APHRODITE ~ THE GREEK GODDESS OF LOVE AND BEAUTY

Aphrodite is the  Greek Goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation. 
In Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite is born off the coast of Cythera from the foam (aphrós) produced by Uranus's genitals, which his son Cronus has severed and thrown into the sea. In Homer's Iliad, however, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. 

The Birth of Aphrodite from the sea.

Aphrodite is consistently portrayed as a nubile, infinitely desirable adult, having had no childhood. She is often depicted nude. In the Iliad, Aphrodite is the apparently unmarried consort of Ares, the God of war, and the wife of Hephaestus is a different Goddess named Charis. Likewise, in Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite is unmarried and the wife of Hephaestus is Aglaea, the youngest of the three Charites.

In other stories of the Greek Religion, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the God of blacksmiths and metalworking. In the Odyssey, She is caught in the act of adultery with Ares, the God of war.Aphrodite was also the surrogate mother and lover of the mortal shepherd Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar. Along with Athena and Hera, Aphrodite was one of the three Goddesses whose feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War and She plays a major role throughout the Iliad. Aphrodite has been featured in western art as a symbol of female beauty and has appeared in numerous works of western literature.

Aphrodite and Ares
Epithets 

 Plato, in his Symposium 180e, asserts that the names Aphrodite Ourania (a transcendent, "Heavenly" Aphrodite) and Aphrodite Pandemos (Aphrodite common to "all the people") belong to two different entities.  Among the Neoplatonists, Ourania is associated with spiritual love, and Pandemos with physical love (desire). In her role as Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite is associated with Peithō (Πείθω), meaning "persuasion", and could be prayed to for aid in seduction.

Aphrodite has many epithets, each emphasizing a different aspect of the same Goddess, or used by a different local worship. Thus, she is also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus), because both locations claimed to be the place of Her birth.

Aphrodite is almost always accompanied by Eros, the God of lust and sexual desire. In his Theogony, Hesiod describes Eros as one of the four original primeval forces born at the beginning of time, but, after the birth of Aphrodite from the sea foam, he is joined by Himeros and, together, they become Aphrodite's constant companions. The Greek lyric poets regarded the power of Eros and Himeros as dangerous, compulsive, and impossible for anyone to resist. In modern times, Eros is often seen as Aphrodite's son, but this is actually a comparatively late innovation.

Aphrodite's main attendants are the Three Graces, whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome and names as Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. Aphrodite's other set of attendants are the three Horae (the Hours), whom Hesiod identifies as the daughters of Zeus and Themis. Aphrodite is also sometimes accompanied by Harmonia, Her daughter by Ares, and Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera.

Aphrodite Kallipygos ~ meaning 'She of the beautiful buttocks'

Aphrodite's most prominent avian symbol is the dove. She frequently appears with doves in ancient Greek pottery and votive offerings of small, white, marble doves were also discovered in the temple of Aphrodite at Daphni.  In addition to doves, Aphrodite is also closely linked with sparrows and she is described riding in a chariot pulled by sparrows. 
Because of her connections to the sea, Aphrodite is associated with different types of water fowl, including swans, geese, and ducks.Her other symbols included the sea, conch shells, and roses. The rose and myrtle flowers are both sacred to Aphrodite. Her most important fruit emblem is the apple, but she is also associated with pomegranates, possibly because the red seeds suggested sexuality or because Greek women sometimes used pomegranates as a method of birth control. In Greek art, Aphrodite is often also accompanied by dolphins and Nereids.

Aphrodite's main worship centers were Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth, and Athens. In Laconia, Aphrodite was worshipped as a Warrior Goddess. She was also the patron Goddess of prostitutes, an association which led early scholars to propose the concept of "sacred prostitution", an idea which is now generally seen as erroneous.

During the Hellenistic period, the Greeks identified Aphrodite with the ancient Egyptian goddesses Hathor and Isis. Aphrodite was the patron Goddess of the Lagid queens and Queen Arsinoe II was identified as her mortal incarnation. Aphrodite was worshipped in Alexandria and had numerous temples in and around the city. In the second century BCE, Ptolemy VIII Physcon and his wives Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III dedicated a temple to Aphrodite Hathor at Philae. Statuettes of Aphrodite for personal devotion became common in Egypt starting in the early Ptolemaic times and extending until long after that.

SOURCE: Wikipedia