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Mythos Atlas

Greek Pantheon

Aphrodite

Also known as Venus, Kypris

Illustration of Aphrodite, a deity of the Greek Pantheon
Illustrative imageIllustration of Aphrodite. Generated with an AI image model; not a historical artifact. About our images
  • love
  • beauty
  • desire
  • sexuality

Goddess of love, beauty, and desire. Born from the sea foam after Cronus castrated Uranus and threw his genitals into the sea.

About Aphrodite

The Cyprian

Aphrodite is the irresistible goddess of love and beauty. Though married to Hephaestus, she had many lovers, most notably Ares. She has the power to make anyone fall in love, a power that even Zeus cannot resist.

Birth from Foam

She was born from the white foam (aphros) produced by the severed genitals of Uranus when they were thrown into the sea. She washed ashore on Cyprus (or Cythera), where she was attended by the Seasons.

Desire As Social Force

Greek myth uses Aphrodite to explain far more than romance. She drives political alliances, humiliations, marriages, rivalries, and catastrophic choices, which is why she stands near the center of stories like the Judgment of Paris and the Trojan cycle. Her sphere is desire as a civilizing and destabilizing power at the same time.

Across traditions

Parallel figures

Figures who play a role like Aphrodite's in other traditions.

Worship and cult

Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Aphrodite

Cyprus is her oldest ground. Corinth mixed sailors, courtesans, and a high temple. Athens split Ourania from Pandemos: heavenly and of the whole people. Roses, doves, and the sea-foam story sit on top of a civic sex-and-luck cult.

Sacred sites

  • Sanctuaries at Paphos and Amathus on Cyprus
  • Temple of Aphrodite on Acrocorinth
  • Aphrodite Pandemos at Athens

Festivals

  • Aphrodisia
  • Adonia

Family

with
HephaestusAres
Aphrodite

Relationship sources

  1. Theogony — Aphrodite lover of Ares

    Hesiod · Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (1914), Project Gutenberg #348 · Theogony 933–937

Questions about Aphrodite's family
Who were Aphrodite's spouses and consorts?
Spouses and consorts of Aphrodite recorded in the atlas: Hephaestus and Ares.

In the atlas

Where Aphrodite appears

In the museums

Aphrodite in art

Real objects in public collections, released into the public domain by the museums that hold them. Dates refer to when each object was made. Objects made within the tradition come first, later depictions after.

  • Marble statuette of the goddess Aphrodite. Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (opens the museum record)

    Ancient object

    Marble statuette of Aphrodite (opens the museum record)

    Greek · 3rd–2nd century BCE · Marble

    A Hellenistic Greek marble statuette the museum catalogs as Aphrodite. Small-scale marble statuettes of the goddess were popular for private display in the Hellenistic period.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 42.201.9 · Public Domain (museum record)

  • Marble statue of Aphrodite in a crouching pose. Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (opens the museum record)

    Ancient object

    Marble statue of a crouching Aphrodite (opens the museum record)

    Roman · 1st or 2nd century CE · Marble, Parian ?

    A Roman marble statue the museum identifies as a crouching Aphrodite, a popular type derived from a lost Hellenistic original showing the goddess bathing. The crouching pose was copied widely across the Roman world.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 09.221.1 · Public Domain (museum record)

Sources and further reading

Source notes

These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.

  • Homeric Hymn V, To Aphrodite (trans. Evelyn-White)

    Catalog date: c. 7th century BCE

Appears in

Ancient and classical works featuring this figure.

  • TheogonyHesiod

    born from the sea foam after Cronus castrates Uranus (the early cosmogony)

  • Works and DaysHesiod

    Goddess of love who sheds irresistible grace and heartbreaking desire upon Pandora's head (Lines 65-67)

  • Homeric HymnsVarious (attributed to Homer)

    Goddess of love compelled by Zeus to desire the mortal Trojan shepherd Anchises, conceiving Aeneas (Hymn 5)

About this entry

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. . Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.

Family relationships come from the atlas's kinship records. Ancient sources often disagree on divine genealogy.

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Genealogy

Family tree

Aphrodite's parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.

Open the full tree