Aphrodite

The Goddess of Love (Art by Sandro Botticelli)

### Aliases

Venus, Morning Star, Aphrodite Sparta, Aphrodite Areia, Aphrodite Urania, Aphrodite Pandemos, Goddess of all aspects of sexuality, Lady of Beauty, Protector of those who Traveled by Sea, Protector of Courtesans and Prostitutes, Governor of Love

## Physical Description

### Spirit of

Love, Desire, Lust, Beauty, Sexuality, Passion, Fertility, Procreation, Pleasure, Commerce, Warfare, Politics, Victory, Prosperity

## Relatives

### Consorts

Hephaestus, Ares, Poseidon, Hermes, Dionysus, Adonis

### Offspring

Phobos, Deimos, Eros

**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 famouse 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.

## Power and Abilities

As a daughter of a Primordial, and a being who rules over love, Aphrodite is a powerful goddess in her own right. Although Aphrodite is related to beauty and sexuality, she is not a goddess to be underestimated as she is not related to strength and power, as she has enough power to be part of the Dodekatheon, meaning she must rival Zeus in power while still inferior to him. Aphrodite's power is so great that she can easily defeat a Cherubim and a Seraphim with a snap of her fingers, coming close to the power level of the weakest True Archangels.

## History

### The Birth of Aphrodite

Aphrodite was born of one of Dyēus' castrated testicles and the fertile ocean, thus making her the younger half-sister of the Titans, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclops. 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 Aprodite, 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.