95 Beautiful Facts About Aphrodite

95 Beautiful Facts About Aphrodite 

• 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.
• Because a wild boar was said to have killed Adonis, a mortal that Aphrodite loved, the ancient Greeks would not sacrifice a pig to her.
• A sculptor named Pygmalion fell in love with a sculpture he created and Aphrodite made the sculpture come alive for him.
• Aphrodite's children included Eros (cupid), Aeneas, Phobos, Priapus, Deimos, Eunomia, Harmonia, Eryx, Pothos, Rhode, Anteros, Hermaphroditos, and Himeros.
• Aphrodite fell in love with Adonis, a mortal, when he was born and sent Persephone to raise him and care for him as he grew up. Once he was grown, both Aphrodite and Persephone wanted him. Zeus determined that Adonis should spend half of each year with the women, so they could share him instead of fight over him.
• Aphrodite’s weakness is her vanity, in that when someone is more beautiful than her she curses or kills them. Myrrha was the daughter of King Cinyras of Cyprus. She was cursed by Aphrodite with an incurable lust for her father after Myrrha’s mother boasted that her daughter’s beauty was a match to the goddess of love. Myrhha tricked and seduced her own father and they conceived Adonis. When the king found out it was his own daughter he was enraged and tried to kill Myrrha. She fled from her father and asked the gods to punish her. Aphrodite pitied the princess and turned her into a myrrh tree.
• Aphrodite saw Adonis when he was born and determined that he should be hers. Later, Aphrodite became Adonis’ lover. Persephone, goddess of the underworld and Adonis’ caretaker fell in love with him too and would not give him back, leading to a feud with Aphrodite. Zeus mediated and decided that Adonis should spend half the year with each to settle the quarrel. Adonis and Aphrodite had two children: Beroe and Golgos.
• In ancient Cyprus, there was a large cult following of Aphrodite. The place of worship was just around the purported Cyprian Island that the mythological stories said she emerged from.
• The story of Aphrodite and her marriage to Hephaestus (the deformed Greek god of fire and forges) was probably the biggest inspiration to stories such as Beauty and the Beast.
• In some rare mythological stories, she has been considered the daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. This will make her the cousin of Zeus.
• The word “Erotic” comes from the name of Aphrodite’s offspring, Eros, the goddess of love.
• After Christianity started to gain a foothold in the Greco-Roman world, Aphrodite was relegated to unsavory practices and prostitution.
• Aphrodite's duty was simply to be beautiful. She was the goddess of love, beauty, desire, passion, fertility, and sexuality.
• Aphrodite had many male partners including Phaeton, Phaon, Butes, Anchises, Nerites, Ares, Dionysus, Hermes, Poseidon, and Adonis.
• Aphrodite was one of the 12 gods of Olympus. The other 11 included Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Hephaestus (Aphrodite's husband), Ares, and Hermes.
• Aphrodite's symbols include the swan, the dove, scallop shell, apple, mirror, and roses.
• Aphrodite's mode of transportation was a flying chariot pulled by sparrows.
• Aphrodite had a girdle that was capable of making others fall in love with whoever wore it. Hera was known to borrow the belt on occasion.
• In the poem Odyssey by Homer, she is caught in the act of adultery with Ares, the god of war. Hephaestus calls the other gods for them to see the adulterers.
• The god of the sea, Poseidon, then sees the goddess naked and falls in love with Aphrodite. They have a daughter named Rhode, protector goddess of the island of Rhodes in Greek mythology.
• Ares and Aphrodite conceived as many as eight children: Deimos, Phobos, Harmonia, Adrestia and the four Erotes (Eros, Anteros, Pothos and Himeros).
• She also had an affair with the mortal Anchises, a Trojan. She seduced him and slept with him and the two of them conceived Aeneas.
• The shrine at Pandemos is considered one of the oldest shrines dedicated to Aphrodite. There was a famous inscription dedicated to Aphrodite Pandemos (a goddess that managed the love between men and women). The inscription, which dates as far back as 230 BCE, reads as “Aphrodite who is Common to all the People”. A number of historians strongly believe that the roots of Athenian democracy can be traced to the very early Aphrodite Pandemos cults in places like Paphos and Amthus in Cyprus.
• Close to the island of Cyprus, there is a rock called the Aphrodite Rock. The rock is believed by many as the exact birthplace of Aphrodite.
• In Sparta, she is perceived slightly as the goddess of war. Pictures of her sometimes depict her in military gear and stance. In Corinth, the story is almost the same. The city’s inhabitants considered her the defender of the city. She was also the patroness of the city. The reason she has been seen in that light is because of her association with Ares, the god of war.
• Her association to sea travel and maritime stems from her second origin story. Furthermore, the ancient Romans believed that the planet Venus best symbolized the goddess Aphrodite. This was because Venus proved very useful in guiding sailors on the sea.
• It angered Eros so he flew away. Psyche tried to look for her lost love and sought help from Aphrodite where she underwent impossible tasks to win Eros back.
• Eros couldn’t bear to see Psyche suffering and admitted that he couldn’t live without her.
• Psyche reunited with Eros and the lovers were married in a ceremony attended by all the gods.
• Aphrodite is said to be very beautiful and charming and, in some stories, is described as being jealous, mischievous and vain. In pop culture, we see her in many books, movies, and plays, particularly in Rick Riordan’s book series Percy Jackson and The Heroes of Olympus. She is also seen in animated children’s series such as Hercules where she makes a number of appearances.
• As the goddess of love, she has absolute control over the emotions of love and desire. She is responsible for creating love between mortals. People believe Aphrodite helps them find true love.
• Aphrodite's name is the origin of the word aphrodisiac. Her Roman name Venus is the origin of the word venereal.
• Aphrodite is also referred to as the Lady of Cyprus. She was also called Acidalia, Cytherea, and Cerigo.
• Aphrodite was capable of making a couple fall in love again if they were fighting.
• Aphrodite won a beauty contest against Athena and Hera, by providing Paris, a mortal, with a promise of love from Helen, the most beautiful mortal woman in the world. However, when Paris collected Helen from her Greek husband Menelaus (the king of Sparta), the Trojan War started. The prize of the contest was a golden apple marked 'For the Fairest'.
• A man named Glaucus once insulted Aphrodite. She fed his horses magic water which caused them to turn on him during a chariot race, crushing him, and then eating him. Most of the time however Aphrodite was kind and loving.
• According to the second story, however, Aphrodite rose from the foam of the sea.
• 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 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 and Cupid initiated the love between Jason (hero of the Quest of the Golden Fleece) and the daughter of the Colchian King.
• The etymology of Aphrodite’s name stems from the word “Foam”. In some cases, it is interpreted to mean “risen from the foam”.
• Greek goddess Aphrodite
• Temple of Aphrodite at Aphrodisias, Caria, Turkey
• After her wedding to Hephaestus (the Greek god of fire and forges), Aphrodite received several stunning pieces of jewelry (forged by Hephaestus himself) from her new husband. The most famous of the jewel pieces was the magical girdle.
• In some tellings and accounts, Aphrodite’s lover, Adonis, was killed by Ares (Greek god of war) out of jealousy. Ares turned into a boar and attacked Adonis while the latter was on a hunting expedition.
• The Aphrodisia Festival was a very famous Athenian celebration that was done to honor Aphrodite and Peitho (the deity of persuasion). During the festival, people from all social, political, and economic classes came together and intermingled with one another. It was a period where social classes or status were set aside, allowing people to freely interact and share ideas.
• In some accounts in Roman mythology, her mortal son, Aeneas, was regarded as the founder of ancient Rome.
• Aphrodite was such an influential goddess that her charms proved irresistible to virtually all the gods and goddesses on Mt. Olympus. The few Olympian deities that could resist her charms were the virgin goddesses Athena, Artemis, and Hestia.
• Aphrodite’s mode of transportation is a flying chariot pulled by sparrows.
• Aphrodite has been featured in western art as a symbol of female beauty and has appeared in numerous works of western literature.
• Early Greek art depicted the goddess as nude and as asymmetrically perfect maiden. She was the model for the famous sculpture, Venus de Milo, by Alexandros of Antioch.
• As with so many Greek deities, there are many stories about the origins of the gods. Homer and Hesiod tell two different stories about the origin of Aphrodite.
• According to Homer’s Iliad, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione, making her a second-generation goddess.
• However, according to the Greek poet Hesiod’s Theogony, Aphrodite was born from the foam produced by Uranus’ genitals on the coast of Cythera, after his son Cronus has castrated him and thrown it into the sea. Where Aphrodite supposedly arose is called “The one who rises from the sea.”
• Aphrodite’s name is derived from the ancient Greek word “aphros”, meaning sea-foam, which fits with the story of her birth.
• In Plato’s Symposium, he suggests that they are two different entities: Aphrodite Ourania, signifying “heavenly” or “spiritual”, and Aphrodite Pandemos, meaning “Aphrodite of the people” or “common Aphrodite”, the goddess of sensual pleasures.
• Aphrodite is also referred to as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) or Cypris (Lady of Cyprus). In ancient Greece, they held an annual festival called the Aphrodisia Festival to honor the goddess of love and beauty.
• Aphrodite’s beauty was believed to spark a war of the gods because of their rivalry over her.
• In Greek mythology, Zeus married Aphrodite to Hephaestus because he feared that her beauty would cause a war between the gods for her affection. Hephaestus is the god of fire and blacksmiths and the ugliest among the Olympians. However, Aphrodite was known to be unfaithful to him and had many affairs. Her lovers included both gods and men.
• Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena joined a contest called, “For the Fairest.” They asked the son of the King of Troy, Paris, to judge the contest. All three of them bribed the judge to win the contest. Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful girl in the world if he chose her, so, naturally, he did.
• Aphrodite made sure that Paris got Helen, which was considered to be the reason behind the decade-long Trojan War.
• Psyche was a mortal princess whose extraordinary beauty earned the ire of Aphrodite when men began to admire and worship her. Aphrodite was jealous of all the attention people paid to Psyche. As a goddess, she could not accept it and sought help from her son, Eros, the god of Love.
• Aphrodite asked him to use his power to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest creature on Earth, but he instead fell in love and carried her off to his hidden palace. Eros told Psyche she must never gaze upon his face, but she was tricked by her jealous sisters into disobeying.
• Aphrodite takes the form of a young, slender, beautiful woman. In marketing and advertising, products are often named after Aphrodite to entice consumers into believing the products will make them more beautiful and desirable.

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