Aphrodite
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Aphrodite. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
one of the chief divinities of the Greeks, the goddess of love and beauty, so called because she was sprung from the foam aphros of the sea. She was the wife of Hephæstus, but she loved besides, among gods, Ares and Dionysus, and among mortals, Anchises and Adonis. The chief places of her worship in Greece were Cyprus and Cythera. In earlier times the patroness of marriage and maternity, she became later the ideal of graceful womanhood, and was spiritualized by Plato as Aphrodite Urania. By others she was degraded in Aphrodite Pandemos to be the patroness of mere sensual love. The worship of Aphrodite was originally the symbol of the fructifying powers of nature. Her cult was introduced by the Phoenicians into Cyprus, and soon spread over all Greece. She was originally identical with Astarte, the Ashtoreth of the Hebrews. By the Romans she was identified with APIA Venus, hitherto one of the least important Roman divinities (see VENUS). The finest statues of the goddess that still APHRODITE exist are those of Melos (Milo) at Paris, hone of Capua at Naples, and of the Medici at Florence.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
af-ro-di'te, in Greek mythology, the goddess of love and marriage. Homer describes her as the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Other authorities state that she sprang from the foam of the sea. The Zephyrs wafted her to the shore of the Isle of Cyprus. Here the Seasons received her, dressed her as suited her beauty, and led her to Olympus. The gods were charmed with the fair goddess, and each one demanded her for a wife. Zeus bestowed her upon Vulcan. She became the mother of Eros or Cupid. Aphrodite was also called Cytherea, because of her worship on the island of Cythera. Aphrodite, or Venus, as the Romans called her, possessed a girdle called the Cestus, which had the power of inspiring love. She was also able to grant beauty and all physical charms to her votaries. The rose, myrtle, poppy, and apple were sacred to Aphrodite, and among animals the dove, swallow, swan, ram, hare, and tortoise. See Venus
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
The Grecian name for Venus , from the Greek word meaning froth, because Venus is said to have been born from the froth of the ocean.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The myths themselves are as Collier's told them in 1921, and the Venus de Milo is still the Louvre's; what has shifted is the explaining. The derivation from aphros, "foam" — offered flatly by 1000 Classical Characters in 1900 — is now generally treated as an ancient folk etymology invented to fit Hesiod's birth story, with the name itself probably non-Greek and brought in from the east. Collier's confident claim that she was "originally identical with Astarte" has softened into a debate: most scholars accept heavy Near Eastern influence, much of it arriving through Cyprus, where excavation at Palaepaphos has explored her greatest sanctuary, but see the Greek goddess as a fusion rather than a straight import. Aphrodite Urania and Pandemos, which Collier's reads as a spiritualized versus a "degraded" love, are now understood as ordinary civic cult titles that Plato reinterpreted for his own argument in the Symposium.
Written for this edition, 2026.