Aphrodite has two distinct versions of her birth, which represent her dual character as a goddess of both sexual desire and a more heavenly, pure kind of love. In Homer, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione, a female figure whose name is the feminine form of Zeus; and she is clearly the goddess of desire. Hesiod preserves a more detailed and aetiological story in which she is born from the genitals of Ouranos amid the sea foam ( aphros ). This birth myth makes Aphrodite older than the Olympian gods and connects her with a more ethereal love as a daughter of Ouranos/Heaven. After the violent separation of Earth and Heaven, she takes on the power of the older, more abstract Eros to cause sexual desire and union. In myth, Eros then becomes her son and a recognizable god.

There is no mention of Aphrodite in Linear B, but she does appear to have Near Eastern origins, as suggested by her major cult site on Cyprus . In addition, the old Phoenician love goddess Ishtar-Astarte has many similarities with her, including epithets (as "queen of heaven"/ "Ourania"), a connection with the sea, doves, incense altars, and other things. Aphrodite's temple at Paphos dates to the 12 th c. B.C. (in the Mycenaean era); and another at Kition, where the sanctuary also included a smithy, is also from the Late Mycenaean period.

Around 340 B.C., Praxiteles created a famous nude statue of Aphrodite which scandalized some people of his day and was eventually displayed in a round temple at Knidos, where it was visible from all sides. Although Aphrodite is connected with beautiful clothing and jewlery and perfume (look at her dressing scene in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite ), she was often shown in the nude after this time. How would the psychological theory of myth explain her?