Aphrodite/Venus. Goddess
of Beauty, Love and Sexuality. Born
from the sea as a fully-formed woman. Cupid/Eros, the constant child companion, is represented with a bow and the arrow of love, often poised to strike at lovers' hearts. Ovid told of how Venus took the beautiful Adonis as her first mortal lover. They were long-time companions, with the goddess hunting alongside her lover. She warns him from hunting dangerous animals; he disregards the warning, and is killed by a boar.
Her
husband, Hephaestus/Vulcan (God
of Fire), catches her cheating with Ares/Mars and forces her to return to the water. In Roman theology, Venus is a passive figure, a yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and balance of life. Her male counterparts, Vulcan and Mars, are active and fiery. Venus absorbs and tempers the male essence, uniting the opposites of male and female in mutual affection.
In art, Venus became a popular figure because she is often viewed in a state of undress, due to her birth, allowed artists to depict her nakedness with less societal judgment. Also, Aphrodite/Venus, as the goddess of beauty, encouraged artists to represent their idea of beauty.