| “ | Beauty is about finding the right fit, the most natural fit. To be perfect, you have to feel perfect about yourself — avoid trying to be something you're not. For a goddess, that's especially hard. We can change so easily. | ” |
–Aphrodite, to her daughter Piper McLean, in The Lost Hero | ||
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of beauty, love, lust, desire, sexuality, and pleasure. Her Roman counterpart is Venus. Aphrodite is portrayed by Serinda Swan, in The Lightning Thief (film).
History
After Kronos dismembered Ouranos, he threw his father's remains into the sea, and from the foam Aphrodite was born. The sea in which she was born (although some myths say she was the daughter of Zeus and goddess Dione) is said to be near Paphos, a city at the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean sea. She later joined the Olympians after Zeus assumed power and quickly became the source of conflict among the gods. Although he was tempted to take her for himself, Zeus eventually married her to Hephaestus. Unhappy with the marriage, Aphrodite had an affair with the handsome and passionate Ares even after her husband humiliated her by publicly exposing her relationship. With Ares she gave birth to five kids Anteros, Deimos, Eros, Harmonia, Phobos. She would also have romances with both mortals and other gods over the centuries. In some myths it is said she goes to the place she raised from every year and dresses in her finest garments.
Troy
Hephaestus, her husband
Aphrodite contributed greatly to the cause of the Trojan War, which lasted ten years and caused the violent downfall of the city of Troy. During the marriage of Thetis and Peleus, Eris in anger for not being invited tossed a Golden Apple into the room, where several goddesses saw it and fought over it. Eventually it came down to three goddesses, Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena. They quarreled over who was the fairest of them all, as the apple read "For the Fairest" on it. Zeus, tired of all the arguing sent Hermes to bring the first person he found to judge who is the fairest of the three goddesses. Unfortunately, he found Paris, Prince of Troy, to judge them. Hera offered him control over all Asia and Europe if she was picked, while Athena offered battle skills and intelligence. Aphrodite on the other hand offered him the hand of the most beautiful woman alive. Paris thought nothing of Athena and Hera's offers, so he chose Aphrodite's gift. Aphrodite asked her son Eros to cause back to the city of Troy. However, Helen was already married to King Meneleus of Sparta and when he learned of what happened, he went to his brother Agamemnon and the two started a campaign against Troy, resulting in the Trojan War. Aphrodite supported Troy in the war, and intervened many times on behalf of Paris, and her favorite son, Aeneas, who was also of Trojan royalty.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
The Lightning Thief
Aphrodite is mentioned as constantly cheating on her husband with Ares (and mortals judging from all of her children). Hephaestus constantly makes traps to try and embarrass her in front of the other gods, one of which Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase get trapped in while recovering Ares' shield at an abandoned waterpark. Percy finds Aphrodite's scarf, which Annabeth snatches away from him before he can get intoxicated by the perfume. Later in the series, Percy finds the scarf in the attic of the Big house whilst visiting the Oracle and wonders why Annabeth kept it since he thought she had just thrown it away.
The Titan's Curse
When Percy visits the attic to see the Oracle, he sees Aphrodite's scarf from the events of The Lightning Thief and wonders why Annabeth had left it in the attic. He later meets Aphrodite and Ares outside of the Junkyard of the Gods in the desert. She expresses her interest in Percy's love life, saying that his desire to save Annabeth is very cute. She also says that she isn't going to make Percy's love life easy and that she was the one who gave the poisoned T-shirt to Connor and Travis Stoll to pass to Phoebe as to give Percy entrance to the Quest. She is also seen at the winter solstice voting for Percy and Thalia Grace not to be disintegrated.
The Battle of the Labyrinth
When Percy lands on the island of Ogygia, he meets Calypso and thinks that she is more beautiful than Aphrodite, but doesn't dare to say it out loud for fear of being zapped by her. Also, when Hephaestus comes to the island to ask Percy if he wants to leave, he tells him to beware of love due to the lack of loyalty from his wife. Percy also assumes Aphrodite landed him on Ogygia to make his love life interesting because she "likes him", although he later learns that it was Hera who had sent him to Ogygia.
The Last Olympian
When Annabeth is chosen to be the official architect of Olympus, Aphrodite goes along with Apollo saying that there should be many statues of her as well.
The Heroes of Olympus
Ouranos, her father
The Lost Hero
Aphrodite claims Piper McLean soon after her arrival at Camp Half-Blood. She gives Piper her blessing with new magic makeup, hairdo and a pretty sleeveless dress with gold bracelets.
She later makes an appearance in her daughter Piper's dream and talks to her. After the talk, Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, Gleeson Hedge, and Piper all have new clothes and a bag with supplies.
Piper, one of her favorite daughters
In the dream, she tells Piper of their true enemy, Gaea. She also reveals why she considers herself to be the most powerful goddess as well as the oldest, being created out of Ouranos. When he was defeated his immortal essence created the sea foam from which Aphrodite was born. She believes she is the most powerful due to the fact that love can bring the gods to their knees.
She also tells Piper that she truly loved Tristan McLean, and understood him well enough not to reveal her real nature. Aphrodite reveals a more caring nature, appearing to care for her children far more than the other gods, and treating people she loves in a kinder way, she seems to understand humans more than the other gods and it is likely that without Aphrodite they would not have been able to complete the quest.
The Mark of Athena
Aphrodite/Venus appears as both her Greek and Roman counterpart to Piper, Annabeth, and Hazel Levesque. She explains that because love is universal, her Greek and Roman sides stay the same, unlike the rest of the gods.
Personality
Aphrodite is both temperamental and vain. In addition, she is also crafty, flirtatious, and seductive. Despite these qualities, she is both very sweet, loving and passionate, having a faith in love that is absolute and true. Aphrodite is very benevolent and gentle to those she favors (such as Pygmalion and Adonis in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods) and deeply cares for her children as well as their fathers. However, she greatly punishes those who either disrespect her, or have "perverted" notions of love (such as the lustful Narcissus, and the asexual Hippolytus ). However, the most infamous example of all is Smyrna, who refused to worship and respect Aphrodite. As a result, the goddess, cursed her into falling in love with Cinyras, her own father. Afterwards, an infuriated Cinyras would pursue her with a bared sword, threatening to kill her. However, Aphrodite took pity on her, and transformed Smyrna into a myrrh tree. Presiding over the most powerful of human feelings, Aphrodite has great insight into mortal emotions as well as mortal nature by extension. It is nearly impossible to disagree with her, and is also unfaithful to Hephaestus with all of her affairs.
Appearance
| “ | She was elegant without trying, fashionable without effort, stunning without makeup. | ” |
–-Piper complimenting Aphrodite, The Lost Hero | ||
Aphrodite in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods
As the personification of beauty, Aphrodite's true appearance is actually unknown as she would appear to others as their personal epitome of physical attraction.
In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, it was confirmed that Aphrodite's appearance would change to appeal to each person who gazed upon her. Before she was presented to the other gods at Olympus, the Horai dressed her in a beautiful white gossamer dress, placed a delicate golden crown on her head, hung gold earrings in her ears, and draped a gold necklace at the base of her throat. She was so beautiful that she immediately excited desire and admiration in all the gods, and envy and resentment in all the goddesses.
In The Titan's Curse, Aphrodite was portrayed as wearing a red satin dress, with hair curled in a cascade of ringlets, perfect makeup, dazzling eyes like pools of spring water, and a smile that would have lit up the dark side of the moon. Her beauty was such that at his first sight of her, Percy forgot his location and how to speak coherently, and he noted that when she smiled, she looked like a mixture of Annabeth and a TV actress he had a crush on in fifth grade. Aphrodite was also shown to take especial care of her looks and can see the tiniest flaw, as demonstrated by her asking Percy to hold her mirror while she amended some flaw he could not see.
In The Lost Hero, when Piper first saw Aphrodite in Medea's department store during a dream, she wore a different appearance, but was still gorgeous to behold: shoulder-length hair, a graceful neck, perfect features, and an amazing figure tucked into jeans and a snowy-white top. Piper also noted that Aphrodite was different from other extremely beautiful women she had seen before: her mother was elegant without trying, fashionable without effort, stunning without makeup. However, she was unable to determine the exact color of her mother's hair and eyes, given that Aphrodite's appearance changed as she observed her, due to her trying to match Piper's ideal of beauty.
In The Mark of Athena, Aphrodite appeared to Annabeth as a breathtakingly beautiful woman with dark chocolatey curls and eyes that sparkled playfully, going from green to blue to amber. She was dressed like a Southern belle: her gown had a low-cut bodice of pink silk and a three-tiered hoop skirt with white scalloped lace, and she wore long white silk gloves, and held a feathered pink-and-white fan to her chest. Her face was said to be hard to describe as her features seemed to shift from those of one glamorous movie star to another, becoming increasingly beautiful as it changed by the second. Annabeth was instantly, irrationally jealous of her because she had always wished she had dark hair so she would be taken more seriously than a blonde. Aphrodite also manifested other traits that served to make Annabeth feel inadequate: the easy grace with which she wore her dress, the perfect yet understated makeup, and the way she radiated feminine charm that no man could possibly resist.
Abilities
| “ | I've met Aphrodite, goddess of love, in person, and her powers had scared me worse than Ares. | ” |
–Percy Jackson in The Titan's Curse | ||
Aphrodite, being a daughter of Ouranos, and the eldest Olympian of all, is an extremely powerful goddess, surpassing many others, as "love can bring even the gods to their knees." Percy even claims that Aphrodite's powers scared him more than Ares'.
- Amokinesis: As the Goddess of Love, she has absolute control and divine authority over the emotions of love and desire. She is able to arouse love and passion in others, and to entrance any mortal or god she desires with control over love, lust, beauty and other things related to them. The only known goddesses who have at least partial immunity to this are Artemis and Hestia.
- Chlorokinesis (limited): In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, it is mentioned that magnificent flowers would blossom wherever she walked.
- Beauty and Omnipotent allure: As the Goddess of Beauty, Aphrodite could change her appearance at will, depending on the perception of beauty of the person she is in the presence of. She is so breathtakingly beautiful, that Percy's jaw dropped and he was speechless for a couple of seconds after first seeing her.
- Charmspeak: Aphrodite's voice has a mesmerising effect, capable of influencing the emotions of others or of placing them in her thrall. It was revealed that her charmspeak was far more powerful than that of her daughter, Piper.
- French: Aphrodite has perfect fluency and understanding of French, as it is the language of love.
- Infallible visual acuity: Aphrodite possessed a level of microscopic-vision, as demonstrated by her being able to see flaws in her makeup that Percy could not.
- Personification of Desire: As the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite is the personification of all desire and fulfillment, and hence has full authority over provinces such as: craving of the attainable, physical appetite, emotional need, and envious desire. She also has absolute power over satisfaction as it is an extension of the attainment of one's desire.
- Reality-warping: In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Aphrodite was able to make Pygmalion' beautiful ivory statue come to life, demonstrating that she could manipulate reality itself to a considerable extent.
Attributes
As mentioned in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Aphrodite has a great many attributes. The most important of all, however, was Aphrodite's magnificent golden corset, which render any woman wearing it absolutely irresistible for the opposite gender. Aphrodite's sacred fruit is the apple (most likelly as a result of Paris's judgement with the Apple of Discord). Her sacred flowers were roses, daffodils, and anemone(which blossomed from the blood of her beloved Adonis). One of her sacred plants is lettuce (since Aphrodite had initially placed the body of Adonis onto a huge lettuce leaf). Pearls were also attributes of Aphrodite, since they are born in the sea, just like the goddess herself. Her sacred animals were the dove, the swan, and the hare.
Venus
Venus is Aphrodite's Roman aspect. She has children or descendants at Camp Jupiter near San Francisco, including Michael Kahale. The Greeks envisioned Aphrodite as a passionate and sensuous being. The Romans hailed Venus as the divine ancestress of their culture. Other than that fact, her Greek and Roman sides stay the same unlike the rest of the gods, since she explains that love is universal.
Relationships
Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus, but she is known for her affairs among gods and mortals with Ares as her favorite.
Immortal Children
Ares, her lover
|
Partner |
Children
|
| Adonis | Beroe |
| Ares | Anteros, Adrestia, Deimos, Phobos, Eros (depending on the myth), Erotes, Harmonia |
| Dionysus | Priapus |
| Hermes | Hermaphroditus, Tyche (depending on the myth) |
| Poseidon | Herophile |
Mortal Children
|
Partner |
Children |
| Mr. Tanaka | Drew Tanaka |
| Unknown | Lacy |
| Unknown | Mitchell |
| Anchises | Aeneas and Lyrus |
| Mr. Beauregard | Silena Beauregard |
| Tristan McLean | Piper McLean |
Claiming
Aphrodite's claiming is unique in that she gives her blessing as a declaration. She gave Piper magic makeup, a magic eyeliner, a sleeveless white dress, gold bracelets and a magic hairdo. It is unknown what the male version looks like.
Film
The Lightning Thief
Aphrodite is briefly seen during a meeting of the Olympian council.
The Sea of Monsters
In a coffee shop near the Capital Building, a god in the ATM is trying to convince to the viewer to purchase an Aphrodite Express Card.
Trivia
- Aphrodite is also referred to as the "Lady of the Doves."
- The Dove is one of her sacred birds.
- Some stories say her parents were Ouranos and Thalassa, the primordial sea goddess. When Ouranos' remains fell into the sea, Thalassa was impregnated and then gave birth to Aphrodite from the sea. This, however, is not mentioned in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods.
- Her name is the inspiration for aphrodisiac.
- The planet Venus is named after her Roman counterpart.
- Many assume Aphrodite is the eldest Olympian since she arose from Ouranos' remains. However, it's never stated when she arose from the sea foam from Ouranos' remains. In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, it was confirmed that Aphrodite did indeed arise from the sea after Zeus and his siblings were born, and when they began to rule the world from Mount Olympus.
- She was born of Ouranos, like the Titans. Despite this, she is a goddess. This may be because she could have arisen from Ouranos' remains after Zeus and his siblings were fully grown, thus being a goddess instead of a Titaness.
- Aphrodite has a belt (given to her by her husband, Hephaestus) that makes her seem even more beautiful.
- Aphrodite's shapeshifting ability has been emphasized more than the other gods.
- She is unaffected by her Roman form, much like Nemesis.
- Some myths say that she divorced with Hephaestus and he married Aglaea, youngest of the three Charites and goddess of beauty, splendor and adornment.
- Aphrodite is the only Olympian who is not a child or sibling of Zeus. However is said that Zeus adopted her and some stories say she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.