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Aphrodite
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Aphrodite is sometimes considered to be the mother of Eros (Love) [Hyg.Ast.2.30; Nonn.33.56], but this is a most disputed matter. Eros is often considered one of the first to have come into being. It has been said that there was no race of immortals until Eros caused all things to mingle, and that Nyx (Night) laid an Egg in Erebus (the Darkness of the Underworld) and in time Eros was born [Ari.Birds.683ff.]. According to others, Eros was one of the first to be born out of Chaos [Hes.The.116ff.], the kind of void that was the original state of the universe. Some say that not Aphrodite but Ilithyia [Pau.9.27.2], the goddess of childbirth, daughter of Zeus and Hera, was his mother. But still others say that Zephyrus 1 (the West Wind) was his father and Iris 1 (the rainbow, a heavenly messenger) his mother [Nonn.31.111].
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In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture. According to Hesiod, she was born when Uranus (the father of the gods) was castrated by his son Cronus. Cronus threw the severed genitals into the ocean which began to churn and foam about them. From the aphros ("sea foam") arose Aphrodite, and the sea carried her to either Cyprus or Cythera. Hence she is often referred to as Kypris and Cytherea. Homer calls her a daughter of Zeus and Dione.
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Aphrodite had three children by Ares: Deimos, Phobus 1 (Fear and Panic) and Harmonia 1 [for Harmonia 1 see Robe & Necklace of Harmonia 1]. The first two children appear usually in battles causing disorder among the ranks of soldiers [Hes.The.933; Hom.Il.9.4]. Their daughter Harmonia 1 married Cadmus, a Phoenician prince who came to Boeotia and founded Thebes [Apd.3.4.2; Hes.The.975]. Cadmus and Harmonia 1 started... the Royal House of Thebes, and had four daughters and one son, Polydorus 2, who became king of Thebes after his father. One of their daughters, Ino, became a sea-goddess and was, since then, called Leucothoe [Apd.1.9.1-2; Hyg.Fab.224; Pin.Oly.2.30]. Another daughter, Semele, was loved by Zeus and became the mother of Dionysus 2, the vine-god [Apd.3.4.3; Hes.The.949].
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Aphrodite had a son named Eros. He has been depicted as a little child with a bow and magical arrows. Being shot with one of his arrows caused a person to fall in love. Aphrodite was ... famous for her contest with Hera and Athena for the title of “The Fairest.” All three bribed the judge of the contest, Paris of Troy. (Click here for the full Story) Athena offered Paris victory in war. Hera promised him political power, and Aphrodite offered to him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen.
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The main narrative of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite concerns the story of Aphrodite and Anchises, a young Trojan shepherd. Zeus caused Aphrodite to fall in love with Anchises to teach her a lesson. Aphrodite had boasted that she herself was above sexual entanglements with mortals. Lines 53-201 recount Aphrodite's seduction of Anchises. Aphrodite journeys first to Paphos on the island of Cyprus and from there to Mt. Ida in Turkey near Troy where she meets Anchises. Aphrodite convinces Anchises that she is a mortal girl who has been sent to Troy to be Anchises' wife and to bear him children.
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Aphrodite, in many of the myths involving her, is characterized as vain, ill-tempered and easily offended. Though she is one of the few gods of the Greek Pantheon to be actually married, she is frequently unfaithful to her husband. Hephaestus, of course, is one of the most even-tempered of the Hellenic deities; Aphrodite seems to prefer Ares, the volatile god of war. In Homer's Iliad she surges into battle to save her son, but abandons him (in fact, drops him as she flies through the air) when she herself is hurt (Ares does much the same thing). And she is the original cause of the Trojan War itself: not only did she start the whole affair by offering Helen of Troy to Paris, but the abduction was accomplished when Paris, seeing Helen for the first time, was inflamed with desire to have her - which is Aphrodite's realm. Her domain may involve love, but it does not involve romance; rather, it tends more towards lust, the human irrational longing.
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Aphrodite