Aphrodite__the_Passionate_Goddess

Mythology has been a very important aspect to the Greek society. It was their way of explaining the unknown. Greeks attributed many human characteristics to Gods and Goddesses. For example they explained love by creating the Goddess Aphrodite. Her impressive beauty, charisma, irresistible seduction, powerful sexuality, and happiness that Aphrodite radiates make her the most passionate Goddess of all. (Greek Mythology. com). Aphrodite is known as the most charismatic Goddess and she is known for being the most beautiful of all Goddesses. Aphrodite’s beauty was demonstrated when she was named the prettiest goddess by Paris, a Trojan prince. She was named over Hera and Athena who tried to bribe the prince with power and victory over battles, but Aphrodite gave the prince the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, so she won (Dean 1). Aphrodite was so beautiful that she has had artistic representations. Connie Paris describes the influence of Aphrodite in art like this: “Though vanity played a great part in Aphrodite's life, she is most often depicted in portraits with her mirror in her toilet. But unlike the dignified beauty of the Olympian goddesses, Aphrodite's beauty was truly feminine. Many artists have tried to depict various women as Aphrodite; it was a way to show their own personal feeling towards the woman, by giving them goddess qualities.”( Paris) There has also been immortal works of art inspired by her. “Aphrodite's beauty and passionate search for love, even when it led to heartbreak, has inspired countless people and generations of artists to follow in her footsteps. In that quest, immortal works of art and life have sometimes been created.”(Goddess Cards). Aphrodite is not only charismatic and beautiful; she also emits an irresistible seduction and her powerful sexuality. Aphrodite was the Goddess that all Gods desired. She was married with Hephaestus the god of metalworking and he was the steadiest of the gods. Because Hephaestus was the steadiest of the gods, Zeus married Aphrodite to him. Her husband made her jewelry that made her more desirable than what she was already. Yet, she was not pleased to be wife of Hephaestus. Aphrodite was caught by her husband in an invisible net while she was having an affair with the god of war Ares. She divorced Hephaestus. Aphrodite was really sexual, she even did sexual favors. Once she gave sexual favors to Hermes just because he found her lost sandal (Dean 1). People over Greece celebrate her and her sexuality. Aphrodite has a festival celebrated in Athens and Corinth where they worship sexual intercourse. As mentioned earlier, Aphrodite is the Goddess of love and so all of her love brings happiness too. Aphrodite makes mortals and Gods fall in love. She is known to play with people’s feelings. Once Zeus punished her because she was making Gods fall in love with mortals and mortals with Gods and that was not accepted. Aphrodite is always full of lovers too. One of these lovers was Adonis: “Of her many lovers, one was the hunter, Adonis. Afraid of losing him, Aphrodite begged him to stop hunting. Adonis refused and was mortally wounded by a wild boar. Desolate, Aphrodite transformed her dying lover’s drops of blood into anemones. These lovely, short-lived blossoms remind us that she endured the pain of loss as well as the joys of love. She was always fully alive.”(Goddess Cards). Her beauty was both a blessing and a curse, but her legendary charisma and beauty is what has been passed down through generations. Aphrodite is one of the greatest Greek Goddesses and thanks to her we have love, happiness and sexual attraction. Aphrodite is important for Greek mythology because she was needed to explain many of human behaviors. These behaviors could include desire for sex, betrayal, sin, love, desire, the power of seduction, beauty and pleasure. These are human behaviors that may not always be right, so society had to find a way to justify in an incredible, fictional way all of this.