Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty and lust love. There are two versions of Aphrodite's birth. According to older, Homer's version, she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione. This version was never really popular and was soon supplanted by Hesiod's richer one. According to Hesiod, Aphrodite rose out of the white foam created when Cronus castrated his father Uranus and threw his genitals into the sea (see Gaea, Uranus, Cronus). She was carried across the sea, to Cythera and then to Cyprus, by the god of the west wind, Zephyrus. There, Aphrodite was welcomed by the Themis' daughters Horae, who dressed her up, adorned her with precious jewels, and then took her to the Immortals, to Olympus.
Aphrodite's arrival to Olympus was greeted among the gods, and each one of them wanted to marry her. It was lame and ugly Hephaestus, who managed to win her for a wife. But Aphrodite wasn't faithful to her husband for a very long time. She fell in love with Ares, with whom she had sons Deimos and Phobos, and daughter Harmonia. Eros and Anteros are sometimes also mentioned as their children. The all-seeing Helios informed Hephaestus that Aphrodite was cheating on him with Ares. Hephaestus then forged an invisible net and spread it over his wife's bed. Next time when the two lovers were in Aphrodite's bed, Hephaestus closed the net over them and called all the Olympian gods to witness Aphrodite's infidelity. Only after Poseidon's intervention, did Hephaestus agree to free the lovers. Ashamed, Aphrodite left immediately to Cyprus and Ares to Thrace.
There are many legends about Aphrodite's love affairs. From the union with Hermes, she gave birth to Hermaphroditus. From the union with Dionysus, she had Priapus. Among her love affairs with mortals, the most famous are those with Adonis, Anchises, Phaethon and Butes (2). She was devoted to her lovers with all her heart, while she ruthlessly used to punish those who angered her. When she discovered that Eos, the goddess of the dawn, was in love with Ares, she punished her by turning her into a nymphomaniac (see Eos, Orion). She revenged to all descendants of the god of the sun, Helios, for his revealing of her affair with Ares. She punished the women of Lemnos, for not honouring her, by infected them with an unbearable smell, so that their husbands deserted them. On the other hand, those who obligated her, Aphrodite always protected and helped. It is best illustrated in her relationship to Paris.
To Peleus' and Thetis' wedding ceremony, all gods were invited except the goddess Eris, or Discord. Furious because of this omission, the goddess appeared in the hall where the guests were gathered, and threw a golden apple with the inscription: "For the fairest". Everyone wondered who deserved the apple, Hera, Athena or Aphrodite. Zeus then decided that the judgement should be made by a mortal. He ordered Hermes to take three goddesses to Mount Ida in Phrygia, where the Trojan prince Paris would decide which one of them was the most beautiful. Each goddess tried to bribe Paris, by promising him something. Hera promised him power, Athena promised him war glory and wisdom, while Aphrodite promised him the love of the most beautiful of all mortal women, Menelaus' wife Helen. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, and so he won the possession of Helen. These events provoked the Trojan war. In order to protect Paris, during the whole war Aphrodite was on the side of Trojans and in all battles she took care of her protege. In the duel between Paris and Menelaus, she surrounded the Trojan prince with fog and led him away from the battlefield into Helen's bedroom. While she was protecting her son Aeneas, she was wounded; only then, after Zeus' order, did she leave the battlefield. In spite of doing everything to protect the Trojans, she couldn't prevent the fall of Troy and the death of Paris. However, she managed to preserve the Trojan royal dynasty: she helped Anchises, Aeneas and Ascanius to escape the burning city of Troy and to settle down in Italy. Therefore, Aphrodite became the protectress of Rome, too.
Aphrodite's character was formed probably in Mycenaean period. Her very first characteristics were shown on her oldest cult statues, presenting her armed and wearing a helmet, or with a veil on her head and chains on her feet. As her cult spread via the sea, she was venerated as a goddess who promised good sea-trips. Her oldest cult statue in Boeotia was made, according to the legend, of the battering-rams of the ships which had brought Cadmus to Greece; therefore, she was the protectress of boatmen, too.
From the eight century BC, Aphrodite lost a majority of her functions and became solely the goddess of beauty and love. Hera borrowed the magic belt from Aphrodite, to earn Zeus' love, which shows that Aphrodite was the goddess of the love passion and instigation. In Athens, Aphrodite was worshipped in gardens, as a goddess of beauty, with flowers blooming under her feet. The myrtle was Aphrodite's sacred tree, and the dove her sacred bird.
One of the main centres of Aphrodite's cult was Paphos in Cyprus. Among her most famous sanctuaries were the temple of Cnidus in Caria and the temple on the island of Cos. She was venerated in Sparta, Sicyon, Argos, Athens and above all in Corinth, where the prostitutes of the town acted as her priestesses.
The representations of Aphrodite vary according to the character in which she was imagined. From eight century BC, statues of naked Aphrodite with a diadem on her head are well known. Since seventh century BC, the presentations of naked Aphrodite have been lost, and she has been shown dressed with some of her characteristic attributes, flowers, doves, rabbit. On black figured vases from the sixth century BC, she was shown in the scene where Paris gives the apple to the fairest goddess. From the fifth century BC, Aphrodite was often shown in sculptures. Praxiteles was very famous for the number of statues of naked Aphrodite, especially the one he made for the temple of Cnidus. Among other representations of Aphrodite are the Scopas' group in bronze, Aphrodite riding a he-goat, and Aphrodite in gardens, a statue made by one of the Phidias' students.
Beside the copies of the fifth and fourth century BC statues, in Hellenistic art new presentations appeared: Aphrodite in a sea shell, Aphrodite taking off her sandal, or Aphrodite squatting. From this period was also the Apelles' painting, Aphrodite Anadyomene, made for her temple on the island of Cos.
Among the most famous representations of Aphrodite are the statue known as Venus de Milo, and Botticelli's painting, The Birth of Venus.