\paperw3990 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \cf7 Aphrodite, known to the Roman world as\cf0 \cf7 Venus, was the goddess of love.\par
There are various traditions about her birt
h: according to one version she was the daughter of \b \cf15 \ATXht8 Zeus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 and\b \cf0 \ATXht10409 \cf15 Dione\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 . Others claim that she was a daughter of \b \cf15 \ATXht12102 Uranus\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 whose sexual orga
ns, thrown into the sea by\cf0 \b \cf15 \ATXht10332 Cronus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , generated the goddess. When Aphrodite appeared she was carried by \b \cf15 \ATXht12600 Zephyr\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 first toward \b \cf15 \ATXht10340 Cythera\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 a
nd then to the coast of Cyprus, where the \b \cf15 \ATXht10820 Horae\b0 \ATXht0 \cf7 dressed her before presenting her to the Immortals. Accepted among the gods of Olympus, she became the adopted daughter of Zeus. In another version of the same myth, Ap
hrodite was born from a shell and rose naked out of the foam of the sea.\par
In his philosophical interpretation of the myths, Plato imagined the existence of two different Aphrodites: Aphrodite Urania, the goddess of pure love, and Aphrodite Pandemia (
Popular), the daughter of Dione and the goddess of ordinary love.\par
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Various groups of legends arose from that of Aphrodite in which she played a leading or secondary role, though they were not consistent with one another. She became the wife of
\b \cf15 \ATXht7 Hephaestus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , but loved\b \cf15 \ATXht4 Ares \b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 and had affairs with other gods, including \b \cf15 \ATXht10 Dionysus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , \b \cf15 \ATXht12 Hermes\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , and \b \cf15 \ATXht5 Poseido
n\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 . She did not disdain giving herself to ordinary mortals like \b \cf15 \ATXht10126 Anchises\b0 \ATXht0 \cf7 and \b \cf15 \ATXht10107 Adonis\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 . Numerous children were born from these unions: to Ares she bore \b \cf15 \ATXht10802 Harmonia\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , \b \cf15 \ATXht11623 Phobos\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 (Fright) and Deimos (Fear), \b \cf15 \ATXht10513 Eros\b0 \ATXht0 \cf7 and Anteros; Dionysus fathered \b \cf15 \ATXht11634 Priapus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , Hermes,\cf0 \b \cf15 \ATXht10813 Hermaphroditus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , and Anchises was father of \b \cf15 \ATXht10112 Aeneas\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 .\par
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Wherever Aphrodite appeared, love was kindled. She even had this effect in effigy, as \b \cf15 \ATXht11637 Pygmalion \b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 discovered. The scorning of love moved her to anger and famous curses. She punished the women of\b \ATXht11207 \cf15 Lemnos\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , who did not worship her, by afflicting them with an unpleasant odor that prompted their husbands to seek
solace in the arms of Thracian prisoners. The women of Lemnos then killed all the men on the island and created a society made solely of women, until the \b \cf15 \ATXht102 Argonauts\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 arrived to correct the situation. Even her favor
was dangerous, as the Trojans discovered when \b \cf15 \ATXht11606 Paris\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , awarding her the palm of beauty, earned them the enmity of \b \cf15 \ATXht3 Hera\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 and \b \cf15 \ATXht6 Athena\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , deities of much gre
ater power and vindictiveness than the goddess of love. Yet Aphrodite, though she could not save Paris or \b \cf15 \ATXht12019 Troy\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , managed to preserve the Trojan race by helping \b \cf15 \ATXht201 Aeneas\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 to take the\b \ATXht201 \cf15 \ATXht11613 Penates\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 \cf7 to Italy. This is why she was venerated as Mother Venus in Rome.\par
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The cult of the goddess of love undoubtedly grew out of a pre-Greek foundation. In particular, the tradition of her birth
and her power over the hearts of men can be linked to Oriental myths and to deities like Ashtoreth or Ishtar, known in the West as Astarte-linked linguistically with the name Aphrodite. The many versions of the legend of her birth and the fact that she
is sometimes placed among the daughters of Uranus, those of Cronus, or among the\cf0 \b \cf15 \ATXht11500 Oceanids\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , the \b \cf15 \ATXht11320 Moerae\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , and the\cf0 \b \cf15 \ATXht10511 Erinyes\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , are furthe
r testimonies to the antiquity of her cult, in which several different myths are bound together by the theme of fertility and love.
