Aphrodite was the exception to the
Greek God family tree. Some say her parents were unknown, and that
she was born of sea foam. Others, like the poet Homer, said she was
a daughter of the mighty Zeus,
king of all the gods. No one knows quite where to place her on the Greek
God family tree.
However she was born, Aphrodite was
the goddess of love and beauty. She was an essential element of many
Greek myths.
Legend says that Aphrodite could be kind or merciless.
But the truth is that most of the myths about Aphrodite are, well, rather focused on
Aphrodite. Not that she was vain. Aphrodite knew that she was the
fairest in the land.
To be fair to Aphrodite, she was not
at all like Ares,
the god of war. Ares loved to cause pain and havoc. Aphrodite was
only merciless
if you did something that truly angered her. Aphrodite was easier angered, especially when it came to
vanity.
For example, if you believe the old
myths, it was not a quarrel over land or goods, but was instead Aphrodite's
vanity that caused the Trojan War. Read the myth: Aphrodite
and Queen Helen of Sparta.
