do not mean to add a paradox when I assert, that this artificial weakness produces a propensity to tyrannize, and gives birth to cunning, the natural opponent of strength, which leads them to play off those contemptible infantine airs that undermine esteem even whilst they excite desire (Wollstonecraft pg.104).There are endless examples of just this type of cunning and deception in Aphrodites history. One such depiction is in the story of the princess Smyrna; - in it the wife of King Cinyrus the Cyprian brags aloud that her daughter, the princess, is more beautiful than the goddess Aphrodite is. Out of her own jealousy and vanity Aphrodite causes Smyrna to have sex with her own father, the King, while he is in a drunken stupor. While the princess is still bearing the child, the King finds out about this folly and in a rage chases his own daughter, wielding a sword with intentions of killing her. Despite herself, the goddess takes sympathy and turns Smyrna into a myrrh tree, a historically aphrodisiac source. When the King splits the tree in half out comes the beautiful baby Adonis whom Aphrodite saves and turns over to the underworld goddess Persephone for safe hiding. Resultantly Persephone and Aphrodite both fall in love with the gorgeous mortal and have quite a scuffle to win his affections. In this story, even the sad and despondent Persephone joins in the cattiness (Graves pg.69). But this is far from being the only story to depict the goddess Aphrodite in such an unprestigious manner. In fact she has affairs with many of the other gods of Olympus bearing quite a few children as a result. Despite the fact that Aphrodite was married to the lame Smith-God Hephaestus, she cheated on him time after time. Some of her other escapades were with the gods Hermes, Poseidon, Dionysus and many others as well as mortals. Not to mention that she is well known as the lover of the god of war, Ares. Her relationship to Ares is rather ...
