APHRODITE ~GARDENS

In Greek religion, Olympian goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. According to some legends she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione; according to others she was born out of the sea into which the blood of URANUS fell (whence the representations of Aphrodite Anadyomene). She was according to the usual legend the wife of HEPHAESTUS, but she loved ARES, to whom she bore Eros and Anteros. She also gave her favors to Anchises (father of Aneas) and DIONYSUS (father of Priapus). She is, as goddess of fertility, most closely connected with ADONIS. She was called Cythera and Cyprus because her worship was important in Cythera and Cyprus as well as in Paphos and Corinth. She had a cult as Aphrodite Urania, the heavenly goddess, which recalls her affinity with the Oriental goddess Astarte (Ishtar), and there is good reason to believe that her worship was imported from the Orient. She is called Pandemos-goddess of all people. She is identified with the Roman Venus.

_Columbia Encyclopedia~1950