Pygmalion

In an ancient Greek and Roman myth, Pygmalion was a king of Cyprus who created a atatue of a maiden so beautiful he fell in love with it. Aphrodite (Roman Venus) answered his prayer by granting life to the statue, Galatea.

English word: We use Pygmalion for someone who creates a beautiful woman. George Bernard Shaw's play, "Pygmalion" was based on this myth. That play was the basis for the musical "My Fair Lady."

Venus

To the ancient Romans, Venus (Greek, Aphrodite) was the goddess of love. She was the wife of Vulcan and the mother of Cupid (although Vulcan was not necessarily his father).

English word: From Venus get the name for Venus, the second planet from the sun, which is often the morning or evening star. We also get venereal, relating to sexual intercourse, especially to describe sexually transmitted disease.

Eros

Eros was an ancient Greek god of love (Latin, Cupid), commonly said the be the son of Aphrodite (Latin, Venus). This is the same little guy with the bow and arrows that made people and gods fall in love.

English word: Eros is the source of erotic and related words.

Aphrodite

Aphrodite was the ancient Greek goddess of love (called Venus by the ancient Romans). Her name means "foam-born," because she rose out of the sea, fully grown, mature, and magnificently beautiful, as shown in The Birth of Venus, the famous painting by Botticelli. She was a goddess of triple aspect: Aphrodite Urania -- ideal, spiritual love; Aphrodite Genetrix -- marriage; and Aphrodite Porne -- lust and prostitution.

Aphrodite played an essential role in the story of the Trojan War. At a wedding, all the gods and goddesses were invited except Eris, the goddess of discord. She attended the wedding anyway, and tossed out a golden apple, inscribed "To the fairest." Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena each claimed to be the fairest. To settle the dispute, Zeus gave the choice to Paris, a prince of Troy. Each of the three goddesses tempted Paris with a special gift. Venus won by offering him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, who was already married to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Paris carried Helen off to Troy, the spark that ignited the Trojan War.

English word: Several words are derived from the names for Aphrodite. The most obvious is aphrodisiac, a substance that stimulates sexual desire. Several English words derive from Aphrodite Genetrix: genital -- related to the reproductive organs; progenitor -- ancestor; even gentleman and gentlewoman -- man or woman "of gentle birth." Another English word derived from an aspect of Aphrodite is pornography -- sexually arousing written material or its graphic portrayal. Another English word that may derive from Aphrodite is April, the month when love blooms.

Adonis

In the ancient Greek myth, Adonis was a youth who was so beautiful when he was born that Aphrodite, the goddess of love, put him into a wooden chest and gave him to Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, to keep him safe. When Persephone saw how beautiful he was, she refused to give him back to Aphrodite. This sparked a quarrel between two goddesses. Zeus, the king of the gods, resolved the quarrel when he decided to have Adonis spend four months each year with each of the two, with four months of the year to himself.

The myth goes on that Adonis was killed by the tusks of a boar sent by one of the other gods. In another version of the myth, Adonis was born from a tree when a boar tore up the bark of a tree with its tusks.

In ancient Greece, women practiced the cult of Adonis. At midsummer, they planted "gardens of Adonis," consisting of fast-growing salad greens, on flat rooftops. After the plants withered and died, the women wailed and mourned their beautiful god. However, the next year he returned, for he was a god of vegetation, a god of birth-death-and rebirth.

English word: In English, just as in ancient Greek, Adonis refers to a beautiful youth.