In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was said in one famous tradition to have been born from sea foam.
The account appears most famously in Hesiod’s Theogony. After Cronus attacked Uranus, the severed godly remains fell into the sea, where foam gathered around them. Aphrodite emerged from that foam and came ashore at Cyprus, although the poem also associates her arrival with Cythera.
Homer’s tradition gives Aphrodite a different parentage, presenting her as the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Both traditions circulated in antiquity, so the sea-foam origin is famous but not the only ancient genealogy for the goddess.
Aphrodite was associated with sexual love, beauty, desire, and fertility. Roman mythology identified her closely with Venus. Her Roman name is familiar in art and astronomy, but Aphrodite is the Greek name used in the myths and ancient Greek religious context.