The Orphic Hymns

for all things are from you; you yoked the world and you rule its three portions, and you give birth to all things, all that is in the sky and on the fruitful earth and in the depths of the sea, holy companion of Bacchus,

Here Aphrodite is a power of the whole world. Everything comes from her, and she gives birth to all that lives in the sky, on the earth and in the sea, which are probably the "three portions" she rules. Philosophers and poets had given her this place before. Empedocles called the force that joins the elements Love and gave it Aphrodite's name, and the Roman poet Lucretius opens his poem on nature with a prayer to Venus as the one who alone governs the nature of things. The hymn also makes her the paredros of Bacchus, the one who sits beside him, as a partner sits beside a king or a guest at table.