She was married to Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, but Aphrodite had many lovers among the gods, as well as among mortal men. Her lovers included Ares, the god of war, and the mortal Anchises, a Trojan prince with whom she had a famous son, Aeneas.
Of Aphrodite's mortal lovers, the most important were the Trojan shepherd Anchises, by whom she became the mother of Aeneas, and the handsome youth Adonis (in origin a Semitic nature deity and the consort of Ishtar-Astarte), who was killed by a boar while hunting and was lamented by women at the festival of Adonia.
When he refused to leave the sea to join her on Olympos, she transformed him into a shell-fish for his betrayal. POSEIDON The god of the sea had an affair with Aphrodite who was grateful for his support following the revelation of her adulterous relationship with Ares. She bore him two daughters Rhodos and Herophilos.
Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty and love. She was born out of the sea fully formed and riding a giant scallop shell. She had one husband and 8 consorts.
Aphrodite also had notable mortal lovers, including Adonis and Anchises. Adonis was a handsome young man and Aphrodite fell deeply in love with him.
She was married to Hephaistos (god of fire and metalworking) but was famously caught sleeping with Ares (god of war). Other divine lovers included Dionysos (god of wine) and Hermes (god of travel and commerce), from whom she gave birth to the fertility deities Priapos and Hermaphroditos, respectively.
🕊 Aphrodite :: Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty
Even though married to Hephaestus, she had affairs with all Olympians except Zeus and Hades, most famously with Ares, the god of war. She also had famous romances with two mortals, Anchises and Adonis.
Zeus begrudgingly agreed, and so Aphrodite was married off to Hephaestus. Unsurprisingly, Aphrodite was not happy about this trickery, as she had been dating Ares, God of War. This led to a very unhappy marriage with many affairs. Eventually, Hephaestus divorced Aphrodite.
In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the god of fire, blacksmiths and metalworking. Aphrodite was frequently unfaithful to him and had many lovers; in the Odyssey, she is caught in the act of adultery with Ares, the god of war.
The goddess of sex, love, and passion is Aphrodite, and she is considered the most beautiful Greek goddess in Mythology. There are two versions of how Aphrodite was born.
(1) DIVINE LOVES. APHRODITE The goddess of love and beauty was pursued by Zeus when she first emerged from the sea but managed to escape him. According to some, she later had an affair with the god, and through the curses of Hera bore a deformed son: the god Priapos (most sources however say his father was Dionysos).
Story summary. Aphrodite makes Hades fall in love with Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the crops.
APHRODITE The goddess of love was seduced by Hermes with the help of Zeus and a stolen sandal. She bore him a son named Hermaphroditos. BRIMO A goddess of the underworld (probably Hekate), whose virginity was lost to Hermes on the banks of the Thessalian Lake Boibeis.
The youngest, Psyche, possessed beauty that surpassed that of her sisters which resulted in those around her, including priests, comparing her to Aphrodite (referred to as Venus in The Golden Ass). Many went to the extent of saying that she was even fairer than the goddess herself.
In Greek mythology, Adonis was a mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite and of Persephone.
KENKHREIS (Cenchreis) A queen of Kypros (eastern Mediterranean) who boasted that her daughter Myrrha was more beautiful than Aphrodite herself.
In Greek mythology, Psyche was a mortal woman whose beauty was so great that it rivaled that of the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite became so jealous of Psyche that she sent her son, Eros, to make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest man in the world.
She was married to Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, but Aphrodite had many lovers among the gods, as well as among mortal men. Her lovers included Ares, the god of war, and the mortal Anchises, a Trojan prince with whom she had a famous son, Aeneas.
However, as it is a story of love and jealousy, Artemis the Goddess of Hunting was jealous of the love between Adonis and Aphrodite and tried to kill him by throwing a golden almond against him while being in the baths.
Aphrodite held Adonis in her arms as he bled to death. As she cried over her beloved, her tears fell into the pools of blood around them, and they were transformed through her love: from those tears mingled with the blood there bloomed the most beautiful anemone flowers.
Aphrodite was not happy with her quick marriage to Hephaestus and had no plans to cease her wondering eyes. Aphrodite subsequently committed adultery with other gods, most notably Ares and even mortals Anchises and Adonis. Helios, the all-seeing sun god, told Hephaestus about the affair between Aphrodite and Ares.
(1) DIVINE OFFSPRING
DEIMOS The god of fear was a son of Ares and Aphrodite. EROS The winged boy god of love was a son of Aphrodite and her constant companion. (Some say the father was Ares, others that she was born pregnant with the child). EROTES The winged godlings of love were sons of Aphrodite.
The myths tell us that Aphrodite qualities are essential for the joy of life, but the shadow side of Aphrodite manifests when a woman is completely identified with Aphrodite's powers, when other archetypal qualities of the feminine are unimportant to her.
Anchises and His Divine Beauty
One of Goddess Aphrodite's own loves was Anchises, a shepherd who Aphrodite deemed as beautiful as the gods. At first, she concealed her identity from Anchises and presented herself to him as a Phrygian princess.
In ancient Greece, Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love and beauty, was often portrayed with curves. A statue commonly thought to represent Aphrodite, called the Venus de Milo, depicts small breasts but is shaped with a twisted figure and elongated body, characteristic of that time period.