Aphrodite
Published on Nov 19, 2015
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
THE STORY OF APHRODITE
LUCY CATALAN
Aphrodite was the Goddess of love, beauty, pleasure.
Photo by Sebastià Giralt
Because of her beauty, other gods feared that their rivalry over Aphrodite would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who, because of his ugliness and deformity, was not seen as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers—both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis's lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite.
Photo by avrenim_acceber
The gods were all invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles), except Eris, goddess of discord. In revenge, Eris makes a golden Apple of Discord, it was "to the fairest", which she throws among the goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claim it.
Zeus delegates the choice to a mortal, Paris. The goddesses offer him bribes. Hera offers him supreme power, and Athena offers him wisdom, fame, and glory in battle. Aphrodite offers him Helen of Troy, the most beautiful mortal woman in the world, as a wife. As the goddess of desire, she causes Paris to become inflamed with desire for Helen at first sight, and he awards the Apple to her. Helen is already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. The other two goddesses are enraged by this, and through Helen's abduction by Paris, they bring about the Trojan War.
Photo by Xuan Che
During the Trojan war, Aphrodite, the mother of Aeneas, who had been declared the most beautiful of all the goddesses by a Trojan prince, naturally sided with the Trojans. She saved Paris from his contest with Menelaus, but when she endeavoured to rescue her darling Aeneas from the fight, she was pursued by Diomedes, who wounded her in her hand. In her fright she abandoned her son, and was carried by Iris in the chariot of Ares to Olympus, where she complained of her misfortune to her mother Dione, but was laughed at by Hera and Athena. She also protected the body of Hector, and anointed it with ambrosia.
Photo by janwillemsen
The moral of this story is that we should never get jealous of someone who we think is prettier or more handsome than us, jealousy and revenge doesn't lead to anywhere.
Photo by zenera
It is connected to today because like Paris, we sometimes have to make tough decisions, and we judge others based on what they do to or for us or even how they look. We seem to be disinterested on those who don't look or dress nice.
Photo by Viola's visions
