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 AdonisIn Greek mythology, Adonis was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite. Adonis.https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Adonis
(2) MORTAL LOVES
ADONIS A prince of the island of Kypros (eastern Mediterranean), who was loved by Aphrodite.
As both a king and her father-figure, Zeus had the authority to arrange her marriage and decided it was time Aphrodite had a husband. The main contender for the role was the god of war, Ares. Though they seemed like an unlikely match, it was well-known that the two were deeply attracted to one another.
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).
In Greek mythology, Adonis was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite. One day, Adonis was gored by a wild boar during a hunting trip and died in Aphrodite's arms as she wept. His blood mingled with her tears and became the anemone flower.
Her most famous lover, however, was the handsome and youthful mortal Adonis. Aphrodite was so attracted by his good looks that her jealous husband, Hephaestus, disguised himself as a boar and killed Adonis.
Later sources came up with a few reasons as to how the two very different gods came together. Aphrodite and Ares dancing behind Hephaestus' back. While being married to Hephaestus, Aphrodite was actively having an affair with Ares.
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Aphrodite later and of her own volition had an affair with Zeus, but his jealous wife Hera laid her hands upon the belly of the goddess and cursed their offspring with malformity. Their child was the ugly god Priapos.
She never had a true lover or someone to hug and hold her; all she had was her loving mother, caring father and most of all her brothers and sisters. For some very strange reason it was hopeless that she would fall in love; Hephaestus tried once, yet failed. Athena was well known for giving advice/mentoring heroes.
According to Greek mythology, Psyche was even more beautiful than Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty. All her countrymen, as well as people from all over the world, used to gather to admire her beauty, ignoring the goddess Aphrodite herself.
While that approach has certainly yielded important information on gender dynamics in late-Classical Greece, it tends to overlook the fact that though this Aphrodite is female, she is also divine.
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.
Of Aphrodite's mortal lovers, the most important were the Trojan shepherd Anchises, by whom she became the mother of Aeneas, and the handsome youth Adonis (in origin a Semitic nature deity and the consort of Ishtar-Astarte), who was killed by a boar while hunting and was lamented by women at the festival of Adonia.
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.
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 may not have been described as a virgin originally, but virginity was attributed to her very early and was the basis for the interpretation of her epithets Pallas and Parthenos. As a war goddess Athena could not be dominated by other goddesses, such as Aphrodite, and as a palace goddess she could not be violated.
Aphrodite and Apollo were never romantically linked in the literature.
Hera. The most famous of Zeus' wives, Hera was also the sister of the father of the gods, and the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth.
Zeus finally became enamored of the goddess who was to become his permanent wife — Hera.
ZEUS PUNISHES APHRODITE FOR MATING GODS WITH MEN. The age of heroes ended with Zeus deciding to put an end to Aphrodite's practise of mating gods with men. To this effect he caused her to fall in love with a mortal man, and suffer the strife of bearing a mortal son.
All three were beautiful, but Psyche was the most beautiful. Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, heard about Psyche and her sisters and was jealous of all the attention people paid to Psyche.
According to the myth of Aphrodite and Ares, the god of war fell madly in love when he met the goddess of beauty. Unlike what he did with his other lovers, he decided to win her over. He bought her gifts and complimented her constantly to gain her love.
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.
While Aphrodite is only depicted with male lovers in myth, she is said to have supported same-sex relationships in Ancient Greece, such as those of the poet Sappho, who is believed to have had relationships primarily with women lovers.