Aphrodite
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Wikipedia
Featured visual 
|
In Greek mythology Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty and love, born when Cronus castrated Uranus and threw his genitalia into the sea. She is the mother of Eros. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus.
Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, and so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. However, Aphrodite became instrumental in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis' lover and his surrogate mother.
Aphrodite is also known as Kypris (Lady of Cyprus) and Cytherea after the two places, Cyprus and Kythira, which claim her birth.
Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos
As per Plato's Symposium there are two kinds of Aphrodites (Latin: Venuses), the Aphrodite Ourania (Latin: Venus Caelestis), literarly the heavenly love goddess, corresponding to a love of body and soul and the Aphrodite Pandemos (Latin: Venus Naturalis), literally, the "Venus of the people," corresponding to physical love.
Derived terms
