Aphrodite Facts
Aphrodite Facts
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| Interesting Aphrodite Facts: |
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| Aphrodite's name is the origin of the word aphrodisiac. Her Roman name Venus is the origin of the word venereal. |
| Aphrodite is also referred to as the Lady of Cyprus. She was also called Acidalia, Cytherea, and Cerigo. |
| Aphrodite's duty was simply to be beautiful. She was the goddess of love, beauty, desire, passion, fertility, and sexuality. |
| Aphrodite had many male partners including Phaeton, Phaon, Butes, Anchises, Nerites, Ares, Dionysus, Hermes, Poseidon, and Adonis. |
| Aphrodite was one of the 12 gods of Olympus. The other 11 included Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Hephaestus (Aphrodite's husband), Ares, and Hermes. |
| Aphrodite's symbols include the swan, the dove, scallop shell, apple, mirror, and roses. |
| Aphrodite's mode of transportation was a flying chariot pulled by sparrows. |
| Aphrodite had a girdle that was capable of making others fall in love with whoever wore it. Hera was known to borrow the belt on occasion. |
| Aphrodite was capable of making a couple fall in love again if they were fighting. |
| Aphrodite won a beauty contest against Athena and Hera, by providing Paris, a mortal, with a promise of love from Helen, the most beautiful mortal woman in the world. However when Paris collected Helen from her Greek husband Menelaus (the king of Sparta), the Trojan War started. The prize of the contest was a golden apple marked 'For the Fairest'. |
| Because a wild boar was said to have killed Adonis, a mortal that Aphrodite loved, the ancient Greeks would not sacrifice a pig to her. |
| A sculptor named Pygmalion fell in love with a sculpture he created and Aphrodite made the sculpture come alive for him. |
| Aphrodite's children included Eros (cupid), Aeneas, Phobos, Priapus, Deimos, Eunomia, Harmonia, Eryx, Pothos, Rhode, Anteros, Hermaphroditos, and Himeros. |
| Aphrodite fell in love with Adonis, a mortal, when he was born and sent Persephone to raise him and care for him as he grew up. Once he was grown, both Aphrodite and Persephone wanted him. Zeus determined that Adonis should spend half of each year with the women, so they could share him instead of fight over him. |
| Aphrodite was the subject and model for the famous sculpture 'Venus de Milo'. |
| A man named Glaucus once insulted Aphrodite. She fed his horses magic water which caused them to turn on him during a chariot race, crushing him, and then eating him. Most of the time however Aphrodite was kind and loving. |
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