Aphrodite (Greek: Ἀ φροδίτη、 Aphrodite), the goddess of love and beauty in ancient Greek mythology, is also the goddess of sexuality and one of the twelve main gods of Olympus. Because it was born in the sea, it is sometimes regarded as the patron saint of navigation.
Aphrodite was born in the sea spray, with white porcelain skin, blond hair and blue eyes, and the perfect figure and appearance of ancient Greek women, which symbolizes the beauty of women, and is considered as the highest symbol of female body beauty.
Aphrodite was the wife of Hephaestus, the god of fire and craftsman, but she was often unfaithful to her husband. There were many legends about her love. In ancient Greece, ancient Rome and the Renaissance, she will be portrayed as a stunning beauty, and the most famous statue about her is "Aphrodite of Milos" unearthed on the island of Milos.

be born
There are two versions about the birth of Aphrodite.
The birth of Aphrodite
The birth of Aphrodite
The first version (more commonly said) is described in Hesiod's "Divine Manual", that is, Aphrodite was born from the foam that the phallus of the god Uranus was thrown into the sea, and was the daughter of Uranus; It is said that Cronus cut off his father Ulanos' penis with a sharp sickle, interrupted Ulanos's intercourse with Gaia, and was born smoothly. Cronus threw this thing into the sea because of the indecent gesture of holding the penis in his hand, and then a pearl like foam appeared around the penis. Aphrodite was born, and she came out of the huge shell rising from the sea, Walk barefoot on the beach (in Paphos, Cyprus). The place where she passed blossomed with beautiful flowers, and Holly, the goddess of timing, had been waiting for her for a long time. She had put on a glittering crown, a beautiful and decent dress, and a gold belt for her, which made Aphrodite more attractive. After that, Aphrodite got on a float pulled by a pair of pigeons and flew to Mount Olympus. When the gods on Mount Olympus saw the beautiful Aphrodite, they all praised and fell for it.
The other version is from the Iliad, the first part of Homer's Epic, which records that Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
Beauty
Aphrodite was born beautiful, and all the gods loved her. Her beauty is like the shining light in the day, her pink cheeks are like peach blossoms, her long golden curly hair is shining, and her eyes seem to contain blue water, so she has become the most popular goddess among the gods.
Retaliate against Zeus
In some myths, Zeus pursued her but was rejected, so Zeus was angry and promised her to Hephaestus, the ugly and lame Vulcan blacksmith, as his wife. Aphrodite, who was dissatisfied with this, made Zeus become dissolute in order to retaliate, and let his neglected wife Hera punish his lover and offspring.

marriage
Hephaestus uses a net to trap Aphrodite and Ares
Hephaestus uses a net to trap Aphrodite and Ares
After Aphrodite was forced to marry Hephaestus because she refused Zeus' courtship, she adored Ares, the god of war, and gave birth to several children, including Eros, the little god of love, Anthros, the goddess of coordination, Hermonia, and a pair of twins (Phobos, the god of terror, and Demos, the god of fear). When Hephaestus found out that his wife was adulterous with Ares, the angry Vulcan forged a golden net, Catch the lovers who are having fun in bed on the spot. He summoned the gods of Mount Olympus and made the adulterous couple public. Most of the people who came to see the scene were male gods. Apollo was embarrassed to express his desire when he saw the shy Aphrodite. He only asked Hermes how he felt, but Hermes boldly said that he dared to use his head as a guarantee and could be tied to the beautiful goddess of love. Even if he added three more chains to be blamed by the goddesses on the spot, he was willing. Finally, Poseidon, the sea god who had coveted Cupid for a long time, intervened and persuaded Hephaestus to release the cheating couple.
Aphrodite returned to Paphos, Cyprus, and bathed in the sea water there. The three goddesses of beauty and grace smeared ointment on her body to purify her and restore her virginity. In order to thank Hermes for boldly expressing his enthusiasm for her, she and Hermes gave birth to hermaphrodite; Because Poseidon intervened and solved her embarrassment, Aphrodite gave birth to Poseidon's son, Erix, in her favor. In addition, Aphrodite also had children with some gods and mortals - Callites, the goddess of beauty and grace, was Aphrodite's maid, and it was also said that the goddess of beauty and grace was the daughter of Dionysus and Aphrodite.
Use Helen
Aphrodite
Aphrodite
One of Aphrodite's most famous victims was Helen. Helen was the most beautiful woman among mortals. Her beauty surpassed Aphrodite, and the outbreak of the Trojan War was also related to "beauty". In order to win a beauty contest with Hera and Athena, Aphrodite puzzled Paris and promised him that if he chose himself as the most beautiful goddess among them, he would have the daughter of Zeus and Leda. Paris gave Aphrodite the honor of "the most beautiful goddess", and then he came to Sparta and abducted Helen, the wife of Menleaus, the king of Sparta, which Aphrodite promised Paris.
In the third chapter of the Iliad, Homer once wrote that the Greeks and the Trojans decided to end the war and instead had a duel between Menelaus, the cuckolded husband, and Paris, Helen's kidnapper.
Helen stood behind the wall of Troy to watch the duel between her husband and her lover. She saw that a strong love for Menelaus came to Helen's heart. It was her abandoned ex-husband. Aphrodite realized this and changed into an old servant whom Helen loved. As she came down from the wall of Sparta, she wanted to lead Helen to the bed of her lover Paris. Helen recognized Aphrodite. She complained to the goddess about her censure and told the goddess that she no longer wanted to live with Paris. Aphrodite said to Helen that if she abandoned Paris, the goddess would leave her and would escalate the war and even threaten to kill Helen. In this way, Helen was persuaded by Aphrodite and had to stay with Paris, but she couldn't help comparing the man beside her with the legal husband she abandoned

Trojan War
During the Trojan War, she became enemies with Hera and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and let Ares, the god of war, join forces with her to support the Trojans and give Paris special protection. When Paris fought against Menelaus and was about to lose the battle, Aphrodite helped him secretly and saved him, thus causing another war between the two armies. Because Aphrodite did not understand military affairs, when Paris was about to be killed by Diomedes, Aphrodite withstood his own pain and stopped the attack to save him again. At the same time, she was attacked by Hera and Athena together with Ares on the battlefield, and was defeated many times. But despite her repeated help to the Trojans, she could not prevent the fall of Troy and the death of Paris.
(In Roman mythology, after the defeat of the Trojans, it was Venus corresponding to Aphrodite who protected the fleeing Trojans. Aeneas had to carry his father's hand and his son's protective statue of the city of Troy on his back to escape from the burning city of Troy, and set up his new motherland on the land of Italy, which is why Venus became the special protective god of Rome. Later, Caesar the Great of Rome claimed that he was Descendants of Aeneas, and venerates Venus as the ancestor of the Romans.)
love
Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite also has a golden love belt (some myths say it is a veil), which hides her secret of seducing others. As long as she wears the belt on her waist, she can increase her charm and arouse the attention and lust of others.
Because of Aphrodite's wild personality and overtly betrayed Hephaestus, he once again offended Zeus. Zeus hated Aphrodite's behavior, but was attracted by her charm. So he made Aphrodite fall in love with the human Anchises through careful planning, and gave birth to Aeneas with him. In Roman mythology, Venus, who corresponds to Aphrodite, also deeply loved Anchises, and warned Anchises to strictly keep the secret of their son Aeneas' birth. However, Ankhases ignored it and suffered from blindness and lameness.
Aphrodite's beauty not only conquered the gods on Mount Olympus, but also the whole nature. Wherever she went, there would be a lot of laughter, showing a scene of prosperity. But the scene of spring will not be too long, and the flowers will not wither forever, because Adonis, whom Aphrodite loved, is the embodiment of the short spring. Although Aphrodite is the god of love, he cannot control his own love. He is always teased by fate and cannot get his own true love. Therefore, human beings cannot get the happiness of complete love. Since then, the way of human love has also been covered with suspicion, anxiety The shadow of pain and sorrow.
Among Aphrodite's many lovers, Adonis, the beautiful boy, is her favorite. Adonis was originally a god from Lebanon, and was later included in Greek mythology. He was the object of contention between Aphrodite and Persephone. At last, the god Zeus came forward to arbitrate and ruled that one third of Adonis's life belonged to Adonis himself, one third belonged to Persephone, and the other third belonged to Aphrodite. When Adonis returned to the earth from the underworld, Aphrodite was very worried that Adonis would encounter danger to his life, and often advised Adonis not to go hunting. However, the young Adonis did not listen to the advice. Unfortunately, he was bitten while hunting a wild boar, and fell to the ground on the spot, and the fresh blood stained the flowers around him (it is said that the wild boar that killed Adonis was transformed by Aphrodite's old lover Ares).
When Aphrodite heard Adonis's call, she hurried to the accident site, accidentally stabbed her foot by the thorn on the white rose, and the white rose was red with blood. When Aphrodite arrived at Adonis, Adonis had stopped breathing. Aphrodite, who was in grief, hugged Adonis' body and burst into tears. Her tears fell on the ground and grew anemones.
Constellation Story
There is also the story of Aphrodite in the constellation myth. At the banquet of the gods, Difeng, the king of monsters, suddenly appeared, so the gods fled everywhere. At this time, Aphrodite found her son Eros missing. She nervously searched everywhere, and then found Eros trembling with fear under the piano stage. In order to prevent Eros from being separated from her again, Aphrodite tied two people's feet together with a rope, and then changed into two fish jumping into the Nile to escape. In order to commemorate this event, Zeus raised two fish to the sky in such a way that they are connected and never separated, and became Pisces. In addition to representing love and beauty, it also symbolizes the combination of spirit and body.

Aphrodite is a beautiful goddess of love, and has direct connection with the ancient fertility goddess and fertility goddess, such as Hassel, Isis, Inana and Astati. Some people believe that Aphrodite is a Phoenician, and she is the sister of the goddess Ista of Babylon and the goddess Astati of the Syrian Phoenician people - Inana. Some legends believe that Aphrodite was born in cream; There are also many legends that Aphrodite was born from the boiling foam of the sea when Cronus threw Ulanos' broken penis into the sea, and then was washed to the island of Cyprus by the waves. Therefore, there is a temple specially built for Aphrodite.
Aphrodite was forced to marry Hephaestus, the god of fire, and had only an improper relationship with other gods. It is said that apart from the three goddesses Athena, Artemis and Hestia, Aphrodite can stimulate the passion of all gods and gather them together through its influence. Her fanatical followers spread all over the Mediterranean, and in one form or another, held a festival called "Hot Lust" to celebrate her. Plato divided Aphrodite into two kinds of Goddess of Goddess, namely the goddess of pure love and the goddess of sexual desire and the patron god of prostitutes, in the "Drinks", Aphrodite is the "Aphrodite Urania" representing noble spiritual love in the sky, and the "Aphrodite Pandemos" representing vulgar sensual love that everyone can have in the world.
At first, Aphrodite was just a fertility goddess, and was in charge of everything in nature, including the reproduction of animals and plants. Sometimes, because she is responsible for transmitting the messages of the Olympian gods through the dream (Hermes is the god and Apollo is only responsible for the oracle), some people regard her as the goddess who gives dreams (not the god who manages dreams, but other gods who manage dreams), and she is a few gods who can directly use and control the dream to communicate with people (few gods can do this).
Aphrodite was also honored as the patron saint of navigators. People living in bays and islands generally believed in Aphrodite, so she also had some other names such as "Aphrodite on the bay", "Aphrodite bestowed on the downwind" and "Aphrodite calming the sea". In addition, in Cyprus, Kesila, Sparta and other places, she is also worshipped as the god of war in armor, which may be her original image in the east, but also can be explained as the close relationship between her and Ares, the god of war.
It is human nature to love beauty. Many wizards regard Aphrodite as the most respected and worshipped god. Pigeons, sparrows, swans, goats, lynx and dolphins are sacred objects of Aphrodite. Her sacred plants include rose, poppy, pomegranate, myrtle, cypress, clover and water mint. Her holy day is Friday, and some special festivals about her are April 1, April 23 and July 19.