LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Aphrodite: Goddess
built 623 days ago
Aphrodite, the ideal of female graec and beauty, frequently engaged the talents and genius of the ancient artists. The most celebrated representations of her were those of Cos and Cnidus. Those which are still extant are divided by archaeologists into several classes, accordingly as the goddess is represented in a standing position and naked, as the Medicean Venus, or bathing, or half naked, or dressed in a tunic, or as the victorious goddess in arms, as she was represented in the temples of Cythera, Sparta, and Corinth. (Paus. iii. 23.
Source:
The red rose as an expression of love goes back to the ancient Greeks, when it was associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Over time, the red rose came to represent romance and passion. The giving of red roses -- either a single bloom or a bouquet -- to express love for one's partner began in the 19th century and quickly became a Valentine's Day tradition.
Source:
When you think of Aphrodite, you probably think of the painting at the right - Botticelli's beautiful white-skinned red-headed goddess sailing to shore on a shell. He got it as right as can be expected, but the truth was, there was more than one story of her birth. The most well known has to do with the first part of her name: "aphro" (it means foam), and it's mostly the one we all think about as "the real story" - try to keep in mind though that there really isn't just one correct version. So without further ado, the story of Aphrodite's birth (according to Hesiod, a Homeric Hymn, and Pausanias).
Source:
Being the goddess of love, myth would have it that Aphrodite took many lovers. From her Oriental period Aphrodite's most beloved the Syrian god Adonis, who was adopted by Greek mythology. The Adonis myth is usually told as follows: the king of Syria, Theias, had a daughter named Myrrha or Smyrna who was cursed by Aphrodite and forced to commit incest with her father when she was twelve; with the complicity of her nurse she succeeded in deceiving him for eleven nights, but on the twelfth night Theias discovered who she really was and prepared to kill her. Myrrha fled, and the gods taking pity on her, turned her into a tree, the myrrh tree. Ten months later the bark peeled off and an infant emerged and was named Adonis. Aphrodite was very moved by the beauty of the child, and she gave him to Persephone to bring up.
Source:
That Rose, among other scholars, has called attention to the fundamental affinity of Hecate with Aphrodite is baffling at first sight, for what could the goddess of love have to do with a witch goddess? Yet Aphrodite's affinity to Hecate makes perfect sense in light of her intimate relationship to Erinys and Comaetho, both of whom share witch-like attributes.129
Source:
According to the Fasti, the Roman poet Ovid wrote that Priapus, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, had almost raped Hestia, when she and the other gods had fallen into a slumber after a feast. Hestia (Vesta) only woke up when she heard an ass braying as the god was on the point of mounting her. The goddess' scream frightened off Priapus.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Goddess