Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty.http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Greekhistory&gods.htm Some stories claim she was born from the sea. In these stories she springs forth from Uranus' genitals, which had been cut off and thrown into the Mediterranean Sea by his Titan son Kronos.http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/greek.gods.html Other have her born as the daughter of Zeus and the Titan Dione.http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Greekhistory&gods.htm Aphrodite is said to own a sash that she wears around her waist that makes her irresistibly attractivehttp://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Greekhistory&gods.htm

Aphrodite's siblings are Hephaestus, Hermes, Apollo, Ares, Dionysus, and Athena. She is married to Hephaestus but is unfaithful to him. She has four children with Ares, including Eros (also known as Cupid).http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/greek.gods.html Another of her children is Aeneas. Aphrodite fell in love with the King of the Dardians, Anchises. In some tellings of the tale, Zeus influences her to fall in love because he wants Aeneas born. Aeneas is a character in The Iliad who escapes the destruction of Troy. He is the namesake of The Aenead and the legendary founder of Rome.http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Greekhistory&gods.htm

Aphrodite is a key figure in The Iliad, the epic poem about the Trojan War. She is the goddess chosen by Paris as the most beautiful in the contest that includes Aphrodite, Athena and Hera.http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/history.html She was chosen by Paris because she promised him Helen as his wife. His subsequent kidnapping of her is what triggers the start of the Trojan War.http://cerhas.uc.edu/troy/bios.html# During the war, she sides with the Trojans, favoring Paris' home city.http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/info/index.php?page=iliad

During one of the battles she appears and saves Paris when he is wounded by Menelaos. Paris challenges any Greek to single combat, and Helen's husband King Menalaos agrees to fight him. Menelaos is winning the fight and has wounded Paris when Aphrodite appears and carries him away back to his bedroom in Troy.http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/info/index.php?page=iliad At another point in the story, Athena has inspired the Greek warrior Diomedes to fight and he is about to kill Aphrodite's son Aeneas when she saves him. Diomedes attacks and wounds her, and is saved by Ares.http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/info/index.php?page=iliad