Aphrodite

Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love and beauty, was known to the ancient Greeks by many names, traits, and narratives. She is aphrogenēs , the “foam-born” goddess, born from the sea spume around the severed genitals of Uranus, the primordial heaven. She is a Dios thugatēr , “daughter of Zeus,” offspring of the Olympian sky god and the sea goddess Dione. Aphrodite’s cultural heritage reveals Near Eastern, Indo-European, and Cypriot features. She is invoked as Cypris, Paphia, Cytherea, and Urania. Love and sexuality are hers: ta aphrodisia are literally “the things of Aphrodite” and refer to love and sexuality as a thematic union. She is the goddess of mixis , the “mingling” of bodies in sexual and social fusion. She is the divine source of eros , “sexual desire,” himeros , “longing,” and pothos , “yearning,” and she is accompanied by peithō , “persuasion.” Aphrodite was venerated as Pandēmos, “belonging to all the people,” and poets describe her as Philommeidēs, “smile loving.” She was especially revered by prostitutes, magistrates, and seafarers. Aphrodite is the goddess of kosmēsis , “adornment,” and she is intrinsically chruseē , “golden.” Her attributes include jewellery, floral garlands, perfume, and mirrors. The Charites, “Graces,” and Horae, “Seasons,” make up Aphrodite’s principal immortal entourage. Among mortals, Aphrodite favours the Trojans, especially her lover Anchises, her son Aeneas, and the infamous couple Helen and Paris. But Aphrodite can also be fierce when scorned, as in the tragic case of Hippolytus. Aphrodite is the Anadyomenē , the goddess who “rises up from the sea,” and her aquatic anodos is linked to her marine cult titles Pontia and Pelagia, “She of the Sea,” Euploia, “She of the Smooth Sailing,” and Limenia, “She of the Harbour.” Aphrodite was worshipped in port towns and on the tops of mountains. Seashells, swans, geese, sparrows, and doves are all sacred to her. Aphrodite’s influence extends over the intermingled realms of sky, land, and sea.