Aphrodite

American  

[af-ruh-dahy-tee] / ˌæf rəˈdaɪ ti /

noun

1. the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, identified by the Romans with Venus.

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Aphrodite British  

/ ˌæfrəˈdaɪtɪ /

noun

1. Also called: Cytherea.  Roman counterpart: Venus.  Greek myth the goddess of love and beauty, daughter of Zeus

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Aphrodite Cultural  

1. The Greek and Roman goddess of love and beauty; the mother of Eros and Aeneas. In what may have been the first beauty contest, Paris awarded her the prize (the apple of discord), choosing her over Hera and Athena as the most beautiful goddess (see Judgment of Paris). She was thought to have been born out of the foam of the sea and is thus often pictured rising from the water, notably in The Birth of Venus, by Botticelli.

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Etymology

Origin of Aphrodite

First recorded in 1650–60; from Greek Aphrodī́tē, incorrectly etymologized by the Greeks, e.g., the poet Hesiod (8th century b.c.), to mean “risen from the sea foam” (aphrós), but who correctly believed her to have come from the Levant and associated her especially with the island of Cyprus; probably from Phoenician ʿAshtart (i.e., Astarte), influenced by Greek aphrós; from the Common Semitic root ʿṯtr, used to form personal names of the morning and evening stars; Ashtoreth ( def. ), Astarte ( def. ), Esther ( def. ), Ishtar ( def. )