Did you know that Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was also associated with the sea?
Born from a bizarre mixture of divine blood, severed genitals, and seafoam, Aphrodite washed up on the shores of Cyprus long before the emergence of her fellow Olympians. A figure who is as petty as she is relatable, she is not only a key deity of the Greek pantheon, but she is also a central figure in many of the myths we know and love today.
With influences possibly rooted in the goddesses Ishtar and Astarte, there are scholars who consider that the concept of Aphrodite was imported to Greece from the Middle East or West Asia. Contact between cultures might have led to her incorporation into the main Greek pantheon, with her foreign origins explaining one of the vital regional differences regarding not just her birth but also her personality. Even as her connections to beauty and love are her most well-known attributes, places like Sparta and Cyprus also viewed her as a war goddess.
Depictions of Aphrodite’s powers can reveal slightly a lot about how the Ancient Greeks viewed love. By looking at the life-threatening consequences faced by the mortals who cross Aphrodite’s path, one can see how, in Ancient Greece, a sour end to a relationship could destroy a person’s life through the tainting of their reputation and their honor.
This book specializes in myths that are either centered around Aphrodite or feature her as an important character. As a result of her volatile nature and quick temper, Aphrodite could just as frequently be a force for good as she could be a force for evil. Even as it would be unimaginable to gather all the different stories related to Aphrodite in their entirety in one collection, this book provides the interested reader with a nice, if rather modest, the assortment of narratives that display different facets of this fascinatingly complex goddess.
Some of the myths you’ll discover by reading this book are:
- Aphrodite’s birth and unexpected marriage
- The life and death of Adonis
- How Psyche and Eros’ love defied divine wrath
- Pygmalion’s arrogance and his bizarre mistress
- The beginnings of the greatest war ever fought
- And more!
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