Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? View source. History Talk 0. According to Hesiod and the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite, the goddess after rising from the foam first approached the island of Cythera, and thence went to Cyprus. As she was walking on the sea-coast flowers sprang up under her feet, and Eros and Himeros accompanied her to the assembly of the other great gods, all of whom were struck with admiration and love when she appeared, and her surpassing beauty made every one desire to have her for his wife.
According to the cosmogonic views of the nature of Aphrodite, she was the personification of the generative powers of nature, and the mother of all living beings. A trace of this notion seems to be contained in the tradition that in the contest of Typhon with the gods, Aphrodite metamorphosed herself into a fish, which animal was considered to possess the greatest generative powers.
Ancient mythology furnishes numerous instances in which Aphrodite punished those who neglected her worship or despised her power, as well as others in which she favored and protected those who did homage to her and recognized her sway. Love and beauty are ideas essentially connected, and Aphrodite was therefore also the goddess of beauty and gracefulness.
In these points she surpassed all other goddesses, and she received the prize of beauty from Paris ; she had further the power of granting beauty and invincible charms to others.
Youth is the herald, and Peitho , the Horae , and Charites , the attendants and companions of Aphrodite. During the Trojan war, Aphrodite, the mother of Aeneas , who had been declared the most beautiful of all the goddesses by a Trojan prince, naturally sided with the Trojans.
She saved Paris from his contest with Menelaus , 9 but when she endeavored to rescue her darling Aeneas from the fight, she was pursued by Diomedes , who wounded her in her hand. In her fright she abandoned her son, and was carried by Iris in the chariot of Ares to Olympus , where she complained of her misfortune to her mother Dione, but was laughed at by Hera and Athena.
According to the most common accounts of the ancients, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus , 12 who, however, is said in the Iliad 13 to have married Charis. Her faithlessness to Hephaestus in her amour with Ares, and the manner in which she was caught by the ingenuity of her husband, are beautifully described in the Odyssey. By the first she was, according to some traditions, the mother of Priapus 16 and Bacchus , 17 by the second of Hermaphroditus , 18 and by Poseidon she had two children, Rhodos and Herophilus.
This was accomplished, and Aphrodite conceived an invincible passion for Anchises , by whom she became the mother of Aeneas and Lyrus. Respecting her connexions with other mortals see Adonis and Butes. Aphrodite possessed a magic girdle which had the power of inspiring love and desire for those who wore it; hence it was borrowed by Hera when she wished to stimulate the love of Zeus. When she was represented as the victorious goddess, she had the attributes of Ares, a helmet, a shield, a sword: or a lance, and an image of Victory in one hand.
The planet Venus and the spring-month of April were likewise sacred to her. The principal places of her worship in Greece were the islands of Cyprus and Cythera. About The Illustrator. Glass House Graphics. Product Details. Resources and Downloads. Get a FREE ebook by joining our mailing list today! By clicking 'Sign me up' I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the privacy policy and terms of use. Must redeem within 90 days.
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