Aphrodite, Rising from the Waves 🔒🔥

I imagine most if not all of you know the legend of the birth of Aphrodite (or Venus, as the case may be)? The best know version (I think) is that the children of Ouranos (the Sky Father) turned on him, castrated him and threw his “severed genitals” (as they often put it) into the Sea and Aphrodite was born.1

We get that version from Hesiod. Hesiod was kind of a crank with misogynist tendencies — he was all about “blame it on the girls.”2 So I don’t favor that story.

Homer says something different in The Iliad. There Aphrodite has a mother, Dione “shining among Goddesses.” We don’t know much about her. (Well, I don’t anyway.) She comforts her divine daughter after she was by wounded Diomedes during a battle.3 (Dude! What were you thinking? See if you ever get laid again!)4

But I do accept the idea Aphrodite emerged from the Sea. Here she is, the arms of Nereid. I’ll post more about Nereids later, especially their queen, Thetis, a Goddess I have deep feeling for. For now, let’s enjoy Aphrodite!