Aphrodisiac

In ancient Greek tradition, Aphrodite is the goddess of love. Daughter of the sky father Uranus and the earth-mother Gaia, Aphrodite had many paramours. She married the fire god Hephaestus but dallied with such Olympian luminaries as Adonis, Ares, Hermes and even Zeus himself. One of these affairs produced Eros, the love-god.

Aphrodite was a powerful and chaotic personality who smote the gods with insatiable lust for one another. Considered the epicenter of sensuality, Aphrodite is the inspiration for the word aphrodisiac, which means “pertaining to carnal desire,” or “a drug or preparation inducing lust.” Aphrodite’s son, Eros, mentioned a moment ago, grew up to be the god of love; he left his linguistic footprint in the term erotic, meaning “concerning sensual pleasure.”

The Romans, borrowing the traditions of the Greek Aphrodite, fashioned Venus, their own goddess of sexual love and beauty. This is the same diety who inspired the name for the second planet from the sun, and the adjective venereal, meaning, technically, “associated with carnal desire,” but is best known in the phrase venereal disease. Not a very noble lexical heritage for the love goddess Venus!

Next time on this series, more names associated with love and desire: Romeo and Lothario.