Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love and beauty. Aphrodite's main cult centers were Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth, and Athens. In Athens, she was celebrated annually during the Aphrodisia festival. In Laconia, Aphrodite was worshipped as a warrior goddess. She was the patron goddess of prostitutes, an association which led early scholars to propose the concept of sacred prostitution in Greco-Roman culture, an idea now generally seen as erroneous. Aphrodite had many epithets, many of which emphasized an aspect of her character or were used by local cults. Thus she was known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus), because both places claimed to be the site of her birth. The origins of Aphrodite have been the subject of scholarly debate. Proposed influences on her origins have included Near Eastern love goddesses, an indigenous Cypriot goddess, and a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess.
In Homer's Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. In Hesiod's Theogony she is born from the foam (ἀφρός, aphrós) produced by Uranus's genitals, which his son Cronus had severed and thrown into the sea. In the Odyssey, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the god of fire, blacksmiths and metalworking; she fornicates with Ares, the god of war, and is caught by her husband. In other sources, Ares is described as her consort. In the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, she seduces the mortal shepherd Anchises after Zeus made her fall in love with him. Aphrodite was the surrogate mother and lover of the mortal shepherd Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar. Along with Athena and Hera, she was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted in the Trojan War; she plays a major role throughout the Iliad. Sappho's Ode to Aphrodite is one of the earliest poems dedicated to the goddess and survives from the Archaic period nearly complete. In his Symposium, Plato distinguishes between Aphrodite Urania, a transcendent "heavenly" Aphrodite, and Aphrodite Pandemos, who is common to "all the people".
The Romans identified Aphrodite with their goddess Venus. Aphrodite has been featured in Western art as a symbol of female beauty and has appeared in numerous works of Western literature.
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