“As soon as with the adamantine metal he had culled
The genitals, he threw them out into the surging main:
There on the waves they rose and fell and rose and fell again;
And round about the immortal flesh white foam arose, and from
That foam a girl was born-she first to Kythera did come,
To sacred Kythera, and thence to sea-girt Kypris came,
And stepped upon the shore a lovely goddess with a claim
To reverence, and grass sprang up beneath her feet; her name
Is Aphrodite-gods and men both call her this (since from
The aphros she was nurtured-yes, within the frothy foam),
And also Kytherea, since from Kythera she was come,
And Kyprogenia, having been on sea-washed Kypris born,
And laughter loving, coming from the members that were torn.
Eros walked beside her; lovely Longing close behind
Followed as soon as she was born
and also when she joined the gods’ race.”

Theogony, Hesiod