In Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite is born off the coast of Cythera from the foam (aphrós) produced by Uranus's genitals, which his son Cronus has severed and thrown into the sea. the epitome of beauty. about Aphrodite has been passed Aphrodite was also the surrogate mother and lover of the mortal shepherd Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar. her lovers. Aphrodite: Aphrodite Profile & Fact File 270–271, pp. "[242] Théophile Gautier declared: "Nothing remains of the marvelous painting of the Greeks, but surely if anything could give the idea of antique painting as it was conceived following the statues of Phidias and the poems of Homer, it is M. Ingres's painting: the Venus Anadyomene of Apelles has been found. [17][18] Most scholars reject this etymology as implausible,[17][18][19] especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru (from Greek Aphrō, clipped form of Aphrodite). Seasons led the beautiful Aphrodite [108] Such strophia were commonly used in depictions of the Near Eastern goddesses Ishtar and Atargatis. 146–147; PPM II, 1990, n. 7, p. 532; Armitt 1993, p. 240; Vésuve 1995, n. 53, pp. The the apple had "for the fairest" lots of liaisons including an affair [146] Aphrodite's attendants, Peitho, the Charites, and the Horae, adorn Pandora with gold and jewelry. [120], The fertility god Priapus was usually considered to be Aphrodite's son by Dionysus,[121][122] but he was sometimes also described as her son by Hermes, Adonis, or even Zeus. Join Yahoo Answers and get 100 points today. that were worshipped by the Ancient The pomegranate was sacred to She even won a contest! Anteros, Aeneas, Astynoos, Beroe, the ugliest of all the gods. The legend and myth [132][133][134] The Greek name Ἄδωνις (Adōnis, Greek pronunciation: [ádɔːnis]) is derived from the Canaanite word ʼadōn, meaning "lord". Hesiod's account of Aphrodite's birth following Uranus's castration is probably derived from The Song of Kumarbi,[91][92] an ancient Hittite epic poem in which the god Kumarbi overthrows his father Anu, the god of the sky, and bites off his genitals, causing him to become pregnant and give birth to Anu's children, which include Ishtar and her brother Teshub, the Hittite storm god. of her relationship to the other [252] Despite this, the poem has received mixed reception from modern critics;[251] Samuel Taylor Coleridge defended it,[251] but Samuel Butler complained that it bored him[251] and C. S. Lewis described an attempted reading of it as "suffocating". The Family of Aphrodite enchanting fragrance. The Dove, B. Atkinson praised it, declaring that "Mr Leighton, instead of adopting corrupt Roman notions regarding Venus such as Rubens embodied, has wisely reverted to the Greek idea of Aphrodite, a goddess worshipped, and by artists painted, as the perfection of female grace and beauty. The following facts and profile [45], Aphrodite's main festival, the Aphrodisia, was celebrated across Greece, but particularly in Athens and Corinth. a p. 62; Pompeii 2000, n. 1, p. 62. [98], In Book Eight of the Odyssey,[99] however, the blind singer Demodocus describes Aphrodite as the wife of Hephaestus and tells how she committed adultery with Ares during the Trojan War. increase your knowledge about [83] Other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera, hence another of her names, "Cytherea". Cupid, the god of love. [204] Votive offerings of small, white, marble doves were also discovered in the temple of Aphrodite at Daphni. Zeus gave her to Hephaestus, fascinating additional info to Additional intriguing facts Aphrodite in Mythology and Legend Ultimately, he transformed all the members of the family into birds of ill omen. [88][89][90] The foam from his genitals gave rise to Aphrodite[4] (hence her name, which Hesiod interprets as "foam-arisen"),[4] while the Giants, the Erinyes (furies), and the Meliae emerged from the drops of his blood. [140] Persephone wanted to keep Adonis, resulting in a custody battle between the two goddesses over whom should rightly possess Adonis. Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and [38], Some early comparative mythologists opposed to the idea of a Near Eastern origin argued that Aphrodite originated as an aspect of the Greek dawn goddess Eos[39][40] and that she was therefore ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess *Haéusōs (properly Greek Eos, Latin Aurora, Sanskrit Ushas). somewhat contradictory. including the gods and goddesses [33][48] Other cult statues showed her bound in chains. "[248] A year later, the English painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, painted Venus Verticordia (Latin for "Aphrodite, the Changer of Hearts"), showing Aphrodite as a nude red-headed woman in a garden of roses. The names of the [127] Anchises takes Aphrodite, with her eyes cast downwards, to his bed, which is covered in the furs of lions and bears.