Everyone knows who Aphrodite is, when the name pops up the first thing that comes to mind is goddess of love and beauty. Some say she was the daughter of Zeus, but most say that she was the result of when Cronus castrated his father Uranus, Cronus then threw his fathers genitals into the sea, and from the sea foam out came Aphrodite.

Aphrodite was born as an adult, he father married her off to Hephaestus, who she was frequently unfaithful to. She had a lust for Ares and Adonis.

She was the cause in the Trojan War, She went to a wedding ceremony with Hera and Athena for Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis(parents of Achilles). The goddess Eris was outraged that Aphrodite was invited to the wedding and she was not, so she threw a golden apple in the center of the floor. The apple was labeled “To The Fairest”, the three goddesses thought that they were the fairest so they started fighting over the apple. Zeus would not choose which one was the fairest, so the goddesses went to Paris(prince of Troy) to make the decision. They each offered him a bribe so that he would choose them. The bribe of Aphrodite was one that he could not turn down, for she offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. At the time Helen was married to the Spartan king Menelaus, so when Paris took Helen it started the beginning of the Trojan War.

Aphrodite slept with Ares in the same bed that she shared with her husband Hephaestus, Helios, the sun god spied on the lovers and went and told Hephaestus. When he found out he devised some clever fastenings that would ensnare and hold the lovers in a trap. Ares and Aphrodite being careless fell into the trap, Ares defaulted so Hephaestus loosened the bond, afterward Aphrodite went to her precinct on the Island of Kypros where she was bathed by the Graces.

There was once a mortal princess named Psyche,she was the wife of Eros(son of Aphrodite), she was the most beautiful woman, men stopped worshiping Aphrodite and started worshiping Psyche. Aphrodite got so mad that she commanded her son to make Psyche fall in love with the most hideous man, instead of doing that he fell in love with her himself and carried her away to his secret palace. Eros hid his identity from her but she eventually gazed upon his face. He then abandoned her, she searched all over for her lost love, then she came into the service of Aphrodite. The goddess gave her a series of difficult labors, she took a journey to the underworld. At the end Psyche was reunited with Eros, the couple then wed in a ceremony attended by the gods.

Now as in ancient times, when we think Aphrodite we will think of love and beauty, for she was the most beautiful goddess of all.