Aphrodite Urania

Venus Urania (Christian Griepenkerl, 1878)
Statue of the so-called 'Aphrodite on a tortoise', 430-420 BCE, Athens.[a]

Aphrodite Urania (Ancient Greek: Ἀφροδίτη Οὐρανία, romanizedAphrodítē Ouranía, Latinized as Venus Urania) was an epithet of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, signifying a "heavenly" or "spiritual" aspect descended from the sky-god Ouranos to distinguish her from the more earthly epithet of Aphrodite Pandemos, "Aphrodite for all the people".[1] The two were used (mostly in literature) to differentiate the more "celestial" love of body and soul from purely physical lust. Plato represented her as a daughter of the Greek god Uranus, conceived and born without a mother.[2][3] Hesiod described this aspect as being born from the severed genitals of Uranus and emerging from the sea foam.[4]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Urania 3" . In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. Little, Brown and Company. p. 1284.
  2. ^ Plato. Symposium. 180.
  3. ^ Xenophon. Symposium. 8 § 9.
  4. ^ Hesiod. Theogony. 188–206.