Aphrodite’s birth story goes back several generations and is fraught with family drama.  The story goes that Uranus angered his mother/consort Gaia.  In response, Gaia created a great stone sickle and asked her son Cronus and his brothers to wield the weapon upon their father.  However, Cronus was the only one willing to go against their father.  So Gaia lured her lover Uranus to an ambush where Cronus quickly castrated him with the sickle and threw the severed genitals into the sea.  Makes your family look positively normal, no?  The sea foamed and frothed, and from this immortal flesh, Aphrodite was born in her full adult form.  There is an alternate story in the Illiad, however.  There Aphrodite is said to be the daughter of Zeus and Dione.  This makes Zeus either her nephew or her father depending on the narrative.  Whichever the case, this goddess was never an infant or child.  She arrived into the world at her peak power in both beauty and sensuality.  Given her propensity to inspire great lust, it is perhaps no surprise that many of her exploits center around sexual encounters.  Married to Hephaestus, she nevertheless took many lovers including Ares, Posideon, Hermes, Dionysus, Adonis, in addition to others.  Aphrodite  had an extensive entourage.  She was attended most frequently by Eros (god of sexual desire) who was one of the primordial forces from the beginning of time, though he later is described as one of her children.  The three Charities also attended her, namely Aglaea (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Cheer), and Thalia (Abundance).  Also serving in attendance were the three Hours: Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice), and Eirene (Peace).  Although many were threatened by her, Aphrodite helped both gods and mortals to find love.  However, she can be  tempermental.  Insulting her has led to disaster.