Birth of the Love Goddess
The story of the Goddess's birth has a couple of different versions, but the most famous fits her name the best. Aphrodite, Foam Born, rose naked from the Sea on a scallop shell. Blown by the gentle East Wind, Aphrodite's first stop was on the island of Cythera, and therefore her name Cytherea. But Cythera was such a tiny island that Aphrodite kept moving and eventually got to Cyprus, where she began living in Paphos. Cyprus still has the largest Aphrodite cult found, and the goddess Kypris is an epithet for Aphrodite. The temple to Aphridite Urania (either "Mountain Queen" or "Heavenly") is, for Greeks, the most sacred of all of Aphrodite's sanctuaries. At the temple, the Goddess is represented in an armed image of wood.1 This story of Aphrodite's birth is by Hesiod, who wasn't really Greek at all, but it has become he accepted version.

Robert Graves' telling, "long been acclaimed as the definitive version," says that the Horae, or the Seasons, the daughters of Themis, were the ones who clothed and waited on Aphrodite at Paphos. He makes no mention of the Charites (the Graces) attendance to Aphrodite, and I am inclined to believe him.
At any rate, the idea that she rose from the sea is accepted, as is the idea that she rises into the air attended by doves and sparrows. Many believe she was begotten of Uranus's genitals when they were thrown into the sea after being cut off by Cronus. Others call her daughter of Zeus and Dione, and others call her the daughter of either Oceanus and Tethys or Air and Earth. There are many versions of her parentage.
Marriage

Aphrodite was the first (and some say only) wife of Hephaestus, and there is a great story of how Aphrodite cheated on him with Ares, and then Hermes, Poseidon and Dionysus. She bore children to all of them except Hephaestus. She also bore Aeneas (yes, THE Aeneas) to Anchesis. To Hermes she bore was Hermaphroditus, the counterpart of Androgyne. There is more about them here. To Poseidon she bore Rhodus (Rose) and Herophilus (Lover of Hera). To Ares she bore Phobus (Fear, Deimus (Fearful, and Harmonia, but Hephaestus thought they were his. Even though Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, her favorite lover was Ares. To Dionysus she bore Priapus - who had huge genitals given to him by Hera in disapproval for Aphrodite's promiscuity. Anyway, you can find the whole funny bit in the Myth Pages.


Adonis

The Myth Pages are also where you can find the story of Aphrodite and Adonis. A story that everyone should know, as it is still referred to by "educated people."

Realm of Love

Aphrodite was in a Moon-Triad with the Bitch Hecate and the Cow-Eyed Hera. The story of her ascent from the sea is very very similar to that of Eurynome. Before the patriarchy took over - with Zeus and the Sky Gods- Aphrodite's power was much greater. Originally, orgiastic tendencies were respected and revered by everyone. They were holy and sacred, and so Aphrodite's position as the Great Goddess of Love and Desire was not one to be sneezed at. Her sex-orgies were "solemn," but later were viewed by the Hellenes as "adulterous indescretions." That was the way that I saw them too. Now, I stand corrected, with the proper respect for her sexuality. Aphrodite was the Goddess of Death-In-Life, and many of her titles seem to reach past the superficial Hellenic barriers. In Athens they remembered her as the Eldest of the Fates and sister of the Erinnyes. She was called Melaenis, Black One, which Pausanias explains away as a reference to the fact that most love-making takes place at night4. She was also called Scotia: Dark One; Androphonos: Man-Slayer; and even Epitymbria: Of the Tombs.

Source:- http://www.paleothea.com/SortaSingles/Aphrodite.html