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"Do you not see how mighty is the goddess
Aphrodite? She sows and gives that love from which all we upon this
earth are born." [Nurse of Phaedra.
Euripides, Hippolytus
450]
"Mighty the victory which Aphrodite bears
away." [Sophocles, Trachiniae
497] |
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Aphrodite is in charge of wedlock and the tender passions.
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Birth |
[See notes below under Parentage.] |
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Hephaestus
|
Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus
[Vir.Aen.8.372; QS.2.139], the god of smiths, who discovered
the ways of working copper, iron, silver and gold. Hephaestus,
who is lame in the legs because Zeus cast
him out from Heaven causing his fall to the island of Lemnos,
is one of the Olympian
gods and the fatherless son of Hera, the
queen of Heaven, or perhaps the son of Zeus and Hera
[Apd.1.3.5; Hes.The.929ff.; Hom.Il.1.571]. Aphrodite
and Hephaestus
never had children. |
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Love affair with Ares
|
This couple was not a happy one, for Aphrodite loved Ares, the
god of war and warriors, and they lay in the house of Hephaestus
whenever the god-smith was away. But Helius,
the sun-god who sees everything, warned Hephaestus
who, with a clever device of his own invention, trapped the two
naked lovers in bed, exposing them to the laughter of the other gods
[Hom.Od.8.260; Hyg.Fab.148].
Aphrodite had three children by Ares:
Deimos, Phobus 1 (Fear and Panic) and Harmonia 1 [for Harmonia 1 see
Robe &
Necklace of Harmonia 1]. The first two children appear usually
in battles causing disorder among the ranks of soldiers
[Hes.The.933; Hom.Il.9.4]. Their daughter Harmonia 1
married Cadmus, a
Phoenician prince who came to Boeotia and founded Thebes
[Apd.3.4.2; Hes.The.975]. Cadmus
and Harmonia 1 started, thus, the Royal House of Thebes,
and had four daughters and one son, Polydorus 2, who became king of
Thebes
after his father. One of their daughters, Ino, became a sea-goddess
and was, since then, called Leucothoe [Apd.1.9.1-2;
Hyg.Fab.224; Pin.Oly.2.30]. Another daughter, Semele,
was loved by Zeus and
became the mother of Dionysus
2, the vine-god [Apd.3.4.3; Hes.The.949]. When Cadmus
and Harmonia 1 died they were first turned into serpents and then
sent to the Elysian
Fields, which is the abode of the happy immortals [Apd.3.5.4].
Sometimes it is said that Harmonia 1 was nursed by Electra 3, one of
the PLEIADES,
the daughters of Atlas, but
some say that, in reality, Harmonia 1 was the daughter of Zeus and
Electra 3 [Dio.5.48.2]. |
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Dionysus
2 |
Some say that Aphrodite and Dionysus
2 had a son and that his name was Priapus.
But others say that Priapus'
mother was not Aphrodite but a Nymph [Strab.13.1.12], while yet
others say that Priapus'
father was Hermes
without mentioning his mother [Hyg.Fab.160]. Priapus
is a phallic deity. He is said to have contended with an ass (the
saddle-ass of the Satyr Silenus,
adviser and instructor of Dionysus
2 [Dio.4.4.3]) "on a matter of physique" (the size of their
members), or that the same ass prevented him from loving either
Lotis, a Nymph, or Hestia
[Dio.5.68.1; Apd.1.1.5; Cic.ND 2.67; Pin.Nem 11.1],
the first-born of the OLYMPIANS
and guardian of altars, hearths and States [Hyg.Ast.2.23;
Ov.Fast.1.415ff., 6.335ff.]. Lotis is said to have turned
into the flower lotus while fleeing from Priapus
[Ov.Met.9.347]. |
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Hermes
|
Also Hermes,
an Olympian god who leads the soul of the dead to Hades
and is the messenger and herald of Zeus, loved
Aphrodite and they had a child called Hermaphroditus
or sometimes Atlantius. Hermaphroditus
was so much loved by a Naiad (water-nymph) called Salmacis that
their bodies were united in one [Ov.Met.4.288ff.;
Hyg.Fab.271]. |
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Anchises
1
[Anchises 2 is father of Echepolus 2, a Sicyonian] |
Hephaestus,
Ares, Hermes
and Dionysus
2 are the gods who loved Aphrodite. But she was also loved by
mortal men. One of them was Anchises
1, king of Dardania, a region near the city of Troy. It is
said that Zeus killed
him with a thunderbolt for having told, over wine, about
his affair with Aphrodite, or that he committed suicide for unknown
reasons [Hyg.Fab.94]. But it is also said that he died in
exile [Vir.Aen.3.709].
Anchises
1 and Aphrodite had two sons (some add one daughter): Aeneas
and Lyrus [Apd.3.12.2; Hom.Il.2.819-821, 5.311-313;
Hes.The.1008-1010ff.]. Very little is known about Lyrus,
except that he died childless. Aeneas
defended Troy during
the war and when the city fell he took his father with him and went
into exile. Aeneas
loved Queen Dido of
Carthage and he established the kingdoms of Lavinium and Alba Longa
in Italy, predecessors of the Roman power [see also Throne
Succession from Troy to Rome]. The circumstances of Aeneas'
death have not been well established. He is said to have
mysteriously disappeared after a battle [DH.1.64.4], to have died in
Italy without further detail, or even to have died in Thrace, the
region between the Black and Aegean seas, without ever reaching
Italy [DH.1.49.1-2]. |
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Phaethon 1
[Phaethon 2 is one of Eos' steeds
and Phaethon
3 is the son of Helius]
|
Phaethon 1 was a boy "in the tender flower of glorious youth"
when he was ravished by Aphrodite [Hes.The.986]. According to
some he was the son of Tithonus 2 [Apd.3.14.3], son of Cephalus 2,
but some say that Cephalus 2 was Phaethon 1's father [Pau.1.3.1;
Hes.The.986]. In any case with the ravishing of Phaethon 1 a
familiar tradition was firmly established, because both Tithonus 1
(founder of Susa [Apd.3.12.14; Nonn.15.279]) and Cephalus 2 had been
carried off by Eos
(Cephalus 2 to Syria). Cephalus 2's wife and Phaethon 1's mother is
said to have been either Eos (Dawn)
or Hemera (Day). In spite of this common trait of abducting lovers,
or because of it, Aphrodite did not like Eos
particularly, and she caused her to be perpetually in love because
Eos had
lain with Ares
[Apd.1.4.4]. |
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Adonis
|
Adonis'
mother (Smyrna, according to some) loved her own father, and with
the complicity of her nurse lay with him. When he discovered her, he
pursued her with a sword and being overtaken she asked to the gods
that she might become invisible; so the gods out of compassion
turned her into the tree called smyrna (myrrh). Ten months
afterwards the tree burst and Adonis
was born. He was so beautiful that, while still a boy, Aphrodite hid
him in a chest and entrusted it to Persephone,
the queen of the Underworld.
But when Persephone beheld his beauty, she would not give him back.
The case was tried before Zeus and Zeus
decided to divide the year into three parts, so that Adonis
should stay by himself for one part of the year, with Persephone
for one part, and with Aphrodite for the remainder. But Adonis
gave to Aphrodite his own share of time [Apd.3.14.4].
But sometimes it is said that Adonis
was the child of Cinyras
1 & Metharme, who was the daughter of that king of Cyprus,
Pygmalion
1, who fell in love with a statue of his own making, which was
given life by Aphrodite. It is also said that Smyrna's father was
not Cinyras
1 but Thias, king of Assyria, and that it was with him that she
committed incest. Thias himself committed suicide when he learned
what had happened. Yet others say that Adonis'
father was Phoenix 1, the brother of Europa
after whom Phoenicia was called (the same Europa
that was carried off by Zeus, who
had taken the form of a bull), and that the name of his mother was
Alphesiboea 2 [Apd.3.14.3; Lib.Met.34].
Aphrodite and Adonis
had a daughter, whose name was Beroe 5 (also called Amymone 2),
though sometimes she is said to be the daughter of the TITANS Oceanus
and Tethys [Nonn.41.153-155, 42.66]. The city Berytos (Beyrut) in
Lebanon was called after her. When Beroe 5 was born Aphrodite went
to visit the Allmother Harmonia 3, Nurse of the world, asking her
whether the gift of Justice would be assigned to the city of her own
daughter Beroe 5. Later both Poseidon
and Dionysus
2 fell in love with Beroe 5 and had to fight for her, but it was
Poseidon
who won her love [Nonn.41.318ff., 41.367, 42.40ff., 42.506ff.,
43.394].
However Adonis
was attacked by a boar and killed, they say through the anger of Artemis,
the virgin Olympian goddess, protectress of hunters [Apd.3.14.4;
Hyg.Fab.248]. |
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Butes 1 |
Butes 1 was the son of Teleon and Zeuxippe 1. His mother was the
daughter of the river-god Eridanus (a fabulous river sometimes
identified with the Po, the Nile, the Milky way, or the Ocean that
surrounds the world) [Apd.1.9.24, 2.5.11; Arg.4.506, 4.596,
4.610, 4.623, 4.628; Ov.Met.2.324, 2.372; Nonn.2.327, 11.32,
11.310, 19.185, 22.89, 23.244, 23.251, 38.94, 38.100, 38.411,
38.431, 42.420, 43.414; Hyg.Fab.152a, 154; Dio.5.23.3].
Butes 1 joined Jason and
the ARGONAUTS,
who sailed in the vessel "Argo" to Colchis in the Caucasus to bring
the Golden Fleece, which was in the power of King Aeetes.
As the ARGONAUTS
sailed past the SIRENS
(who destroy sailors after attracting them with their enchanting
voices), Butes 1 could not be restrained by Orpheus'
counter-melody and he swam off to the SIRENS.
But Aphrodite intervened and, carrying him away, settled him in
Lilybaeum, which is in western Sicily [Apd.1.9.25]. A Sicilian king
called Eryx 1, who was killed by Heracles
1 in a wrestling-match, is said to be the son of Butes 1 &
Aphrodite, but some say that he was the son of Poseidon
without naming his mother [Apd.2.5.10; Dio.4.23.2]. |
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Eros
|
Aphrodite is sometimes considered to be the mother of Eros (Love)
[Hyg.Ast.2.30; Nonn.33.56], but this is a most disputed matter. Eros is
often considered one of the first to have come into being. It has
been said that there was no race of immortals until Eros caused
all things to mingle, and that Nyx (Night)
laid an Egg in Erebus (the Darkness of the Underworld)
and in time Eros was
born [Ari.Birds.683ff.]. According to others, Eros was
one of the first to be born out of Chaos
[Hes.The.116ff.], the kind of void that was the original
state of the universe. Some say that not Aphrodite but Ilithyia
[Pau.9.27.2], the goddess of childbirth, daughter of Zeus and Hera, was
his mother. But still others say that Zephyrus 1
(the West Wind) was his father and Iris 1
(the rainbow, a heavenly messenger) his mother [Nonn.31.111]. And
there are also those who say that he was born out of Chronos
(Time), who is said to be the same as the Titan Cronos,
father of the first OLYMPIANS,
and identify him with Phanes 1, who was considered to be the
first-born and eternal god [AO.12.16; Cic.ND.2.64;
Nonn.9.142, 9.157, 12.34, 19.207]. Eros and
Psyche
(Soul) loved each other, but she was not supposed to see the lover
who was visiting her by night [Apuleius, The
Golden Ass].
Aphrodite is also said to be the mother of Anteros [see Eros ], who
is the avenging spirit of spurned love [Pau.1.30.1;
Ov.Fast.4.1]. |
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Some interventions of Aphrodite:
Aphrodite's interventions are innumerable, as she often is
involved whenever love and its retinue of passions, including
jealousy, appear. Here are recalled some circumstances in which
Aphrodite played a more complex role: |
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Helping young people in love |
Aphrodite would often help young people in love: Atalanta,
a virgin huntress who remained always under arms, used to force her
wooers to race before her and if she caught them she would put them
to death, but if anybody would survive she would marry him. But
Melanion came to the race bringing the golden apples that Aphrodite
had given him. He dropped the apples as he was running, and because
Atalanta
could not help to pick up the fruit she was beaten in the race
[Apd.3.9.2; Hyg.Fab.185]. |
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Punishes those who do not honour her |
But Aphrodite could be harsh toward those who defied her: Theseus,
king of Athens
and Troezen,
had a son by an Amazon, Hippolytus 4, who would not worship
Aphrodite, and thus aroused the goddess wrath against himself.
Aphrodite made Phaedra,
daughter of Minos 2,
king of Crete, and
Theseus'
young wife, to fall in love with her stepson. In the drama that
followed both Phaedra
and Hippolytus 4 lost their lives [Euripides, Hippolytus
]. |
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Punishes Lemnian women |
Because the Lemnian women did not honour her, she caused their
husbands to consort with Thracian women. When the ARGONAUTS
came to Lemnos
the island was then ruled by women and the queen was Hypsipyle.
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The Judgement of Paris
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The "Judgement of Paris" is
perhaps the intervention of Aphrodite who had most dramatic
consequences. Eris
(Discord) was not invited to the wedding of Peleus
and Thetis. Therefore she threw an apple as a prize of beauty to be
contended for by Hera, Athena
and Aphrodite. Following Zeus'
decision the three goddesses were led by Hermes to
Mount Ida (near Troy) in
order to be judged by Paris. It
was Aphrodite who succeeded in bribing Paris
promising him the hand of Helen, who
was married to Menelaus,
king of Sparta.
In that way Aphrodite won the apple of Eris, Paris the
hand of Helen, and
the world the Trojan
War [Eur.Hel.24; Ov.Fast.4.121;
Apd.Ep.3.1ff.; Col.39, 64ff.; Hdt.2.113-120; Apd.3.12.5-6;
Eur.IA.468; Lib.Met.11; Hyg.Fab.92; Nonn.20.35,
39.385] |
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Some interventions during the Trojan
War |
During the Trojan
War Aphrodite helped the Trojans as much as she could,
protecting Paris and
even saving his life [Hom.Il.3.384ff.]. In helping her loved
ones she could even endanger herself as when she saved Aeneas in
battle and was wounded by Diomedes
2 [Hom.Il.5.310ff., 5.375]. On another occasion she was
knocked down by Athena
because of having aided her beloved Ares
[Hom.Il.21.405ff.]. But Aphrodite's devotion to love was
stronger than her strategic considerations: When Hera, for
the sake of helping the Achaeans in the Trojan
War, wished to keep Zeus from
the battles, she received Aphrodite's help in the form of her magic
belt, and so she could distract him with the belt's and her own
charms [Hom.Il.14.154ff.]. |
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Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos |
One guest in Plato's Symposium
distinguished two Aphrodite, though more as philosophical reflection
than mythological account. The elder, Aphrodite Urania
(Heavenly), he called the daughter of Uranus,
of no mother born, and the younger he called Aphrodite
Pandemos (Common), daughter of Zeus and
Dione. These two Aphrodite stand respectively for a nobler and
meaner kind of love.
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Parentage [three versions] |
Mates |
Offspring |
Notes |
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Zeus
& Dione 1 |
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Uranus' Genitals.- |
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Egg 2.- |
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Homer, among others, believed that Aphrodite was the
daughter of Zeus
and Dione 1 [Apd.1.3.1; Hom.Il 5.370ff.;
Hom.Aph.5.81; Nonn 31.210; AO. 1323;
Eur.Hel.1098]. Who this Dione was is not quite clear.
She could be one of the daughters of Uranus
(Sky) and Gaia
(Earth) [Apd.1.1.3], thus a kind of Titaness, or she could be
an Oceanid, that is a daughter of the TITANS
Oceanus
and Tethys [Hes.The.350ff.]. Less probable alternatives
are a Nereid also called Dione, daughter of the sea-god Nereus
and the Oceanid Doris [Apd.1.2.7], or another Dione, daughter
of the Titan Atlas,
who married Tantalus
1 (he who is still being punished in the Underworld)
and became mother of Pelops
1, after whom the Peloponnessus was named
[Hyg.Fab.82, 83; Pau.3.22.4; Ov.Met. 6.172].
The most famous story about Aphrodite's birth is the one
told by Hesiod [Theogony
189ff.], who said that she had sprung from the foam (aphros in
Greek [Plato, Cratylus
406D]) that gathered round the severed genitals of Uranus
(Sky) as they floated in the sea. These had been cut off with
an adamantine sickle and thrown into the sea by the Titan Cronos
during the TITANS'
Revolt against their father Uranus
[Theogony
159ff.]. Hesiod's account of Aphrodite's birth makes her the
most ancient of the Olympian
gods.
Egg 2 was an egg of wonderful size that is said to have
fallen into the Euphrates River. The fish rolled it to the
bank and doves sat on it, and when it was heated it hatched
out Aphrodite [Hyg.Fab.197], later called Syrian
Goddess. This is why the Syrians do not eat fish or doves,
considering them as gods.
One guest in Plato's Symposium
distinguished two Aphrodite, though more as philosophical
reflection than mythological account. The elder, Aphrodite
Urania (Heavenly), he called the daughter of Uranus,
of no mother born, and the younger he called Aphrodite
Pandemos (Common), daughter of Zeus
and Dione. These two Aphrodite stand respectively for a nobler
and meaner kind of love [Plato Symposium
180D; Pau.1.14.7, 1.19.2, 1.22.3]
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Lyrus |
For Lyrus see main text above. |
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Harmonia 1 |
See Robe
& Necklace of Harmonia 1. |
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Deimos |
For these two see main text above and Ares.
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Phobus 1 | |
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unknown |
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Anteros |
See Eros.
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Phaethon 1 |
Astynous 1 |
Astynous 1 was father of Sandocus who emigrated from Syria to
Cilicia and founded a city, Celenderis. Sandocus is sometimes called
father of Cinyras
1, the founder of Paphos in Cyprus [Apd.3.14.3] |
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Priapus
is a phallic deity. When Dionysus
2 was afflicted with madness, he came to a large swamp which he
could not cross. He was then met by two Asses and one of them
carried him across the water so that he could reach a temple of Zeus. When
Dionysus
2 came to the temple he was freed at once from his madness and,
feeling gratitude for the Asses he put them among the stars (Asellus
Borealis and Asellus Australis in Cancer) and gave human voice to
the Ass which had carried him. This Ass is said to be the saddle-ass
of Silenus,
a Satyr adviser and instructor of Dionysus
2 [see Gigantomachy
for the role of these Asses in the fight against the GIANTS].
Later this Ass met Priapus
and had a dispute with him on a matter of physique (supposedly the
size of their members). But some say the trouble Priapus
had with the Ass was of another nature. He was quietly approaching
the Nymph Lotis as she slept, and the Ass, by giving out an
ill-timed roar, prevented Priapus
from making love to her. Lotis escaped and turned into the flower
called Lotus, but Priapus,
enraged, killed the Ass. However sometimes it is said that Priapus
tried to rape not Lotis but Hestia,
during a feast to which Cybele had invited both SATYRS
and NYMPHS.
To this rural party came also Silenus
with his Ass, though he was not invited.
Priapus
is sometimes called son of Hermes,
and at other times son of Dionysus
2 & Nymph 21.
Other deities resembling Priapus
are the Attic Conisalus, Orthanes and Tychon. |
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Butes 1 |
Eryx 1 |
See main text above. |
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Beroe 5 |
See main text above. | |
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Sources
Abbreviations
|
AO.12, 16, 1323; Apd.1.1.3, 1.1.5, 1.2.7, 1.3.1,
1.3.5, 1.4.4, 1.9.1-2, 1.9.16, 1.9.24-25, 2.5.10-11, 3.4.2-3, 3.5.4,
3.9.2, 3.12.2, 3.12.5-6, 3.12.14, 3.14.3-4; Apd.Ep.3.1ff.;
Apu.Tra.7, 8, 9; Arg.4.506, 4.596, 4.610, 4.623, 4.628; Ari.Birds
683 ff. Cic.ND.2.64, 2.67; DH.1.49.1-2, 1.64.4; Col.39, 64ff.;
Dio.4.4.3, 4.6.1, 4.23.2, 5.23.3, 5.48.2, 5.68.1.; Eur.Hel.24, 1098;
Eur.Hipp. passim; Eur.IA.468; Hes.The.116ff., 159ff., 189ff.,
211ff., 350ff., 929ff., 949, 975, 986, 1008-1010ff; Hdt.2.113-120;
Hom.Aph.5.81; Hom.Il. 1.571, 3.384ff., 4.440, 5.310ff., 5.370ff.,
5.426, 5.900, 9.4, 14.154ff., 21.405ff.; Hom.Od.8.260; Hyg.Ast.2.30;
Hyg.Fab.14, 82, 83, 92, 94, 148, 152a, 154, 160, 185, 197, 224, 248,
271; Lib.Met.11, 34; Nonn.2.327, 9.142, 9.157, 11.32, 11.310, 12.34,
15.279, 19.185, 19.207, 20.35, 22.89, 23.244, 23.251, 31.111,
31.210, 33.56, 38.94, 38.100, 38.411, 38.431, 39.385, 41.153-155,
41.318 ff., 41.367, 42.40ff., 42.66, 42.420, 42.506ff., 43.394,
43.414; Ov.Fast.1.415ff., 4.1, 4.121, 6.335ff.; Ov.Met.2.324, 2.372,
4.288ff., 6.172, 9.347; Pau.1.3.1, 1.14.7, 1.19.2, 1.22.3, 1.30.1,
3.22.4, 9.27.2, 9.31.2; Pin.Nem.11.1; Pin.Oly.2.30; Pla.Cra.406D;
Pla.Sym.180D; QS.2.139; Stat.Theb.3.275; Strab.13.1.12;
Vir.Aen.3.709, 8.372. |
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