Download Aphrodite - School District of Clayton

APHRODITE
The Goddess of Love, Beauty,
Pleasure,
and Sexual Rapture
Spheres of Influence:
• Love
Aphrodite
Roman Name: Venus
• Beauty
• Pleasure
• Sexual Rapture
• In Rome Cupid is her messenger
Relationships:
• Wife of Hephaestus/ Vulcan
• Involved with Ares/Mars
• Born from Uranus (Father of the
Gods)
Symbols:
HEAD OF A LARGER-THAN-LIFE STATUE,
COPYING A STATUE BY PRAXITELES (370-360
BC) STATUE OF 1ST CENTURY AD BY
PRAXITELES
•
Shells
•
Dove
•
Dolphin
•
Girdle
•
Mirror
APHRODITE (VENUS), GAZING AT HER LOVER
MARS WHILE HE IS SLEEPING
PAINTING OF 1483 BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI (14451510)
FIGURINE OF APHRODITE
AND EROS, FOUND IN THE
DISTRICT OF CORINTHIA
STATUE OF 400 BC
Short Story
Aphrodite was the exception to the Greek God family tree. One story is
that she was born of sea foam. Others, like the poet Homer, said she
was a daughter of Zeus. No one knows quite where to place her on
the Greek God family tree.
However she was born, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty.
She was an essential element of many Greek myths.
Legend says that Aphrodite could be kind or merciless, but she was not
at all like Ares, the god of war. Ares loved to cause pain and havoc.
Aphrodite was only merciless if you did something that truly angered
her. Unfortunately, Aphrodite was easily angered, especially when it
came to vanity.
For example, if you believe the old myth, it was not a quarrel over land
or goods, but was instead Aphrodite's vanity that caused the Trojan
War.
Bibliography:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/
aphrodite.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodi
te
http://www.greek-gods.info/greekgods/aphrodite/#aphrodite-symbols
The goddess emerging from the
sea as a fully grown woman
Painting of 1482 by Sandro
Botticelli (1445-1510) Uffizi
Gallery of Florence in Italy