Aphrodite And The Greek Goddess Essay

Mirror, Mirror: The Goddess of Love “Mirror, Mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?” “Aphrodite, oh great one.” That is if you were in Greece, many people would say that Venus is the fairest of them all. In fact both of them were, because they were both the goddess of beauty, love, and fertility. But how could this be true? In the early years, most civilizations needed guides other than government, to explain their every action and guide them through life. Greek Mythology and Roman Mythology were both used to establish a boundary and a way of living for people in this time. Aphrodite, being the Goddess name for Greek Mythology. Venus being the Goddess name in Roman Mythology. You can see from many other names that the Romans used names that were from the solar while; the Greeks names were the complete opposite. Both had many of the same stories and powers, but were adapted to fit the culture around them. Analyzing the two, you could say this is like the …show more content…
Symbolism created a great representation of each god and goddess. For Venus and Aphrodite, the common symbol for both was the rose, because it symbolized love and romance. Some other common symbols were the myrtle, scallop shell, mirror, and pearls. The myrtle is a plant that symbolizes love and is the Hebrew symbol for marriage; this was a sacred plant to both goddesses. Peals were known as a symbol, because they are known to be precious and delicate, describing the goddess compared to Ares/Mars, the god of war. The scallop shell represented the myth of her forming from sea foam. Lastly, the mirror was used to describe their beauty and fertility, and explains why the symbol used for a biological female is a circle was a small cross beneath. All of these symbols had a special meaning not only to mortals, but to the goddess as well, and many of these symbols are still used