Aphrodite - ‘Rising out of the foam’

According to Hesiod Uranos, whose wife was Gaia, did not allow his children to live for fear that they would take away his power. When therefore he lay one evening in the arms of his wife, his son Kronos who had made an arrangement with her, cut off his genitals with a scythe and threw them into the sea. They floated and were washed away; thereafter foam was created around them and from that foam there emerged a girl. She was called Aphrodite, meaning 'born from the foam'; she swam off and reached Kythera first and then Cyprus. This most beautiful goddess first came out of the water onto the beach of Paphos and was thus called 'Kypris' (the Cyprian) and 'Kyprogeneia' (born on Cyprus). However, as she had also swum in the waters around Kythera she was in addition known as ' Kythereia', meaning 'the Kytheran'. Another story relates that Aphrodite was not born out of sea foam, but was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.

Irresistible Aphrodite -
 

The lawful wife of Hephaestos did not lose any opportunity for amorous adventures. The most well-known and titillating story is that of her union with Ares and the way in which Hephaestos himself exposed them while they were in bed. With Ares, Aphrodite had four children: Harmony, Deimos, Phobos and Eros. Apart from her own perfidies, however, she took care never to leave others in peace but aroused in them lust for amorous relationships. She was desired by all and her only enemies were Athena, Artemis and Hestia, the two latter goddesses because of their eternal virginity and Hestia because she was the protectoress of marriage. Above all she liked to arouse Zeus' lust for mortal women. In order to stop her from doing this, Zeus caused her to fall in love with the mortal Anchises. Apart from Zeus. Aphrodite threw many into the web of love in order to wreak her revenge on them. Thus she condemned Eos. who had dared to lay with Ares, to be on a constant search for new lovers. She did the same with the daughters of Kinyras on Cyprus, making them give themselves to strangers who came to the island.

While Anchises was pasturing his sheep on Ida in the Troad, Aphrodite saw him from afar and was captivated by his beauty. She went, therefore, to Cyprus, dressed and perfumed herself, took the form of a mortal and appeared in front of him. Even though Anchises immediately realized that she was a god, she assured him that she was mortal and the daughter of Otreus, king of Phrygia. She said that she had been sent by Hermes to be his wife. Thus the passions of Anchises were aroused and he immediately lay with her. Anchises then slept on sweetly, until Aphrodite assumed her true form and awakened him. She told him the truth and that the child that would be born of their union was to be called Aeneas, who would rule in Troy.
 

She made Myrra or Smyrna, daughter of king Theias, fall in love with her own father because she had neglected to worship her like all the other goddesses. The daughter, who could not hold back her passion, conspired with her nurse and went to her father’s bed every evening. When the latter realized what had happened, he went to kill her. She ran away to escape and implored the gods to save her; thus they transformed her into a bush., the well-known myrtle. Several months later, a beautiful child issued forth from the myrtle - this was Adonis. Aphrodite took the child and brought it to Persephone for her to bring it up. Persephone fell in love with Adonis, and so did Aphrodite. In order to prevent them from fighting Zeus decided that he could spend one third of the year with one goddess, one third with the other, and for the last third he could do what he liked. Not much time had passed, however, before Adonis, who was out hunting and attacked by a wild boar, was killed. A tearful Aphrodite begged Aphrodite begged Persephone to allow him to come to the upper world for half of the year. She did so, and as a result was worshipped as the god of vegetation, regeneration, and spring.
 

Aphrodite had one son with Poseidon, who was called Erykas and became king of Sicily. She also had one daughter, Rhodos, who gave her name to the island. Aphrodite also fell in love with Dionysos and bore him Priapos, the ugly god of fertility. It was not impossible, some said, that Priapos was the son of Adonis, fathered by him when Dionysos was away on a distant campaign.
 

Mistress Dometria