creation

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Aries and Aphrodite

Although Ares, the god of war, was worshipped across the Greek world, there are very few myths about him. A son of Zeus and Hera, he is generally dipicted as a strong, even brutal warrior, but apart from his appearances on the battlefield, it is primarily as the lover of Aphrodite, the great goddess of love and desire, that he figures in Greek myth. Aphrodite's name means "born of foam": she was believe to have sprong from the foam of the sea at the point where Uranos' severed genitals fell. She was brough to Cythera in Cyprus, where she was decorated and anointed by her attendants, the Graces and the Seasons. She was commonly called "lover of laughter", and was associated with all aspects of sexuality, marriage and physical attraction. Often the goddess was depicted naked and accompanied by Eros, the winger god of desire.

Aphrodite was married to the craftsman-god Hephaistos but also took several lovers. The story of her affair with Ares is recounted in Homer's Odyssey. Helios, the Sun, spotted Aphrodite and Ares together and told Hephaistos. The craftsman produce a wonderful net, as fine as gossamer and as strong as adamantine, which fell over the couple as they lay in bed, capturing them in the act of adultry. Hephaistos triumphantly summoned the gods towitness the outrage, but they only laughed, Hermes and Apollo joinking that it was worth the shame of being caught just to sleep with Aphrodite. Ares was freed when he agreed to pay Hephaistos to recompense. The lovers fled the scene in embarrassment.

Another of Aphrodite's lovers was Adonis, a beautiful youth and hunter. The goddes warned him of the dangers of hunting, but he continued to frequent the woods and was killed by a wild boar which gored him in the groin. Ritual songs of lament for Adonis were sung each year at the athenian festival of the Thesmophoria