All about history book of myths and legends. ( PDFDrive )

The goddess of love

Usually depicted as a beautiful young woman, Aphrodite

is often shown naked. Because she represented physical

perfection, she was a favourite subject for sculptors.

CLASSICAL EUROPE

love with him. Of the two, Adonis

preferred Aphrodite, and a jealous

Persephone told Ares about the afair.

Enraged, Ares unleashed a wild boar,

which attacked Adonis and killed

him. When he died, Adonis

arrived in the Underworld, where he was

immediately pursued by Persephone. Aphrodite

appealed to Zeus, and the king of the gods decided

on a compromise. Adonis would spend half the

year in the Underworld with Persephone, and the

other half with Aphrodite.

The death of Adonis shows how

dangerous it was for a mere mortal to fall

in love with Aphrodite. Another mortal

who fell for her charms, Anchises, also

paid dearly. Anchises was a shepherd, whose

liaison with Aphrodite produced the hero

Aeneas, ancestor of the Romans. Aphrodite

disguised herself as a mortal to sleep with

Anchises, but he glimpsed her in her true

form. Aphrodite made him promise not to

reveal the afair – an alliance with a mere

shepherd would damage her reputation.

But once, when Anchises was drunk, he

revealed the secret and was blinded (or,

some say, lamed) by Zeus as punishment.

The name of Aphrodite, the goddess of love,

means “born from the foam”. She was born in

the frothing sea and was famous both for her

exquisite beauty and for her many lovers, who

included both gods and mortals. Her partners

found it impossible to resist her charms, and

this magnetic attraction made her one of the

most powerful of all the deities. Yet some

accounts describe her as vain, ill-tempered,

and easily offended. Her children included

the Trojan prince, Aeneas, and Priapus,

the god of fertility.

THE MYTH

Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the divine

blacksmith. He adored her and crafted beautiful gifts for

her. Among them was a golden chariot drawn by doves,

which were sacred to her. However, she was frequently

unfaithful to him. Of her many afairs, the most famous

of all was with Ares, the god of war. This afair produced

four children, the first two of whom

took after their father, while the

second two inherited their mother’s

character. They were Deimos (Terror),

Phobos (Fear), Harmonia (Harmony),

and, according to some accounts of the

story, Eros (Sexual Love).

THE LOVERS TRAPPED

It was some time before Hephaestus found out

about his wife’s liaison with his brother, Ares,

but when he did, he decided to take revenge

by ridiculing the couple. He used his skill in

metalworking to make a large net out of bronze

wire, and secretly suspended this above the lovers’

bed. When the pair were in bed together,

Hephaestus tugged the net so that it fell on to

the couple, trapping them. Then he called the

gods to witness the ludicrous sight.

MORTAL LOVES

Another of Aphrodite’s loves was a mortal called

Adonis. Unfortunately, Persephone, wife of

Hades, the god of the Underworld, also fell in

The Loves of Aphrodite

Dove, symbol

of Aphrodite

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