Aphrodite, (Venus) was the Goddess of Love and Beauty, who beguiled all, gods and men alike; the laughter-loving goddess, who laughed sweetly or mockingly at those her wiles had conquered; the irresistible goddess who stole away even the wits of the wise. She is the daughter of Zeus and Dione in the Iliad, but the later poems she is said to have sprung from the foam of the sea, and her name was explained as meaning "the foam risen." Aphros is foam in Greek. This sea birth took place near Cythera, from where she was wafted to Cyprus. Both islands were forever after sacred to her, and she was called Cytherea or the Cyprian as often as by her proper name.

     The Romans thought of her in the same way. With her, beauty comes. The winds flee before her and the storm clouds; sweet flowers embroider the earth; the waves of the sea laugh; she moves in radiant light. Without her there is not joy or loveliness anywhere. This is the picture the poets like best to paint of her.

     But she had another side too. It was natural that she should cut a poor figure in the Iliad, where the battle of heroes is the theme. She is a soft, weak creature there, whom a mortal need not fear to attack. In later poems she is usually shown as treacherous and malicious, exerting a deadly and destructive power over men.

     In most of the stories she is the wife of Hephaestus (Vulcan), the lame and ugly god of the forge. The Greeks often combined beauty with something repulsive. She and a mortal Trojan, Anchises, were the parents of Aeneas, the Trojan who survived the fall of Troy.

     The month of April was held sacred to her, for then the flowers bud and plants shoot, a time Greek myths say Adonis, Aphrodite's most handsome, favorite mortal, comes back from the underworld. The dove was her bird; also, sometimes, the sparrow and the swan. Other symbols of Aphrodite include the ram, hare, and tortoise. The rose is her flower, the myrtle her sacred tree, and the apple her fruit.

The Olympians main page	Final Olympians Assignment
Zeus (Jupiter) Poseidon (Neptune) Hades (Pluto) Hestia (Vesta) Hera (Juno) Ares (Mars)	Athena (Minerva) Apollo Artemis (Diana) Aphrodite (Venus) Hephaestus (Vulcan) Hermes (Mercury)

ACTIVITIES:
Aphrodite activity

KEY TEST WORDS:
Aphrodite, Venus, Dione, Aphros, foam of the sea, Cythera, Cyprus, Hephaestus, Anchises, Aeneas, Adonis, dove, sparrow, swan, ram, hare, rose, myrtle, apple.

The Olympians

The Lesser Deities

Footnotes:
The scene of her birth from the sea was represented by Pheidias, on the base of the statue of Zeus at Olympia, as taking place in presence of the gods of Olympus, she is being received by Eros, who elsewhere is called her son. One of the most famous pictures of Apelles represented her as rising out of the sea. To indicate her connection with Ares she was represented as Venus Victrix, standing with one foot on a helmet and with both arms raising a shield. Of this type are the Venus of Capua and the Venus of Milo.

SOURCES:
Jane Smith
Edith Hamilton's Mythology
Bulfinch's Mythology
Manual of Mythology by Alexander S. Murray.