With a comb and mirror in her hand

[David Morris]

http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/areas/greek/

In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty and sexual
rapture. According to Hesiod, she was born when Uranus (the father of the gods)
was castrated by his son Cronus. Cronus threw the severed genitals into the
ocean which began to churn and foam about them. From the aphros ("sea foam")
arose Aphrodite, and the sea carried her to either Cyprus or Cythera. Hence she
is often referred to as Kypris and Cytherea. Homer calls her a daughter of Zeus
and Dione. 
After her birth, Zeus was afraid that the gods would fight over Aphrodite's
hand in marriage so he married her off to the smith god Hephaestus, the
steadiest of the gods. He could hardly believe his good luck and used all his
skills to make the most lavish jewels for her. He made her a girdle of finely
wrought gold and wove magic into the filigree work. That was not very wise of
him, for when she wore her magic girdle no one could resist her, and she was
all too irresistible already. She loved gaiety and glamour and was not at all
pleased at being the wife of sooty, hard-working Hephaestus. 

Aphrodite loved and was loved by many gods and mortals. Among her mortal
lovers, the most famous was perhaps Adonis. Some of her sons are Eros, Anteros,
Hymenaios and Aeneas (with her Trojan lover Anchises). She is accompanied by
the Graces. 

Her festival is the Aphrodisiac which was celebrated in various centers of
Greece and especially in Athens and Corinth. Her priestesses were not
prostitutes but women who represented the goddess and sexual intercourse with
them was considered just one of the methods of worship. Aphrodite was
originally an old-Asian goddess, similar to the Mesopotamian Ishtar and the
Syro-Palestinian goddess Ashtart. Her attributes are a.o. the dolphin, the
dove, the swan, the pomegranate and the lime tree. 

In Roman mythology Venus is the goddess of love and beauty and Cupid is love's
messenger. 

http://www.middlebury.edu/~harris/GreekMyth/Chap2Women.html

It may seem strange that in Homer and the later tradition Aphrodite is married
to Hephaistos, the smith and tool maker, whom Homer displays in a somewhat
pathetic and at the same time comical manner. However, if we add to Aphrodite's
procreative abilities , the equipment which a metal worker can provide, whether
he is a Neolithic, early Bronze age or Iron Age craftsman, we have two of the
basic ingredients for civilizations: Progeny and Tools. In the passage of time
this changes, the maker of tools becomes a subsidiary of a new man of power,
the military man who discovers that the easiest way to increase your GNP is to
wage war against someone who has what you need and take it away from him..
Stealing is the first stage of economic transfer, buying is more sophisticated
and appears much later.  

As soon as Hephaistos is secure in Ares' back pocket, Ares assumes Hephaistos'
previous role with military arms and of course with Hephaistos' wife, who is
forever attractive and always socially useful. The new pair standing at the
head of advancing civilization is now Aphrodite and Ares, which is precisely
what Homer shows in the Iliad. Ares seduces Aphrodite, and Hephaistos is pretty
much out of the picture except as a Chaplinesque figure contributing minor
comic relief. 



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