Birth:

Hesiod describes the birth of Aphrodite after the castration of Uranus and derives her name from the Greek word for foam, aphros. Hesiod also links the goddess closely with Cythera and Cyprus; the latter was especially associated with her worship, particularly in its city of Paphos. Thus Aphrodite is called both Cytherea and Cypria. Another version of her birth gives her parents as Zeus and Dione. Dione is little more than a name to us, but a curious one, since it is the feminine form of the name Zeus (which in another form is Dios).
 

The judgment of Paris

Apollodorus, E 3.1

[1] But afterwards Alexander carried off Helen, as some say, because such was the will of Zeus, in order that his daughter might be famous for having embroiled Europe and Asia; or, as others have said, that the race of the demigods might be exalted.
[2] For one of these reasons Strife threw an apple as a prize of beauty to be contended for by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite; and Zeus commanded Hermes to lead them to Alexander on Ida in order to be judged by him. And they promised to give Alexander gifts. Hera said that if she were preferred to all women, she would give him the kingdom over all men; and Athena promised victory in war, and Aphrodite the hand of Helen. And he decided in favour of Aphrodite, and sailed away to Sparta.
 

Ares and Aphrodite tricked by Hephaestus (Odyssey 6, 295-346):

     [295] So he spoke, and a welcome thing it seemed to her to lie with him. So they two went to the couch, and lay them down to sleep, and about them clung the cunning bonds of the wise Hephaestus, nor could they in any wise stir their limbs or raise them up. Then at length they learned that there was no more escaping. [300] And near to them came the famous god of the two strong arms, having turned back before he reached the land of Lemnos; for Helius had kept watch for him and had brought him word. So he went to his house with a heavy heart, and stood at the gateway, and fierce anger seized him. [305] And terribly he cried out and called to all the gods:
    “Father Zeus, and ye other blessed gods that are forever, come hither that ye may see a laughable matter and a monstrous, even how Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, scorns me for that I am lame and loves destructive Ares [310] because he is comely and strong of limb, whereas I was born misshapen. Yet for this is none other to blame but my two parents — would they had never begotten me! But ye shall see where these two have gone up into my bed and sleep together in love; and I am troubled at the sight. [315] Yet, methinks, they will not wish to lie longer thus, no, not for a moment, how loving soever they are. Soon shall both lose their desire to sleep; but the snare and the bonds shall hold them until her father pays back to me all the gifts of wooing that I gave him for the sake of his shameless girl; [320] for his daughter is fair but bridles not her passion.”
    So he spoke and the gods gathered to the house of the brazen floor. Poseidon came, the earth-enfolder, and the helper Hermes came, and the lord Apollo, the archer god. Now the goddesses abode for shame each in her own house, [325] but the gods, the givers of good things, stood in the gateway; and unquenchable laughter arose among the blessed gods as they saw the craft of wise Hephaestus. And thus would one speak, with a glance at his neighbor:
    “Ill deeds thrive not. The slow catches the swift; [330] even as now Hephaestus, slow though he is, has out-stripped Ares for all that he is the swiftest of the gods who hold Olympus. Lame though he is, he has caught him by craft, wherefore Ares owes the fine of the adulterer.”
    Thus they spoke to one another. But to Hermes the lord Apollo, son of Zeus, said:
     [335] “Hermes, son of Zeus, messenger, giver of good things, wouldst thou in sooth be willing, even though ensnared with strong bonds, to lie on a couch by the side of golden Aphrodite?”
    Then the messenger, Argeiphontes, answered him:“Would that this might befall, lord Apollo, thou archer god —  [340] that thrice as many bonds inextricable might clasp me about and ye gods, aye, and all the goddesses too might be looking on, but that I might sleep by the side of golden Aphrodite.”

THE PHALLIC PRIAPUS
      The more elemental and physical aspects of Aphrodite's nature are seen in her son, Priapus.  His father may be Hermes, Dionysus, Pan, Adonis, or even Zeus. Priapus is a fertility god, generally depicted as deformed and bearing huge and erect phallus. He is found in gardens and at the doors of houses. He is part scarecrow, part bringer of luck, and part guardian against thieves; he has something in common with Hermes. He also resembles Dionysus and Pan (two of his other reputed fathers), and is sometimes confused with them or their retinues. Whatever the origins of Priapus in terms of sincere and primitive reverence for the male powers of generation, stories about him usually came to be comic and obscene. In the jaded society of later antiquity, his worship meant little more than a cult of sophisticated pornography.

PIGMALION

      Although many stories illustrate the mighty power of Aphrodite, the story of Pygmalion has provided a potent theme in subsequent literature. Ovid tells how Aphrodite (Venus in his version) was enraged with the women of Cyprus because they dared to deny her divinity; in her wrath, the goddess caused to be the first women to prostitute themselves, and as they lost all their of shame it was easy to turn them into stone. Ovid goes on to relate the story of Pygmalion and the result of his disgust for these women (Metamorphoses 10. 243-297).
 

Venus and Adonis   Ovid, Metamorphoses  10. 300 ? -559,  708-739

Aphrodite and marriage

#1   A bride in the center of the scene and an Eros coming from left flying to assist her. At left Aphrodite is standing looking at the bride, putting a veil over her head. On the other side of the bride, at right, a woman is coming toward the couch bringing a loutrophoros, the vase used in the marriages for the bride's bath.

#1 #2#3

Helen's first meeting with Paris in Sparta. Helen sits on Aphrodite's lap, her head veiled like a bride's. She is deep in thought, her head bent and her eyes down. Aphrodite has her arm around Helen's shoulder. A woman stands behind Helen holding a small chest; she is Peitho, goddess of Persuasion. To the right of the central group, a naked, winged boy (Himeros or Desire) grasps the arm of a nude youth who must be Paris.

Aphrodite unveiling:  #4

APHRODITE URANIA AND APHRODITE PANDEMOS
       This double tradition of Aphrodite's birth suggested a basic duality in her character or the existence of two separate goddesses of love: A Urania or Celestial Aphrodite, sprung from Uranus alone, and Aphrodite Pandemos (Aphrodite of All the People).  Aphrodite Urania has immense sexual power, represented in her origin from the genitals of Uranus.  Aphrodite Pandemos seems to have been a goddess who inspired concord among the people.
        Plato, in the Symposium (Banquet), reinterprets these two names of Aphrodite and claims that Aphrodite Urania, the older of the two, is stronger, more intelligent, spiritual; whereas Aphrodite Pandemos, born from both sexes, is devoted primarily to physical satisfaction.  The first inspires the relationship between the male "lover" and  "beloved," and in an ascent of the objects of love, leads to the love of the Idea of the Good.  Aphrodite Pandemos is the goddess of heterosexual love, marriage and the procreation of offspring.

The cult of Aphrodite in foreign lands, according to Herodotus

Her 2.112

[2] Around the precinct live Phoenicians of Tyre, and the whole place is called the Camp of the Tyrians. There is in the precinct of Proteus a temple called the temple of the Stranger Aphrodite; I guess this is a temple of Helen, daughter of Tyndarus, partly because I have heard the story of Helen's abiding with Proteus, and partly because it bears the name of the Foreign Aphrodite: for no other of Aphrodite's temples is called by that name.

Her 3.8.3  the Arabians

[1] There are no men who respect pledges more than the Arabians. This is how they give them: a man stands between the two pledging parties, and with a sharp stone cuts the palms of their hands, near the thumb; then he takes a piece of wood from the cloak of each and smears with their blood seven stones that lie between them, meanwhile calling on Dionysus and the Heavenly Aphrodite;
[2] after this is done, the one who has given his pledge commends the stranger (or his countryman if the other be one) to his friends, and his friends hold themselves bound to honor the pledge.
[3] They believe in no other gods except Dionysus and the Heavenly Aphrodite; and they say that they wear their hair as Dionysus does his, cutting it round the head and shaving the temples. They call Dionysus, Orotalt; and Aphrodite, Alilat. Pausanias 1.14.7

[7] Hard by is a sanctuary of the Heavenly Aphrodite; the first men to establish her cult were the Assyrians, after the Assyrians the Paphians of Cyprus and the Phoenicians who live at Ascalon in Palestine; the Phoenicians taught her worship to the people of Cythera. Among the Athenians the cult was established by Aegeus, who thought that he was childless (he had, in fact, no children at the time) and that his sisters had suffered their misfortune because of the wrath of Heavenly Aphrodite.  The statue still extant is of Parian marble and is the work of Pheidias.  One of the Athenian parishes is that of the Athmoneis, who say that Porphyrion, an earlier king than Actaeus, founded their sanctuary of the Heavenly One.  But the traditions current among the Parishes often differ altogether from those of the city.

1.22.3

[3] When Theseus had united into one state the many Athenian parishes, he established the cults of Aphrodite Pandemos (Common) and of Persuasion.  The old statues no longer existed in my time, but those I saw were the work of no inferior artists.  There is also a sanctuary of Earth, Nurse of Youth, and of Demeter Chloe (Green).  You can learn all about their names by conversing with the priests.