Aphrodite and the Gods of Love: Eros and Hermaphroditos (Getty Villa Exhibitions) As well as intervening in the lives of mortals, Aphrodite had numerous affairs amongst the gods. She was married to Hephaistos (god of fire and metalworking) but was famously caught sleeping with Ares (god of war).
Her lovers included Ares, the god of war, and the mortal Anchises, a Trojan prince with whom she had a famous son, Aeneas. Her most famous lover, however, was the handsome and youthful mortal Adonis.
Aphrodite, the Goddess of love, and Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, had an affair. This is largely overshadowed by Aphrodite's more famous love matches with God of war Ares and human Adonis.
APHRODITE The goddess of love had a brief affair with Dionysos. As punishment for her promiscuity, Hera cursed her with an ugly child, Priapos. AURA The virgin Titan-goddess of the breeze who was made drunk and raped by the god Dionysos.
Zeus and his many lovers
He was definitely the most adulterous god, though, with his list of consorts and children being the most expansive in Greek mythology.
In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena is immune to romantic love, so there is no particular lover for her.
While having sex with her, the handmaidens say Kratos has "such power" and later they begin making love, as well. Aphrodite wanted Kratos to have sex with her again, but an impatient Kratos refused. Irritated, Aphrodite tells Kratos to go to Hephaestus for help instead.
He proceeded to leave the net of gold threads on the bed. Then, he told Aphrodite that he was going on a trip. Ares, who was always aware of Hephaestus' plans, took the opportunity and immediately went to see Aphrodite. While they were being intimate, the web of gold threads fell on them and caught them.
Aphrodite and Apollo were never romantically linked in the literature.
The most long-standing and significant of all of Aphrodite's lovers was Ares. But one night, the lovers tarried too long together. As Helius hitched up his golden chariot of the sun, he saw the lovers in Ares' palace in Thrace.
Paris chose Aphrodite, seduced by the prospect of Helen and her famed beauty. His elopement with the wife of Menelaos was the cause of the Trojan War. Two critical moments in this story are depicted on the Athenian vase shown below.
Goddess Aphrodite Married Hephaestus
Aphrodite was the goddess of love, pleasure, and beauty. This meant that she enjoyed flirtatious occasions with a number of others. However, her father Zeus decided that she should marry and end her dallying with men. Zeus forced Aphrodite to marry Hephaestus.
Ares, not always a warrior, was a lover as well. He was known for being the lover of Aphrodite aka Venus, shown with him here, who was married to Hephaestus aka Vulcan, the God of Fire.
In the myth, Apollo falls madly in love with Daphne, a woman sworn to remain a virgin. Apollo hunts Daphne who refuses to accept his advances. Right at the moment he catches her, she turns into a laurel tree, a scene famously depicted in Bernini's Apollo and Daphne sculpture.
The sharp, gold-tipped arrow pierced the heart of Apollo inflaming his love for Daphne, a beautiful nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus, while the blunt, lead-tipped arrow struck the nymph creating an intense aversion for love in the her heart.
From that time on Aphrodite slept with many. She bore children to the gods Hermes, Poseidon, and Dionysus, two of which were sexually abnormal. If Zeus never lay with her he was tempted, and he punished her by making her fall in love with a mortal, the handsome Trojan prince, Anchises.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, heard about Psyche and her sisters and was jealous of all the attention people paid to Psyche.
Aphrodite held Adonis in her arms as he bled to death. As she cried over her beloved, her tears fell into the pools of blood around them, and they were transformed through her love: from those tears mingled with the blood there bloomed the most beautiful anemone flowers.
Aphrodite also had notable mortal lovers, including Adonis and Anchises. Adonis was a handsome young man and Aphrodite fell deeply in love with him. Persephone was also in love with Adonis, so they went to Zeus to decide who would have the youth's love [see Persephone]. Zeus split Adonis' time into three parts.
The two most famous of his "loves" were the goddesses Aphrodite and Athena. The first was his unfaithful wife who had an affair with the god Ares. The second repulsed his sexual assault resulting in the accidental impregnation of Earth (Gaia).
She was known as Athena Parthenos "Athena the Virgin," but in one archaic Attic myth, the god Hephaestus tried and failed to rape her, resulting in Gaia giving birth to Erichthonius, an important Athenian founding hero.
She was the daughter of Zeus, produced without a mother, so that she emerged full-grown from his forehead. There was an alternative story that Zeus swallowed Metis, the goddess of counsel, while she was pregnant with Athena, so that Athena finally emerged from Zeus.
Athena receives the baby Erichthonius from the hands of Gaia. Erichthonios grew in the womb of Gaia and, when he was born, Gaia passed him over to Athena to care for him.
THE ILIAD : APHRODITE WOUNDED BY DIOMEDES. In the Iliad she is wounded by Diomedes while attempting to rescue her son Aeneas.
The total number of Aphrodite's offspring is generally said to be fifteen, although some sources indicate a sixteenth: Tyche, goddess of fortune and luck. There are seven consorts listed as the fathers of these many children, including the gods Poseidon and Dionysus.