Classical Greek MythologyOrigins of the Greek Gods |
What are Aphrodite’s origins? |
Most scholars agree that Aphrodite, whose major cult center was in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, and who was generally not spoken of in myths as an offspring of the Olympian family, was an import to Greece from the East. These scholars have seen Aphrodite as a Greek version of the Middle Eastern fertility goddess named Inanna in Sumer, Ishtar in Babylon, and Astarte in Phoenicia.