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Divine Lineage
A Roman wall painting from the House of the Greek Epigrams at Pompeii, showing Venus at her toilette with Mars beside her.

Love

Aphrodite

ἈφροδίτηRoman: Venus

Older than the Olympians in one tradition and Zeus's daughter in another.

Wall painting, House of the Greek Epigrams, Pompeii — 1st century CE

5
epithets
4
cult sites
2
offspring
2
unions
2
recorded births

Vitals

Kind
Olympian
Generation
1
Domains
desire, the sea's foam, the compulsion nobody escapes
Accent
Love — desire, grace, marriage
Sacred symbols
the dove, the myrtle, the scallop shell, the embroidered band
Principal cult sites
Paphos on Cyprus, Kythera, Corinth, Sparta

What they were called

  • φιλομμειδής

    laughter-loving — and, Hesiod hints, genital-loving

  • Οὐρανία

    of the heavens, born of Ouranos

  • Κυπρογενής

    Cyprus-born

  • Ἀναδυομένη

    rising out of the water

  • Ἄρεια

    of war — her armed Spartan cult

Lineage

See in the tree

Descent

Formed from the matter ofOuranosHesiod, Theogony

Kronos threw the severed genitals of Ouranos into the sea; they drifted a long time, white foam gathered around the immortal flesh, and a girl grew in it. No mother, and a father who was already dead by the time she formed. This is why she sits in the Titan band of the tree rather than with her supposed half-siblings.

Variant traditions

Homer, Iliad 5.370-372

MotherDioneFatherZeus

Homer never mentions the sea-birth. Here she is an ordinary daughter of Zeus who runs to her mother when she is hurt. Accepting this tradition would move her two generations down the tree, which is why the generation warning on this record is expected rather than a defect.

Offspring in this roster

ChildErosChildThe Charites

Notable myths

  1. Out of the Foam

    Kronos cut off his father's genitals and threw them behind him into the sea, where they were carried for a long time. White foam spread out of the immortal flesh, and in it a girl was formed. She came ashore first at Kythera and then at Cyprus, and grass grew where she set her feet. Eros and Desire went with her from the moment she was born.

    Hesiod, Theogony 188-206

  2. Anchises on Mount Ida

    Zeus, tired of Aphrodite making the gods sleep with mortals, made her want a herdsman on Mount Ida. She dressed, went down, told Anchises she was a Phrygian princess whom Hermes had carried off for him, and let him take her to bed. Afterwards she showed him what she was, and he was terrified. Their son was Aineias.

    Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Aphrodite 45-291

The account

There are two Aphrodites and Plato noticed before anyone else. Hesiod's is the elder: when Kronos cut down Ouranos he threw the severed parts into the sea, foam gathered round them, and out of it a goddess grew and came ashore at Cyprus with grass springing up under her feet. That Aphrodite has no mother, predates the Olympians, and is a cosmic force — she gets Eros and Himeros as attendants from the moment of her birth. Homer's is younger and domestic, the daughter of Zeus and Dione, who is wounded by a mortal at Troy and cries in her mother's lap. Both are in this record; the graph draws the first and offers the second as a variant. What neither version softens is what she does. She is not affection. In the Hymn she takes Anchises to bed by lying to him, and Zeus makes her do it to teach her that she is not exempt from what she inflicts on everyone else.

Ancient sources

  • Hesiod, Theogony 188-206
  • Homer, Iliad 5.370-372
  • Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Aphrodite 45-291

Where a line reference is not given, the work is cited without one rather than guessed at.

Image credit

Title
Venus at her toilette with Mars in Exedra o of the House of the Greek Epigrams courtesy of Buzz Ferebee 02
Artist
Unknown 1st century CE artist in Pompeii
Date
1st century CE
Licence
Public domain
Source
Wikimedia Commons file page