.
 Type woman admires potently masculine men and their capacity for success
and combativeness. Her arena of interaction is in the boudoir or the salon. She
feels comfortable with multiple relationships or extramarital affairs. She is
attracted to creative men and engages with them as their inspirer. She is said to be
attracted to the Son/Lover, as her romantic interests were a generation younger
than she--those of the sons of her godly peers.

OLYMPIAN GODDESS: A DEEPER LOOK

Aphrodite- represents the feminine archetype of relationship

and love. She is adored for her beauty, her gentle manner and her amorous
adventures. She has been experienced by men as fascinatingly exotic, a seductress.
Her influence is of civilizing ‘man’ kind through her gifts of art, culture, and in
particular, her disarming manner of relating. Aphrodite’s divine gift to us is Eros,
her divine son, also known as Cupid (Amor). Aphrodite’s gift of loving
relationship has the power to melt defenses, leaving her lover disarmed and open--
allowing the magic of eros to flow between them.

Mythological history
Most scholars recognize Aphrodite’s ancient ancestors from the
Sumerian goddess, Ishtar, circa 3000-1800 B.C.E. much earlier than the Greek
myths. In Greek myth, Aphrodite’s father is the ancient Sky God, Uranus, who
came before the Greek gods of Olympus. At this period, priestesses served her in
temples of love by making love with men as ritual offering. Eros and procreation
were considered holy. Any child born to the priestesses in these encounters would
belong to the temple of the goddess.

 Greek mythology accounts that Aphrodite was born from the severed
genitals of the Sky Father--an inescapable connection to male sexuality. It was
Cronos (Roman god, Saturn--‘Time’) who severed and threw his father’s genitals
into the ocean. Although born as a result of a seemingly violent act, white foam
spread as sperm and mixing with the sea -- from which Aphrodite emerged--as a
fully-grown goddess standing on a scallop shell.
 Aphrodite’s choices of men for lovers were the second-generation Olympian
gods, in other words, the sons of her peers.
 Aphrodite, although she did have one husband, also engaged in numerous
love affairs. She had a long-term passionate affair with Ares, God of War, with
whom she bore several children. She also had other lovers--gods as well as
mortals-- with some of whom she bore children.
 Aphrodite’s transformative power--Love - transforming the ordinary, the
mundane into something beautiful and special through Love.
 Aphrodite was known to become angry and cast revenge when mortals
refused to honor the Goddess of Love or her sacred rites.
 She appears to have no mother. She is considered older than all the
Olympian gods/goddesses.

Today, our culture has lost touch with the mosaic qualities
brought by Aphrodite. Obsessed merely with her physical charms, as a culture, the
feminine image activates only one aspect this goddess--we are fixated on romance,
sexual pleasure, erotic images, pornography, fashion/glamour - as is clearly
witnessed in daily life.

Challenges facing Aphrodite:

 Her natural instinct of living in the ‘moment’ impedes her considering the
consequences of her urges and passions--she may overspend, over indulge, forget
about one commitment when wrapped up in the immediacy of another situation
 Aphrodite types will need to learn balance between emotional priorities and
practical considerations.
 Finding herself, frequently, in the lovers’ triangle as the ‘other woman’
 The clash between her personal passion for love and sensuality vs. the
collective values requiring a woman to be married and settled - a challenge for her
naturally polygamous spirit
 Aphrodite women may buy into the social mores of ‘beauty’ as the only
valuable aspect of her gift and subsequently neglect the all-encompassing aspects
of her intellectual and emotional gifts of companionship and creative inspiration
 Our culture has lost all perspective on Aphrodite and her divine gift of Love
to humanity.
 Aphrodite woman’s task is that of bringing civility, refinement and Love
into the world around her
 Regaining her self-respect by regaining access to her body--not as an image
of ‘slender’ proportions/perfection (glamour girl), rather as a flesh-and-blood
sensual woman of value in her own right--in her ability to connect with heart

Aphrodite’s personality
As a child & adolescent:
 Charming, girlishly feminine, innocently coy and flirtatious
 Unconsciously expressed sensuality apparent to adults
 Loves being the center of attention, a ‘little ham’
 Likes playing dress-up, trouncing around in mommy’s high heels, jewelry &
scarves
 Has a boyfriend at school, but differently than Hera, Aphrodite loves the
attention
 As an adolescent she is emerging as sensual, sexually precocious, very
social girl
 Casual attitude toward sex and curiosity about her body
 She possesses a busy social calendar
 Dresses sexy and provocatively--instinctively sexual--‘at home’ in her body
 Young Aphrodite may be attracted to older, more experienced men

As an adult woman:
 Aphrodite expresses qualities of warmth, extroversion, she is relational--
bringing people together.
 She is sensual, at ease in her body and with her sexuality.
 She loves Love, she loves the masculine aspect, she loves the Arts and
things creative.
 She is attracted to the Warrior archetype (Mars) whose birth is a generation
after hers.
 As a mother she may love to indulge her children, dressing them up,
exposing her children to cultural events, giving them treats.

Aphrodite’s gifts:

 Her ability to be both sexual and a spiritual guide & confidante to her
partner; ability to bring civility, refinement and Love into the world arouond her
through her value of relationship and deep caring.
 Her compassionate nature.
 Her ability to inspire with eros and creativity--ecstatic, mystical gifts of love
and pleasure.

Aphrodite’s wound:

Patriarchy, threatened by her ‘power’ over men, have attempted in every

way to restrict, confine, label and demote her from her Queenly position.

Furthermore, Aphrodite and Demeter were not allowed to co-mingle in the

patriarchal order. Aphrodite also experiences alienation from the other goddesses.
 Department of Education

Division of City School – Manila

Mariano Marcos Memorial High School

Book Report
 In English

Submitted to:

Mrs. Mary Jane G. Sabiniano

Submitted by:

Mherlie Shaina G. Avanez

X- Bernoulli (3)