Aphrodite/Venus/Cytherea/Cypris- The goddess of love, beauty and sexual pleasure. Usually said to have been formed in the sea foam from Cronus' genitals, although sometimes Zeus and Dione, a minor goddess, or Thalassa, a sea goddess, are given as her parents. She arose from the sea near Cyprus, fully formed in a shell.
She was desired by all the gods and to stop them quarelling over her, Zeus had her married to Hephaestus. Some sources say he gave her as a wife to Hephaestus in exchange for him freeing Hera from the throne she was stuck to. However she was unfaithful, usually having affairs with the war god Ares. Hephaestus was informed of their affair by Helios and devised a trap for them. He ensnared them in a fine chain net when they were making love and brought the other gods to see them.
Aphrodite gave Pandora, the first woman, grace, beauty and longing. She was on the side of the Trojans and helped bring about The Trojan War. When Eris cast a golden apple for the fairest into Thetis' wedding, Aphrodite, Hera and Athena all laid claim to it. Zeus commanded Paris to judge the fairest and he picked Aphrodite when she offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen.
She had fun in making the gods and goddesses fall for mortals spawing the age of heroes. This ended when Zeus tired of her games and made her fall in love with a mortal, Anchises. With Anchises she had the mortal son Aeneas who was both a part of Greek and Roman legend.
Like the other immortals Aphrodite could be cruel and vengeful and many felt her wrath as well as her blessing. She turned the six sons of Poseidon and Halia to madness when they drove her from Rhodes, they raped their mother and sister and were placed under the earth by Poseidon. Hippomenes/Melanion asked for Aphrodite's help to win the heart of Atalanta, he had to beat her in a race so the goddess gave him golden apples to distract the female warrior with so that he could win. When Hippomenes failed to thank the goddess she either turned them into lions or drove them to have sex in a temple of Cybele leading Zeus or Cybele to turn them into lions. According to some versions of the story of Myrrha/Smyrna, Aphrodite made her desire her own father as punishment for failing to honour the goddess, from this unnatural union Adonis was created. The Propoetides, daughters of Propoetus were driven to become the first prostitutes by Aphrodite when they denied her divinity.
Hippolytus was a son of Theseus who scorned Aphrodite for Artemis, Aphrodite drove his stepmother Phaedra to develop a passion for him and when he turned her down she accused him of rape to his father who cursed him leading Poseidon to kill him.
Polyphonte was a maiden and a granddaughter who chose to be a chaste follower of Artemis, in anger at this Aphrodite drove her to desire a bear. She gave birth to the cannibal twins Orius and Agrius as a result, the three were turned into birds of prey.
Diomedes was persuaded by Athena to wound Aphrodite in the Trojan War, he stabbed her arm with a spear and never forgetting it, she drove his wife Aegialia to take lovers or a lover and to keep him from his own city. Aphrodite even drove a Titaness, Eos, to continously fall in love because she had once slept with Aphrodite's lover Ares. A minor sea god Nerites, a son of Doris and Nereus, was a lover of Aphrodite's before she ascended to Olympus. The goddess tried to make the god go with her to Olympus but he refused, even when she offered him wings, in anger she turned him into a shellfish. Erymanthus, a son of Apollo, was blinded by Aphrodite for watching her make love to Adonis, according to some this is why Adonis was killed by a boar, it was actually Apollo in disguise, those most sources say it was a jealous Ares.
Anaxarete was a maiden loved by a shepherd, Iphis, but she ignored all of his advances and in grief he killed himself. She did not cry for him and mocked his funeral, in anger Aphrodite turned her to stone. In another myth it is a princess, Arsinoe, who scorns the love of a wealthy man, Arceophon. He tried to bribe Arsinoe's nurse but she reported this to her parents and her nurse lost her tongue, fingers and nose and was driven from the house. Arceophon then committed suicide and Arsinoe was turned to stone when she looked out her window to watch the funeral. King Glaucus, son of Sisyphus, fed his mares human flesh and forbid them from mating, insulted by this, Aphrodite drove them to eat him. In another version of the myth they eat him because he has no food left for them, or he died during a chariot race.
Psyche/Psykhe was a woman whose beauty Aphrodite was jealous of, she asked Eros to make her fall in love with a monster but fell in love with her himself. He met her at night but forbid her from seeing him, persuaded by her jealous sisters she lit a candle and he fled from her. Psyche went to Aphrodite for aid and Aphrodite set her several tasks. First to seperate grains in a day, which she does with the help of ants, then to retrieve golden wool from vicious sheep, a river god advised her to pluck it from the fence whilst the sheep slept, and then to get water from a place unreachable to humans and guarded by serpents, an eagle helped her this time. Finally, Aphrodite asks Psyche to get her a box of beauty from Persephone but Persephone, angry over Adonis, gives her a box of sleep instead. Psyche, curious, opens the box and falls asleep, Eros finds her, forgives her and awakens her and then asks Zeus to intervene so that they might be married, which they are.
Adonis was a lover of Aphrodite, created by the incestuous love between Myrrha and her father Cinyras, an affair brought about by Aphrodite's wrath. Myrrha became a tree and Aphrodite found the infant Adonis within her and gave him to Persephone to mind. When he grew up to be handsome the goddesses argued over him, Zeus decreed that he would spend a third of the year with Persephone, a third with Aphrodite and a third with whomever he desired (he chose Aphrodite). He is killed by a boar that was either a vengeful Apollo or jealous Ares in disguise, and returns to the Underworld. Zeus decrees that this time he will spend half the year with Persephone and half with Aphrodite.
Aphrodite could be kind as well as a cruel and showed favours to many. She gave the daughters of Orion, Menippe and Metioche, beauty and she took care of Cleodora and Merope when their parents died, but when she went to Zeus to sort out their marriages, the Furies took them as handmaidens. She gifted Ariadne with either a crown of stars or a jewelled crown, Corona, and she gave Andromache a headdress or veil on her wedding day, according to Homer. With Apollo she preserved Hector's body from injury. She also spirited Paris away when Menelaus defeated him battle, thus saving him from death. When Boutes/Butes, an Argonaut, succumbed to the Sirens, Aphrodite saved him and he became her lover.
Pygmalion was a man who shunned women, finding none worthy of his love. Aphrodite inspired him with a dream to sculpt a statue in the likeness of Aphrodite, which he did. He then fell in love with the statue and prayed to the goddess to bring it to life. She did and it became known as Galatea, who he married. Another version of the myth says the women of his town were angry that he was unmarried and demanded that Aphrodite make him marry, she told him he had to choose a wife but he begged her to give him time to make a statue in her likeness first. He created Galatea and asked for the statue to be his wife, Aphrodite refused until he asked to be turned into a statue, then in pity she brought the statue to life.
Aphrodite had several children. With her favoured lover Ares she had- Phobos (fear), Deimos (terror), Adrestia (vengeance), Harmonia (harmony and concord), rarely given as a child of Hephaestus, she was the wife of the hero Kadmus/Cadmus, and grandmother of Dionysus, and the Erotes. The Erotes were Eros, sometimes considered an older deity born before even the Titans, Anteros (requited love), Himeros (uncontrollable desire) and Pothos (longing).
Pindar says that with Poseidon she was the mother of Rhode/Rhodos, consort of Helios, but other sources give Amphitrite or Halia as her mother, which seems more likely given that Aphrodite cursed her brothers to rape her and her mother. She is also given another daughter with Poseidon, Herophilos/Herophilus/Herophile, a Haliade, sea nymph.
With Hermes she had Tyche (luck), though she is also given as a daughter of Okeanos and Tethys, Peitho (persuasion), Hesiod says she is an Okeanid, Eunomia (good laws), sometimes given as a daughter of Zeus and Themis, and Hermaphroditus, born a boy, the nymph Salmacis fell in love with him and asked the gods to join them, which they did.
With Dionysus she was the mother of the Charites (Aglaea ("Splendor"), Euphrosyne ("Mirth"), and Thalia ("Good Cheer")), although Zeus and Eurynome are also given as their parents, and Priapus, a minor fertility god with a permanent erection who may have been a son of Dionysus and Chione.
With Adonis she had a daughter, Beroe. With Phaethon, son of Eos, she had a son, Astynous/Astynoos, making her the great, great-grandmother of Cinyras whose daughter Myrrha she cursed to love him.
With her mortal lover Anchises she had the hero Aeneas, and Lyros, and with her other mortal lover Butes she had Eryx, a king and a boxer killed by Heracles, who is also listed as a son of Poseidon.
Some sources say that Hephaestus actually divorced her as a result of her infedelity. Hermes fell in love with her when he saw her bathing but she rejected him. Zeus helped him to seduce her by stealing one of her sandals or sending an eagle to steal it, Hermes then used the sandal as leverage. When her affair with Ares was exposed, Poseidon offered to pay her bride price, acting as a guarantor should Ares fail to pay it, Ares did but Poseidon did not gain her as wife as Hephaestus would not divorce her or fell back in love with her.
Her animals are doves, dolphins, sparrows and swans, her plants/fruits pomegranates, apples, myrtle, roses, and limes. Her symbols are the mirror, her girdle, pearl, scallop shell, and the seashell. She is usually depicted with long, golden hair, generally naked with Eros in attendance, or on her seashell rising from the sea.
Her Roman counterpart was Venus, a goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility and military victory. In a very early form she was a goddess of vegetation, vineyards and gardens. Just as Aphrodite was linked to the Levantine goddess Astarte, a goddess of fertility, sexuality and war who was worshipped in the Eastern Mediterranean, so Venus drew connections with the Etruscan goddess Turan, goddess of love and vitality. Venus was viewed as a mother goddess associated with domestic bliss, she was also the patron goddess of prostitutes.
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