cient
divinities, and, whilst those of later date are represented as having
descended one from another, and all more or less from Zeus, Aphrodite has a
variously-accounted-for, yet independent origin.

The most poetical version of her birth is that when Uranus was wounded by
his son Cronus, his blood mingled with the foam of the sea, whereupon the
bubbling waters at once assumed a rosy tint, and from their depths arose,
in all the surpassing glory of her loveliness, Aphrodite, goddess of love
and beauty! Shaking her long, fair tresses, the water-drops rolled down
into the beautiful {60} sea-shell in which she stood, and became
transformed into pure glistening pearls. Wafted by the soft and balmy
breezes, she floated on to Cythera, and was thence transported to the
island of Cyprus. Lightly she stepped on shore, and under the gentle
pressure of her delicate foot the dry and rigid sand became transformed
into a verdant meadow, where every varied shade of colour and every sweet
odour charmed the senses. The whole island of Cyprus became clothed with
verdure, and greeted this fairest of all created beings with a glad smile
of friendly welcome. Here she was received by the Seasons, who decked her
with garments of immortal fabric, encircling her fair brow with a wreath of
purest gold, whilst from her ears depended costly rings, and a glittering
chain embraced her swan-like throat. And now, arrayed in all the panoply of
her irresistible charms, the nymphs escort her to the dazzling halls of
Olympus, where she is received with ecstatic enthusiasm by the admiring
gods and goddesses. The gods all vied with each other in aspiring to the
honour of her hand, but Hephaestus became the envied possessor of this
lovely being, who, however, proved as faithless as she was beautiful, and
caused her husband much unhappiness, owing to the preference she showed at
various times for some of the other gods and also for mortal men.

[Illustration]

The celebrated Venus of Milo, now in the Louvre, is an exquisite statue of
this divinity. The head is beautifully formed; the rich waves of hair
descend on her rather low but broad forehead and are caught up gracefully
in a small knot at the back of the head; the expression of the face is most
bewitching, and bespeaks the perfect {61} joyousness of a happy nature
combined with the dignity of a goddess; the drapery falls in careless folds
from the waist downwards, and her whole attitude is the embodim