In Greek mythology, Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, was one of the 12 Olympian gods. She was born from the sea form caused when Cronus threw his father Ouranos’s severed genitals into the sea. Her name is derived from the ancient Greek word aphros, which means “sea foam.” However, the most popular epithet for Aphrodite, whose Roman counterpart was the goddess Venus, was “laughter-loving.” As well as taking many lovers, Aphrodite loved to meddle in the romantic lives of mortal lovers. Here are ten myths in which Aphrodite caused wars in the name of love, caused romantic chaos, and created absurd matches, always giving herself a good laugh.
1. Birth of Aphrodite
In Greek mythology, there are often several different versions of the same myth. According to Hesiod in his Theogony, Aphrodite was born from the sea foam caused by Cronus throwing the severed genitals of his father, Ouranos, into the sea. She then washed up on shore, probably at Paphos, which was known as her birthplace, and presented herself to the other gods. However, in the Iliad, Homer describes Aphrodite as the daughter of Zeus and Dione, an obscure goddess. The most famous depiction of this myth is the Birth of Venus by Botticelli in the 15th century.
Scholars believe Aphrodite’s worship came to Greece from the east, imitating the cult of the goddess known as Ishtar or Inanna in ancient Mesopotamia.
2. The Goddess Aphrodite Married Hephaestus
As the Greek goddess of sexual desire, Aphrodite had an active love life, and she enjoyed flirtatious occasions with several others. However, her father, Zeus, decided that she should marry and end her dallying with men. Zeus forced Aphrodite to marry Hephaestus, the talented god of smiths who created Zeus’ own lightning bolt, the weapons of Artemis, and dazzling jewelry, but who was reportedly decidedly unattractive.
The match may have been made in exchange for Hephaestus releasing Hera from a magical trap he had made for her. While the wedding may have happened, Aphrodite was very much interested in the handsome god of war, Ares.
3. Ares and Other Divine Beaus
Ares and Aphrodite would sneak around behind Hephaestus constantly, which served only to infuriate Hephaestus. One time, Hephaestus managed to entrap the two lovers in Hephaestus and Aphrodite’s own bed with a golden net. He called on the other gods to witness their humiliation.
This did not hinder Aphrodite, who continued her affair with Ares, as her relationship with the god of war gave her an exhilaration to satisfy her glee-seeking soul. The pair also had several children together, including the twins Phobos and Deimos, the love god Eros, and Harmonia, who was said to equal her mother in beauty. As the phrase goes, “all is fair in love and war,” and so the two were a perfect match for inciting chaos both on the battlefield and in people’s hearts. As an immortal goddess, Aphrodite had a lot of time to fall in and out of love. In various Greek myths, she also has brief affairs with Zeus, Dionysus, Pan, and Hermes.
4. Matchmaker: Paris and Helen
The most famous instance of the goddess Aphrodite meddling in love affairs is probably one you know: Paris and Helen. This began when Menelaus, the King of Sparta, promised to sacrifice to Aphrodite a splendid herd of his best cattle, in return for winning the contest for Helen’s hand in marriage. However, after Menelaus won the contest, he did not keep his word. The goddess plotted to take away his new wife in revenge.
The choosing of the man for Helen to elope with came about when Aphrodite was in a beauty contest. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena were competing to be the owners of a precious golden apple that had “to the fairest” written across it. Zeus chose the young shepherd (and prince) called Paris to be the judge. In exchange for picking her as the winner, Aphrodite promised to reward him with Helen.
Aphrodite used her son Eros (also known as Cupid) to fire his magical arrows of love into the heart of Helen so that she would elope with Paris once he came to Sparta. When the two lovers escaped to Paris’ hometown, Troy, Menelaus brought the entire nation of Greece to fight, resulting in the Trojan War.
5. Helping Hippomenes
Aphrodite seemed to enjoy helping young princes win the hearts of women. In another Greek myth, the goddess Aphrodite helped Hippomenes, a prince of Greece, to win the huntress Atalanta’s terrifying marriage contest.
Atalanta was a woman who did not want to marry; she preferred to explore the wild and participate in the hunt. To appease her father, she agreed that she would marry whoever could beat her in a footrace. Those who failed would be killed.
Hippomenes prayed to Aphrodite for help, and she pitied his cause. She gave Hippomenes three entrancing golden apples and told him to toss the apples into Atalanta’s path during the footrace. The apples were so beautiful that Atalanta would be compelled to pick them up, which would give Hippomenes a chance to run ahead.
The plan worked, and Hippomenes successfully won the race and Atalanta. But the myth does not end there. Hippomenes forgot to thank Aphrodite, so she compelled him to make love to his new wife in a sacred temple. The goddess of that temple was very offended and turned the lovers into lions.
6. Eros, a Rebellious Son, and a Secret Romance
Aphrodite did not always bestow favor. The goddess Aphrodite had a son named Eros, the god of erotic love. He is often depicted with wings and a bow and arrow. In Greek myth, he is represented as an adolescent, but Roman myths tend to depict him as a baby (Cupid). He would use his magic arrows to shoot people’s hearts and cause them to fall in love, often under the instruction of Aphrodite.
When the news spread of a beautiful mortal woman named Psyche who could compete with Aphrodite’s own beauty, the goddess became supremely envious. She commanded her son to shoot his magic arrows and force Psyche to fall in love with a hideous beast.
Upon meeting Psyche, Eros fell in love with her. He disobeyed Aphrodite and instead took Psyche to his hidden home to be his wife. When Psyche betrayed his trust once, Eros abandoned her. Psyche begged Aphrodite for help. Angry at her son for his deceit and angry at Psyche for her betrayal, Aphrodite ordered Psyche to perform a series of impossible and increasingly dangerous tasks.
7. Hippolytus’ Rejection
Another wrathful event occurs in the myth of Hippolytus, the young prince of Troezen who wanted to be single his entire life. Hippolytus was a devotee of Artemis, the goddess of the Hunt. He enjoyed worshipping Artemis so much that he vowed to be celibate, just like Artemis.
Unfortunately for Hippolytus, young men in ancient Greece were expected to worship Aphrodite during and after puberty because she was the goddess of love and desire. By choosing to worship Artemis only, he rejected Aphrodite and refused to worship her.
This enraged Aphrodite, and so she cursed his stepmother Phaedra to burn with lust for Hippolytus. When Phaedra made her feelings known to him, he rejected her. In humiliation, Phaedra took her own life but left a suicide note claiming that Hippolytus had raped her. Hippolytus’ father, Theseus, was distraught at the accusation, and so he cursed Hippolytus, which brought about his death. Aphrodite’s spite had caused the destruction of poor Theseus’ household.
8. Aphrodite and Adonis
In another myth with an incestuous element, Myrrha was cursed by Aphrodite with lust for her own father, King Cinyras of Cyrpus, after her mother bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than Aphrodite. When she became pregnant, Myrrha was driven out of her home and was transformed into a myrrh tree, but still gave birth to Adonis.
Aphrodite found the baby Adonis and took him to the underworld to be raised by Persephone. She returned for him when he was fully grown and decided that he was very handsome. Aphrodite wanted to take him away, but Persephone wanted to keep him, causing a feud between the goddesses. Zeus settled the dispute by decreeing that Adonis would spend one-third of the year with Aphrodite, one-third with Persephone, and one-third with whomever he chose. Adonis chose to spend that time with Aphrodite. Then, one day, while Adonis was hunting, he was wounded by a wild boar and bled to death in Aphrodite’s arms.
9. Pygmalion and the Favor of Goddess Aphrodite
Pygmalion, the King of Cyprus, was also a talented sculptor. He crafted out of ivory a beautiful woman, who seemed so life-like and perfect that he fell in love with the statue. The Roman poet Ovid records the myth in his Metamorphoses: “His masterwork fired him with love. It seemed to be alive, its face to be a real girl’s, a girl who wished to move–but modesty forbade. Such art his art concealed. In admiration his heart desired the body he had formed.”
Pygmalion was so enamored by his creation that at the festival of Aphrodite, he prayed that Aphrodite would grant him a lover in the likeness of the statue. Aphrodite appreciated his worship and so she granted him his wish. When Pygmalion returned to his home, he kissed the statue. At that moment, ivory became flesh and blood. His artwork was now alive and breathing. Pygmalion thanked Aphrodite, and so the goddess blessed him again with a daughter.
10. Medea’s Madness From Aphrodite’s Spell
Medea was a princess of Colchis, which was on the outskirts of ancient Greece near the Black Sea. When Jason from Iolcus came with his band of Argonauts on a quest to Colchis, the Greek goddesses thought that Jason’s only hope of succeeding was to acquire Medea as an ally.
The goddesses were Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena. They supported Jason on his quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece from Colchis because it would mean the end of an evil and greedy king in Greece whom they did not favor.
Aphrodite put a powerful love spell on Medea so that she would fall in love with Jason on sight and be compelled to help him in any way she could. Unfortunately, the love turned Medea quite insane. She did indeed help Jason survive his tasks and retrieve the Fleece, which was guarded by a dragon, but this came at a terrible cost.
In some versions of the myth, Medea murdered her own brother or allowed Jason to ambush and murder him so that they could chop his body up and spread the parts about. The King who was pursuing the lovers after they had fled Colchis would then be delayed because he wanted to collect all the pieces of his son.
After that, Medea later murdered her two sons by Jason because he betrayed her to marry another woman. Medea also murdered Jason’s new love interest and her father. Medea’s love warped into hate, and she responded violently.
11. Anchises and His Divine Beauty
One of Goddess Aphrodite’s own loves was Anchises, a shepherd who Aphrodite deemed as beautiful as the gods. At first, she concealed her identity from Anchises and presented herself to him as a Phrygian princess. Anchises was enthralled by her beauty, to which Aphrodite was very appreciative. The lovers spent two weeks together, wrapped up in an embrace, in secret.
The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite retells the story of Anchises and Aphrodite. In the myth, Anchises professed that he would die happy if he could sleep with her.
“O lady who looks like the gods, I would willingly, once I have been in your bed, go down into the palace of Hades below.” So saying, he took her by the hand. And Aphrodite, lover of smiles, went along.”
Aphrodite soon discovered that she was pregnant, and so she revealed her true identity to Anchises. She warned him that he should not tell anyone about their relationship, but Anchises was too astonished. He excitedly told many people about his affair with Aphrodite. Not many mortals could say such a thing. In punishment for his boasting, Zeus, the king of the gods, sent a lightning bolt to injure Anchises’ foot. From that moment, Anchises was crippled.
12. Aeneas and His Mother, the Greek Goddess Aphrodite
When Aphrodite’s child was born, she named him Aeneas and gave him to Anchises to raise. The gods did not raise mortal children. However, Aphrodite supported Aeneas throughout his entire life. During the Trojan War, the goddess Aphrodite protected Aeneas from death many times, using her own body as a shield at one point.
Aeneas managed to escape Troy, carrying Anchises on his back out of the burning city. On his travels afterward, which are retold in the Aeneid, he encountered Queen Dido in Carthage. Aphrodite and Hera (or Venus and Juno) conspired to bring them together. Aphrodite intended that Dido would offer Aeneas and his company protection on their travels.
The goddess caused a storm, and Dido and Aeneas took shelter in a cave. There, the two lovers were united. Therefore, the plan worked, but the ultimate outcome brought a curse on Aeneas’ future. When Aeneas eventually decided to leave Dido to continue his quest, Dido cursed Aeneas, which later caused the Punic Wars with Carthage. The goddess Aphrodite’s meddling caused untold chaos for her son’s progeny.
Aeneas went in to settle in Italy, and his descendent, Romulus, founded the city of Rome, where Aphrodite’s worship continued as Roman Venus. Later, Julius Caesar and Augustus would claim to be descendants of Aeneas and, therefore, Aphrodite. She had several temples in Rome, including two dedicated to Venus Erycina and a temple dedicated by Caesar to Venus Genetrix, the creative element.
Originally published: February 23, 2022. Last update: February 24, 2025, by Jessica Suess.
