#Aphrodite

Goddess of love and desire; born of the sea-foam.

A young woman with loose auburn hair, in a blue gown under a rose-red mantle with a jewelled clasp, rests her right hand on the ornamented lid of a great lidded ceramic jar at the left — a satyr-mask moulded on its swelling belly — as if about to lift it; ivy climbs a broken pillar behind her against a stormy blue sky.

Pandora, the First Woman

The gods pooled their gifts to build one flawless girl, then handed her to mankind as a punishment; when she lifted the lid of a jar, only Hope stayed behind.

5 minHesiod

A nude Aphrodite risen waist-deep from a grey-blue sea, wringing the water from the long rope of her hair as she looks aside, a scallop shell adrift on the swell beside her.

Greek

Aphrodite, Goddess of Love

Born from sea-foam and the severed flesh of Heaven, the goddess whose power bent gods and beasts alike, and whom only three could resist.

5 minHesiod

Marble statue of Hera as queen, standing veiled in a long chiton and himation with a diadem band across her brow, her raised right hand holding a sceptre and her extended left hand bearing a shallow offering dish.

Greek

Hera, Queen of Olympus

The goddess of marriage who ruled beside Zeus and warred against him in the same breath, dressing for seduction as a strategy of state.

6 minHomer