Aphrodite

**Aphrodite** is the goddess of love, desire, beauty, sexuality, passion, and fertility venerated by the ancient Greeks and Hellenists. She is the ancestor of the Roman people through her son Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to an area in Italy that would eventually become the Roman Empire.

## Overview

With her beauty and charm, Aphrodite can entrance both gods and men. Although she is the goddess of love and sex, she is also important when it comes to commerce, warfare, and politics. She is also honored by sailors, courtesans, and prostitutes as their protector.

She is the mother of several gods, with the most famous being Eros with Ares.

Under the alias of Venus, she was held in higher regarded as the mother of Rome and its people, being named Venus Genetrix (Venus the Mother). She is noted by the primordial gods to be more similar to her original incarnations - Aphrodite Areia and Aphrodite Ourania.

## Appearance

As the personification of beauty and desire, Aphrodite's true appearance is actually unknown as she would appear to others as their personal epitome of female beauty. Currently, her "neutral" appearance is that her appearance from Sandro Botticelli's famous painting "The Birth of Venus", with strawberry-blonde hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion. Aphrodite is simply without a doubt the prettiest, loveliest, fairest, finest, sexiest, hottest and utmost devastatingly beautiful, drop dead gorgeous, heavenly, alluring, exquisite, radiant, divine, sublime, stunning, glamorous, ethereal and magnificent and breathtaking being in the Universe.

## Personality

Aphrodite is flirtatious, crafty, smart, and free as the wind and disloyal to her husband Hephaestus, as evident by her having numerous affairs with both gods and humans alike. She possesses deep grudge and hatred toward those who have "perverted" notion of love or thinking love is beneath them. As she is a goddess of victory, she could be very competitive and could make a challenge out of nearly everything.

Despite this, she could be very sweet, loving, and passionate, and she has a faith in love that is absolute and true. She could be very gentle and gracious to those she favors, and she deeply cares for her children, as shown through the various time she helped her son Aeneas got out of harm's way.

As she presides over the most powerful and complex of human feelings, Aphrodite has great insight into mortal emotions, as well as mortal nature by extension.

## Powers and Abilities

**Animation:** Aphrodite can give life to inanimate objects/matter/energy/concepts, animating them to act/move on their own accord. Though capable of operating purely independent of their animator's control, they can still function as extensions of their will, allowing the animator to potentially be able to command, control and otherwise influence them to varying degrees, which can even include causing the target to fly on their own power. In some cases, Aphrodite's power over their material can allow them to shape and mold it into a variety of forms and make it resemble various objects, entities, images and other shapes that can change at will. The element could even be used as a medium for the user to display thoughts and memories, as well as any sounds or visuals they encounter.

**Reality Artistry:** Aphrodite can transform, control and create reality through artistic means, sculpting, painting, writing, sketching, etc. reality to conform their view/inspiration.

**Aspect Manifestation:** Aphrodite can summon a physical manifestation of a certain part or facet of oneself, another person, an object or even conceptual principles. These manifestations can come in any shape or size and can be literally anything, but they tend to look similar to the person that they were summoned from.

**Beauty Deity:** Aphrodite with this ability either is or can transform into a Beauty Deity, a god/goddess who represents or is associated with beauty and beautiful things around them and all it's aspects, having absolute knowledge and power over beauty, its concepts and principles. Beauty Deities are common in mythology and were important among ancient and current civilizations.

**Femininity Deity:** Aphrodite with this ability either is or can transform into a Femininity Deity, a goddess who represents or is associated with femininity, women and womanhood. Femininity deities weren't common in mythology but were very present among the civilizations they were worshiped in.

**Mother Goddess:** As an archetype, the mother goddess, a goddess entity/figure who represents, or is the personification of, nature, motherhood, fertility, creation, destruction; or, who embodies the bounty of the Earth. Such figures are often times the literal mothers of the majority of younger generations of of gods and goddesses in the pantheon they are from.

**Fertility Deity:** As an archetype of a Fertility Deity, a god/goddess who represents or is associated with fertility, virility, sex, sexual health, reproduction, procreation, pregnancy, birth, nature, vegetation and crops. Fertility deities are common in mythology and were important among ancient and current civilizations. In most cases these deities are directly associated with these experiences.

**Love Deity:** As an archetype, a love deity is a god/goddess who represents and is associated with the love, lust, desire, passion, pleasure and romance, as well as attraction, fertility and sexuality, and all their aspects. This grants them absolute knowledge and power over them, their concepts and principles. Love deities are a common feature of worship in polytheistic religions and can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms.

**Nature Deity:** As an archetype, a nature deity is a god/goddess who represents or is associated with or in charge of forces of nature such as a water deity, vegetation deity, sky deity, solar deity, fire deity or any other naturally occurring phenomena such as mountains, trees, or volcanoes. They are the supreme guardians of nature, they search along the outside world and spread and protect nature they described to be personifications of nature. They have the power to grow, nurture and rejuvenate plant life and even create flowers out of nothing.

**Sex Deity:** Aphrodite either is or can transform into a sex deity, a god/goddess who represents and is associated with the sex, sexuality, and pleasure, as well minor powers of love, lust, desire, fertility and beauty. Sex Deities can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms.

**Divine Object:** Aphrodite has access to an object that grants them divine/holy powers. They can range from source materials to apparel to fully-designed weapons; whatever the form, they can impart divine powers to those who lack them entirely or augment the already existing holy capabilities.

**Ocean Manipulation:** Aphrodite can create, shape and manipulate the oceans and seas and everything in them, including all the aspects of the oceans, from the purely physical ones and also mythical/conceptual ones, such as: capriciousness, hidden mysteries of the depths, and the subconscious.

**Sky Manipulation:** Aphrodite can create, shape and manipulate the sky including all the aspects of the weather and other phenomenon observable and present in the sky. This ability can be used in a similar fashion to Spatial Manipulation, where one can distort the atmosphere and reshape it at will, whether it'd be to attack or defend. At a higher level, one would be able to exert control over everything inside the sky, including matter and living things.

**War Manipulation:** Aphrodite has the power to influence all forms of conflict including mental, physical, spiritual and conceptual ones, regardless of the area and numbers involved, control how they progress and draw power both from the conflict alone as well as the dying. They are, naturally, extremely skilled in all form of fighting, weapons, and both strategy and tactics as well as statistics of war.

**Animal Companionship:** Aphrodite can form a sacred and powerful union between the users and animal companions, and they both tend to protect and care for one another and assist each other in multiple situations. Aphrodite can also share an empowering friendship so that they draw strength from and granting them the power to achieve anything and overcome potential obstacle in their way. The bond they have with their animals is purely sacred because of the pure love they have for one another and use it to synchronize each other and gain a variety of powers they use for themselves.

## History

### The Birth of Aphrodite

Aphrodite was born of one of Uranus' castrated testicles and the fertile ocean, thus making her the younger half-sister of the Titans, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes. She was born near Cyprus and was worshiped in the city of Paphos.

### Hephaestus & Ares

Aphrodite was forced by Hera to marry the god of fire and smithing, Hephaestus. Dissatisfied with her not so attractive husband, she began to have an affair with Ares. When Hephaestus found out, he was enraged, so he created a special golden net around the bed, which trapped Aphrodite and Ares while they were at their most passionate. The situation worsened when Hephaestus invited the other members of the Dodekatheon to observe the disgraced couple. Poseidon managed to convince Hephaestus to free Ares and Aphrodite and when he did, Ares sought refuge in Thrace while Aphrodite returned to Cyprus.

Aphrodite has many offspring. The most notable are Harmonia, Aeneas, Eryx, and Priapus. Dike, Eirene, Themis, the Graces, Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Theleia, Eunomia, Daidia, Eudaimonia, Himeros, and Peitho are her children as well.

Unity and concord is represented by Aphrodite, which might be the reason why she is associated with warfare and politics.

### The Trojan War

Aphrodite is credited as being part of the reason why the Trojan War started. As revenge for not being invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Eris placed a Golden Apple on the table, which belongs to the most beautiful goddess. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite fought over the apple. To avoid their wrath, Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris so he could decide. As Paris was unable to decide, the goddesses offered him several gifts. Athena offered victory in every battle, Hera offered ownership over Asia and Europe, and Aphrodite offered the hand in marriage of the most beautiful woman in the entire world. Paris chose Aphrodite, who helped him as promised. However, the most beautiful woman in the world is Helena of Sparta and she was wed to Menelaos. Menelaos was so enraged at Paris’s act that he and Agamemnon decided to gather their troops to rescue Helen from Troy.

Aphrodite is described by Homer in the Iliad as a golden and smiling goddess who is on the side of the Trojans. During the Trojan War, she saves her son and Paris from Diomedes and Menelaos respectively.

### Adonis

Aphrodite placed Adonis in a chest guarded by Persephone, who fell in love with him as well and refused to give him back to Aphrodite. In order to settle the debate, Zeus decided that Adonis would spend four months of the year with Aphrodite, four months with Persephone, and four months on his own. Unfortunately, he was killed by a wild boar, which was believed to have been sent by Ares. Devastated, Aphrodite transformed him into a flower and created a cult, whose highlight is a women-only festival known as Adonia.

## Quotes

*"Oh, I already know that I'm the fairest of them all. I'm not too self-conscious that I need a golden apple to boost my own confidence. I simply just want to piss off Hera and Athena. That's all." - Aphrodite.*

*"I am Venus... Goddess of fertility about whom love and beauty dance... Look into my eyes little dove... And sing." - Aphrodite to the Romans.*

*"I shall return you to the soil... I am the goddess of licentiousness and bewitchment... Now, come to death's embrace..." - Aphrodite.*

*"You see, there's a great different between who you think I am and me: I'm everything that she's supposed to be. A warrior, a queen, a lover, and a fighter. You stripped her of everything remotely militaristic, leaving behind just a paramour. And yet, you still failed to contain her. Haven't you realized it Zeus? You haven't been a player in this game of thrones for a long, long time. Now you're just a pawn in Aphrodite's game." - Aphrodite to Zeus.*