Aphrodite

by Mary

did Aphrodite have a husband or any children?


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Oct 15, 2016
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by: A.I.

Hi Mary,
Thank you for your question and sorry for the delayed reply.
As Aphrodite was the most beautiful goddess, Zeus the king of the gods was afraid that the other gods will start to fight if she marries one of them. In order to avoid this, he decided to marry her to the ugliest one, Hephaestus, god of the blacksmiths, artisans, fire and volcanoes.
Of course Hephaestus was very happy, but she wasn't and so she had many affairs. Her most famous lovers were Ares, the god of war, and the handsome Adonis.
She had many children with her lovers and none with her husband. Here are some of her best known children:
- with Ares she had the twins Phobos (the personification of Fear) and Deimos (Terror), Harmonia (the goddess of harmony and concord - she had a famous cursed necklace which brought bad luck to all those who possessed it), Eros (the god of love, whose Roman name was Cupid);
- maybe with Poseidon she had Rhodos;
- with Hermes she had Hermaphroditos (whose name is a combination of his parents names, Hermes and Aphrodite)
- maybe with Dionysus she had the 3 Charites (Graces): Thalia, Euphrosyne and Aglaea
- with Adonis she had Beroe and Golgos. Fun fact: Beroe was very beautiful, but she never wore makeup and never looked at herself in the mirror.
- last, but not least, with Anchises she had Aeneas, the forefathers of the Latins.
Where I've said maybe, it means that there are versions in which those children had different parents., i.e. they were not Aphrodite's.
There were also other children - again, maybe, because mythology is not an exact science :-)
A possible explanation was that many cities and regions had local legends in which their founder was said to be an important god's child, so as to make themselves feel superior to their neighbours.

Oct 15, 2016
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Aphrodite's Husband and Children (some of them, anyway)
by: A.I.

Hi Mary,
Thank you for your question and sorry for the delayed reply.
As Aphrodite was the most beautiful goddess, Zeus the king of the gods was afraid that the other gods will start to fight if she marries one of them. In order to avoid this, he decided to marry her to the ugliest one, Hephaestus, god of the blacksmiths, artisans, fire and volcanoes.
Of course Hephaestus was very happy, but she wasn't and so she had many affairs. Her most famous lovers were Ares, the god of war, and the handsome Adonis.
She had many children with her lovers and none with her husband. Here are some of her best known children:
- with Ares she had the twins Phobos (the personification of Fear) and Deimos (Terror), Harmonia (the goddess of harmony and concord - she had a famous cursed necklace which brought bad luck to all those who possessed it), Eros (the god of love, whose Roman name was Cupid);
- maybe with Poseidon she had Rhodos;
- with Hermes she had Hermaphroditos (whose name is a combination of his parents names, Hermes and Aphrodite)
- maybe with Dionysus she had the 3 Charites (Graces): Thalia, Euphrosyne and Aglaea
- with Adonis she had Beroe and Golgos. Fund fact: Beroe was very beautiful, but she never wore makeup and never looked at herself in the mirror.
- last, but not least, with Anchises she had Aeneas, the forefathers of the Latins.
Where I've said maybe, it means that there are versions in which those children had different parents., i.e. they were not Aphrodite's.
There were also other children - again, maybe, because mythology is not an exact science :-)
A possible explanation was that many cities and regions had local legends in which their founder was said to be an important god's child, so as to make themselves feel superior to their neighbours.

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