jan War. Aphrodite was among two other goddess, Hera and Athena, who were invited to the wedding of King Peleus and his sea nymph Thetis. Eris the goddess of discord was so outraged that she was not invited, so she threw a golden apple labeled "to the fairest" in the center of the floor. All three goddess knew that they were the fairest, and fought over it. Since Zeus would not choose the fairest, the goddess's looked upon Paris, the Prince of Troy, to make the award. Each goddess offered poor Paris a bribe for them to be the chosen one. Thus the bribe he could not turn down was that of Aphrodite, as she offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Troy. Helen however was the wife of the Greek king Menelaus, so Paris's abduction of Helen led to the Trojan WarAphrodite is frequently seen as a reclining nude, laying in the forest . As shown in many works of art such as Bernardino Luini's Venus, we are able to see her as she becomes one with nature. Though vanity played a great part in Aphrodite's life, she is most often depicted in portraits with her mirror in her toilet. But unlike the dignified beauty of the Olympian goddesses, Aphrodite's beauty was truly feminine. Many artists have tried to depict various woman as Aphrodite, it was a way to show their own personal feeling towards the woman, by giving them goddess qualities. The reclining nude played a very important part in famous Italian paintings of the Sixteenth century. Artists such as Titian, Cranach, and Luini, all try to show the beauty of the woman through mythological influence. In these paintings we are able to associate Aphrodite with roses, the dolphin, the swan, and putti. Putti have played also the role of being noted as her son Eros. She is also associated with the myrtle tree, sparrow, dove, tortoise, ram, golden apples, poppy, red pomegranets, the planet Venus and the month of April.The statue of the Mazarin Venus is frequently compared with that of, ...
