Goddess of the Week: Aphrodite

We have one more Greek goddess to cover before we launch our exciting collection! We’ve discussed Hera, Artemis, and Athena, and now it’s time to turn towards who is arguably the most well-known of all the Greek deities, Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

Aphrodite represented the many facets of love, being the goddess also of beauty, sexuality, pleasure and procreation. Her symbols included the dove, sparrows and dolphins. She was born from sea foam, and emerged from a giant shell, which you can see in the iconic Botticelli painting “Birth of Venus”. Being the symbol for pure love and desire, Aphrodite had many suitors who wished to marry her, but her father Zeus married her off to the god of fire and metalwork, Hephaestus. This caused her to lash out, and engage in hundreds of affairs around the world, which resulted in her giving birth to Eros aka the famous Cupid.

Aphrodite also is primarily to blame for the infamous Trojan War. After gifting the Trojan prince Paris with the love of Helen of Troy, their relationship set off the bloody war that killed millions. While Aphrodite never had the intention of causing such a violent conflict, people usually make her the scapegoat for the tragedy.

 

Aphrodite is an interesting goddess, mainly because while she tried hard to avoid conflict, always seemed to be in the centre of it. She mainly wanted to be a symbol for love and pleasure, yet was often the cause of the exact opposite, pain and suffering. What does this tell us about love in general? It’s a powerful emotion that’s taken us through insane emotional rollercoasters, but do we come out better from it? That’s up to you.

Interested in some charms inspired by Aphrodite? Check out or Dove and Heart charms!

Stay tuned for our exciting Greek Goddess collection!