# Aphrodite — The Argonautica character guide

> Aphrodite in The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Kypris, Kythereia

**First appearance:** 0002-book-iii

## Snapshot

The goddess of desire, coaxed by Hera and Athena into making a foreign princess burn for a stranger—and she knows exactly how dangerous her son's arrows are.

## Who they are

Aphrodite owes Jason an old debt: years ago he carried her, disguised as a crone, across a flooded river, and she has not forgotten. When Hera and Athena come asking her to bewitch Medea with love for the hero, she bristles less at the request than at her own unruly son, whose arrows she cannot always aim. Her reluctant compliance sets the entire romance—and the quest's success—in motion.

## In the story

### [Book III: The Love of Medea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_argonautica_se/chapters/book-iii)

Goddess of love, enlisted by Hera and Athena to have Eros shoot Medea with a love arrow.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_argonautica_se/characters/aphrodite
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_argonautica_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_argonautica_se/characters