Aphrodite

Goddess of desire, beauty, and generation. Hesiod makes her the oldest Olympian, risen from the sea-foam (*aphros*) that gathered around the severed flesh of Uranus when Kronos cast it in — she comes ashore first at Cythera, then at Cyprus. Homer flattens her into a daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Dione. Her belt — the *kestos himas* — compels love in any wearer.

Associated Places