Aphrodite

**Aphrodite** is the Olympian Goddess of love and beauty. She offers boons to Zagreus that inflict her signature Status Curse, Weak, or make enemies more susceptible to damage.

Aphrodite boons not only increase your damage significantly, offering the largest additive damage boosts for your Attack and Special, but also your survivability, making enemy attacks less effective as you fight them. Due to Weak effects being easy to inflict, Aphrodite also enables synergy with the Mirror of Night Upgrade, Privileged Status.

Her signature Status Curse is Weak, which reduces the damage afflicted enemies do by 30%. Aphrodite also offers boons which increase the effectiveness of her Status Curse itself, such as Empty Inside (which increases the effect's duration).

Aphrodite is one of five Olympian gods (the other four being Demeter, Poseidon, Hermes and Zeus) who will not appear in the very first run of a save.

## Characteristics and Personality

Aphrodite is playful, seductive, and optimistic. As the Goddess of Love, she can be very sweet and accessible with Zagreus and her admirers, and openly flirts with them. However, it's not a good idea to irritate her by insinuating second intentions. She will express her anger against anyone who threatens those she considers important or "her little god."

Despite being the goddess of love, she can be quite venomous, mischievous, and prone to making lethal comments. Comments from other Olympian gods indicate that Aphrodite has shallow interests. She can be quite hypocritical, and frequently conflicts with other Olympians, especially Athena, who are like water and wine. However, she firmly believes in the power of love and will do everything to ensure that it is given and received in its purest form.

Even the love expert can make mistakes, and her quickness to perceive passions is not always accurate. For example, she wrongly deduces that the shy Artemis was interested in Zagreus, causing a misunderstanding. Aphrodite is a confidant of love and can be well-intentioned at times, acting as a counselor for broken hearts and assisting pending passions.

Aphrodite uses her status as the goddess of love to her advantage, with her charm and charisma, taking advantage of the benefits this provides, using people's passions and desires at your pleasure, making her a skilled strategist in both love and battle. Achilles remarks that, among the Olympians, Aphrodite terrifies him the most. Her domain can cause great turbulence with more devastating consequences than a lightning bolt, literally destroying the hearts of her adversaries.

## Physical description

The most feminine goddess of Olympus, Aphrodite exudes a confident and seductive aura and is depicted with small vegetables adorning her head. She is depicted unabashedly, as a voluptuous nude goddess with peach-colored eyes and a defined jawline. She is adorned on the sides of her head with decorative vegetation brooches, with jewelry intertwined on her wrists and ankles. Her incredible long silky peach-colored hair covers her breasts and pubic area, with its ends entwining in a heart shape.

## Affinity

If given Nectar, Aphrodite will give you the Eternal Rose.

Aphrodite's affinity gauge is maxed out at 7 hearts, requiring the gifting of 6 Nectar and 1 Ambrosia.

If affinity is maxed out with Aphrodite, there will be unique text above her keepsake. this text states: "From Aphrodite; you share a beautiful bond" as well as "Her true affection is reserved for those who find love and beauty on their own."

### Favor

Aphrodite's favor requires Zagreus to illustrate his capacity for love, both platonically and passionately, by forging bonds with Dusa, Thanatos and Megaera (you will trigger 1 dialogue with the goddess for each bond you forge with them and a 4th one to actually get the favor).

## Codex entry

'*...Aphrodite wields her beauty and her charm with much the same lethality as I could wield the spear. I have seen her handiwork first-hand, and it is often not as pretty as she is. I sometimes think that she, among all the Olympians, may be the mightiest of all. A crashing wave or thundering tempest are preferable to a broken heart. Yet, while love's the force that brought me and countless others low in life, it also brought me and countless others strength, beyond the bounds of normal men. Still I fear that Aphrodite's power is the most terrible in all the world.*'

## Quote

> *For quotes and dialogue regarding Aphrodite, please refer to Aphrodite/Quotes.*
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## Additional notes

The ends of Aphrodite's long hair often twists and loops, forming upside-down heart shapes.

*For additional information on Aphrodite that does not pertain to Hades, see Wikipedia's article: Aphrodite*