Beautiful Aphrodite, the queen of love, traveled over the sea and through the sky every day of her life, looking for princes and princesses, or shepherds and shepherdesses, who wanted her help. When she went across the sea, she sailed in the great silver shell which had first carried her to land, while blue and green water nymphs sometimes played about her and sometimes rode on their dolphins, laughing and singing, with the foam sparkling like diamonds in their long hair; Tritons, too, swam like mermen through the water, blowing trumpets made of shells.

When Aphrodite traveled in the air, the procession was more wonderful still. She had a golden chariot drawn by four white doves, harnessed with strings of emeralds and rubies and pearls; and hundreds of little birds flew around it in a cloud, singing with all their might. With her in the chariot went Cupid, who, as you know, could sometimes look like a fairy prince, and sometimes like a little laughing child. But, whether he was a prince or a tiny boy, he always had his beautiful wings on his shoulders and carried his bow and arrows, which he used whenever his mother told him so to do.

👉 And that's it for now! Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already: Classicsness.com. And if you want to know more about classics and even learn Latin online, check out LatinFromScratch.com.

📚 Source: Once Upon A Time: Children’s Stories From The Classics (1920?) by Blanche Winder (1866-1930).