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Aphrodite Facts & Worksheets

Aphrodite is the Olympian goddess of love, beauty and pleasure. She is the equivalent of the Roman goddess Venus.

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Aphrodite was most famous as the Greek goddess of love. In addition, she was the Olympian goddess of beauty, pleasure, and fertility. The goddess Venus was her Roman counterpart. In the Paris Judgement, she was chosen as the fairest among Athena and Hera. The decision significantly affected the Trojan War because the two goddesses who lost the contest sided with the Greeks who won the war. She had a demigod son named Aeneas from her affair with the mortal Anchises.

See the fact file below for more information on Aphrodite, or alternatively, you can download our 26-page Aphrodite worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Aphrodite Goddess

  • Except for Zeus and Hades, she had affairs with all Olympians.
  • She had relationships with mortals like Adonis, Anchises, and Paris.
  • Her name was derived from the Ancient Greek word “aphros,” which means “sea foam” and was associated with her birth story.
  • To the Greeks, she represents the ideal of the perfect female body.
  • Her major attributes were doves, myrtles, roses, sparrows, and swans.
  • She was worshipped as a warrior goddess in Laconia, Greece.
  • As the patron goddess of prostitutes, she was closely associated with the Greco-Roman concept of “sacred prostitution.”

Origin

  • Her cult was founded by the Assyrians and evolved from the Phoenician cult of Astarte. The Paphians of Cyprus also founded her cults, followed by the Phoenicians of Ascalon, who influenced the people of Cythera to worship her.
  • She was frequently associated with Inanna-Ishtar, an Ancient Mesopotamian goddess revered as the Queen of Heaven. The two goddesses were associated with sexuality and procreation.
  • According to Greek geographer Pausanias, she was worshipped in Sparta as Aphrodite Areia, which means “warlike.” Pausanias also mentioned her statues in Sparta and Cythera, which were depicted with arms, implying her Near Eastern origins.
  • Some mythologists believe she descended from the Indo-European goddess of dawn, Eos, who had a Greek counterpart.
  • Although modern scholars believe she was originally a Semitic deity, the influence of the Indo-European goddess was still recognized because both goddesses had relationships with mortals.
  • Author Michael Janda notices a similarity between the meanings of the names Aphrodite and Eos. Eos is Greek for “she who rises from the foam.” The author also relates her birth, rising from the waters to Indo-European myth.

Mythology

Birth

  • She was said to be born in Paphos, on the island of Cyprus. The Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia marked her birthplace and became a pilgrimage site in the ancient world.
  • According to some myths, her birth occurred near the island of Cythera, which served as a crossroads for trade and culture between the peoples of Crete and Peloponnesus.
  • Hesiod told a story about the goddess’s birth in Theogony.
    • Cronus attacked Uranus by slamming his reproductive organs into the sea. She was born from the foam produced by the thrown organs.
    • This account is based on The Song of Kumarbi, also known as “The Song of Emergence” in English.
  • She was described as the daughter of Zeus and Dione in Homer’s poem Iliad. Somewhere in northwestern Greece, Zeus and Dione shared a cult.

Marriage and Other Affairs

  • She was portrayed as having no childhood and was frequently shown naked.
  • In the Iliad, she was the unmarried wife of Ares, the god of war.
  • In Demodocus’ Odyssey, she was Hephaestus’ wife and had an extramarital affair with Ares during the Trojan War. The sun god Helios discovered her affair with Ares, who saw them having sex in her husband’s bed. The sun god reported what he saw to Hephaestus, who trapped them in a gold net. She was humiliated because they were displayed in front of all the gods. She went back to Cyprus.
  • She caused deities to have affairs with mortals, according to the First Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, written around the mid-seventh century BCE. It enraged Zeus, especially when she fell in love with a handsome mortal shepherd named Anchises. She appeared to Anchises as a tall, beautiful, mortal virgin. In exchange for blessing him and his family, the man promised to build her an altar on Mount Ida. She lied, claiming to be a mortal from a noble family. The man fell in love with her, and after their affair, she revealed her true form as a goddess. Aeneas was their demigod son.
  • In Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses, she cursed Adonis, Myrrha’s son, because his grandmother boasted that Myrrha was more beautiful than the goddesses. After transforming into a myrrh tree, Myrrha gave birth to Adonis. She discovered the baby and thought he was attractive. She delivered Adonis to the underworld to be raised by Persephone. After a few years, she returned and admired Adonis even more, to the point where she fought Persephone over the mortal. She had an affair with Adonis after Zeus settled the custody battle.

Judgment of Paris and Trojan War

  • In Iliad, she fought with Hera and Athena over the apple that discord goddess Eris threw among them with the words “for the fairest.”
  • This revealed her greatest weakness as vanity and jealousy, especially if someone was more beautiful than her.
  • Each of the three goddesses claimed to be the fairest and deserving to own the apple.
  • The dispute was planned by Eris because of her anger when he was not invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis.
  • Zeus refused to choose among them, so he put the choice into the hands of the Trojan prince Paris.
  • Paris could not decide, so the three resorted to bribes. Hera promised him power over all of Asia and Europe. Athena offered him wisdom, fame, and glory in battle. She promised Paris that she would let him marry Helen, the most beautiful woman on earth.
  • Paris chose her, and the two other goddesses were enraged and sided with the Greeks in the war causing defeat to the Trojans.

Worship

Classical Period

  • Aphrodisia was the name of her main festival. It was observed throughout Greece, particularly in Athens and Corinth.
  • In Athens, the celebration was held every fourth day of Hekatombaion, the first month of the year in Ancient Greece. It commemorates her role in uniting Attica as well as her involvement in the Arrhephoria festival.
  • Her cult priests would cleanse the temple of Aphrodite Pandemos, located in the southwest corner of the Acropolis, with blood from a sacrificial dove. Following the anointing of altars, the cult statues in the temple would be escorted to a location where they would be ritually cleaned.
  • Her warlike attributes linked her to Ares, with whom she had an affair in Sparta.
  • She was the patron goddess of prostitutes ranging from street prostitutes to well-educated hired companions known as pornai and hetairai. Corinth was brimming with hetairai. On the Acrocorinth, the city had a major temple dedicated to her, which served as the main center of her cults.

Hellenistic Period

  • The Greeks associated her with the Egyptian goddesses Hathor and Isis.
  • She was presented as the patron goddess of the Lagid queens, with Queen Arsinoe II, a Ptolemaic queen and co-regent of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of ancient Egypt during around 270 BCE, as her mortal incarnation.
  • Many temples to her were built throughout Alexandria. Queen Arsinoe II persuaded the city to worship Adonis, which most women readily accepted.
  • Archimedes designed the massive catamaran galley Tessarakonteres with a circular temple for her.
  • Ptolemy VIII Physcon dedicated a temple to her in Philae, calling her Aphrodite Hathor.
  • During the early Ptolemaic period in Egypt, her statuettes were used for personal devotion.

Roman Period

  • The ancient Romans were the first to associate her with Venus. Venus was their goddess of agricultural fertility, vegetation, and the arrival of spring.
  • In 300 BCE, she became officially associated with Venus when the cult of the Roman goddess was introduced to Rome from Mount Eryx in Sicily, which was considered her sanctuary. As a result, the Romans began to adopt her characteristics and apply them to Venus.
  • During ancient times, a man named Aeneas was said to have founded Rome. Her son with the Trojan prince Anchises had the same name. Venus came to be regarded as the mother of all Rome.
  • However, Julius Caesar, a descendant of Aeneas, was vehemently opposed to the Venus cult in Rome. His descendants, such as Augustus, continued to oppose the cult.

Aphrodite Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Aphrodite across 26 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Aphrodite worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Aphrodite, who is the Olympian goddess of love, beauty and pleasure. She is the equivalent of the Roman goddess Venus. Aphrodite’s major symbols include myrtle, roses, doves, sparrows and swans. She wears a girdle-like belt called a cestus as her weapon to increase her female attraction. It is capable of making others fall in love with whoever wears it, and Hera is known to borrow the belt on occasion.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

  • Aphrodite Facts
  • The Goddess’ Origin
  • Traits of a Goddess
  • Sacred Symbols
  • Almighty Word Hunt
  • Aphrodite’s Truth
  • Fairest of Them All
  • Goddess’ Choice
  • Work of Art
  • Aphrodite’s Connection
  • Fill in the Box

Frequently Asked Questions

What were Aphrodite’s powers?

Aphrodite was a goddess in Greece who was responsible for love and beauty. She had a power where she could make anyone who wore her belt become very attractive to others. Other goddesses would sometimes borrow Aphrodite’s belt in the past. Another skill Aphrodite had was being able to make couples fall in love with each other again when they were fighting.

Who did Aphrodite love?

Amongst her many loves were Ares, the god of war, and Anchises, a Trojan prince. However, she is most famously remembered for her relationship with the handsome mortal Adonis.

Who is Aphrodite’s child?

Aeneas, the only child of Aphrodite and Trojan prince Anchises, was a mythical hero of Troy and the founder of Rome. Aeneas led the Trojan survivors after their city fell to the Greeks. He became famous for his exceptional courage and military abilities, second only to Hector.

Is Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus?

She was described as the daughter of Zeus and Dione in Homer’s poem Iliad. 

What was Aphrodite’s weakness?

This revealed her greatest weakness as vanity and jealousy, especially if someone was more beautiful than her.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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