Aphrodite

Aphrodite (Αφροδίτη in Ancient Greek) is the goddess of love, lust and beauty. Her Roman counterpart is Venus.

History
Aphrodite has two birth stories. The most believed myth is that she was born from the foam that was created when Kronos threw Uranus' genitals into the ocean. Another is that she is the child of Zeus and Dione.

Due to her immense beauty, Zeus was frightened that she would be the cause of violence between the other gods. He married her off to Hephaestus, the dour, humorless god of smithing.

In another version of this story, Hera, Hephaestus's mother, had cast him off Olympus; deeming him ugly and deformed. His revenge was to trap her in a magic throne, and then to demand Aphrodite's hand in return for Hera's release. Hephaestus was overjoyed at being married to the goddess of beauty and forged her beautiful jewelry, including the Cestus, a magical girdle that made her even more irresistible to men. Her unhappiness with her marriage caused Aphrodite to seek out companionship from others, most frequently Ares, but also Adonis.

In another version, after Aphrodite reaches Mount Olympus, all the male gods are stricken with love for her including the all powerful Zeus. Zeus (although married to Hera at the time) proposed to her and she laughed at him because of his age. In fury Zeus called up his son Hephaestus from his forges and forced Aphrodite to marry him.

In a final version, it was Hera who arranged the marriage. Already forgiven by Hephaestus, and seeing the effect that Aphrodite left on the Olympians, she demanded to Zeus to have her married to a god at once. All the gods assembled and started to offer her gifts. Poseidon offered the mystery of the seas and its sunken treasures to her. Hermes offered to make her the goddess of roads, where she would hear every comment and rumor, and thus to never know boredom. And so, every male god offered her gifts for her hand in marriage, and while she smiled at all of them, she did not say a word to any. Finally, Hera dragged Hephaestus to the front and whispered to his ear a few lines to say. Hepheastus, following her instructions, shyly stated that he would be a good husband to her, he would cover her in jewels, and finally, that he always worked late. Aphrodite smiled and touched his arm, accepting him as husband. Later, when the party in their honor ended, she went to each of the former suitors, telling them when they might bring themselves along with their gifts to her later.

The Trojan War
Aphrodite was the cause of the Trojan War, a war that lasted ten years and was the end of the city of Troy. She caused this by bribing Paris, prince of Troy, with the most beautiful woman in the world (Helen), in return for him declaring her the fairest of three goddesses; Hera, Athena, and herself.

Aphrodite, venturing into the battle of the Trojan War to protect her son, Aeneas, is wounded by Diomedes and returns to her mother, to sink down at her knee and be comforted.

Adonis
Aphrodite was Adonis' lover and a surrogate mother to him. A mortal named Myrrha gave birth to a baby boy named Adonis. Aphrodite happened to be by the Myrrh tree and, seeing him, takes pity on the infant. She places Adonis in a box, and takes him down to Hades so that Persephone can care for him. Adonis grows into a strikingly handsome young man, and Aphrodite eventually returns for him. Persephone, however, loaths to give him up, and wishes Adonis would stay with her in the Underworld. The two goddesses begin such a quarrel that Zeus is forced to intercede. He decrees that Adonis will spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third of the year with Persephone, and a third of the year with whomever he wishes. Adonis, of course, chooses Aphrodite.

Adonis begins his year on the earth with Aphrodite. One of his greatest passions is hunting, and although Aphrodite is not naturally a hunter, she takes up the sport just so she can be with Adonis. They spend every waking hour with one another, and Aphrodite is enraptured with him. However, her anxiety begins to grow over her neglected duties, and she is forced to leave him for a short time. Before she leaves, she gives Adonis one warning: do not attack an animal who shows no fear. Adonis agrees to her advice, but, secretly doubting her skills as a huntress, quickly forgets her warning.

Not long after Aphrodite leaves, Adonis comes across an enormous wild boar, much larger than any he has ever seen. It is suggested that the boar is the god Ares, one of Aphrodite's lovers made jealous through her constant doting on Adonis. Although boars are dangerous and will charge a hunter if provoked, Adonis disregards Aphrodite's warning and pursues the giant creature. Soon, however, Adonis is the one being pursued; he is no match for the giant boar. In the attack, Adonis is castrated by the boar, and dies from a loss of blood. Aphrodite rushes back to his side, but she is too late to save him and can only mourn over his body.

On his death, Adonis goes back to the Underworld, and Persephone is delighted to see him again. Eventually, Aphrodite realizes that he is there, and rushes back to retrieve him. Again, she and Persephone bicker over who is allowed to keep Adonis until Zeus intervenes. This time, he says that Adonis must spend six months with Aphrodite and six months with Persephone, the way it should have been in the first place.

Appearances
She is only seen three times throughout the whole series. In The Titan's Curse, she expressed her interest in Percy's love life, saying that his desire to save Annabeth was very cute. She also said that she wasn't going to make Percy's love life easy.

She is also seen at the Winter Solstice voting with Demeter for Percy to not get disintegrated.

In The Last Olympian when Annabeth is chosen to be the official architect of Olympus she yells out along with Apollo and Ares to have a lot of statues of them.

Percy's Reaction
In the Titan's Curse, Percy meets Aphrodite. He describes her as first seeing Annabeth, then a beautiful actress he had a crush on in 5th grade, and so on. When he first sees her, he says, "Uh, um gah." Only when Ares unintentionally disrupts his "thoughts" does Percy start talking.

Appearance
Her appearance changes depending on what type of woman a man finds to be the perfect woman, for example, if the man likes tall blond women with crystal blue eyes, than she'll appear as a tall blond woman with crystal blue eyes to the man. She is hard to remember due to her exquisite beauty and charm.

Physical Description
She is described as the most beautiful woman. Percy said she had a perfect hair, perfect smile, perfect clothes. When he met her, he said she was wearing a sleek red dress and beautiful through and through. If a man were look at her, he'd forget his name and what he was doing. Percy described her as looking like every girl he had ever liked. It is unknown if she consciously adjust her shape based on who is looking or if it occurs automatically. She carries around a giant mirror the size of a dinner plate. She always finds microscopic problems with her looks, and tends to fix them whenever she has a chance. She used to wear a scarf, filled with her treacherous love magic until Annabeth recovered it when Percy and her were out to return Ares his sacred shield.

Personality
Aphrodite had no childhood; in every image and each reference she is born adult and near-infinitely desirable. Aphrodite, in many of the stories involving her, is characterized as vain, ill-tempered, and easily offended. She is the seductress of all, and is shown to be crafty, passionate, but quite cowardly in the Illiad.

Relationships
She is married to Hephaestus, but her lover is Ares. Many mortal men and demigods alike fall for the love magic that the goddess has. In The Titan's Curse, Aphrodite expressed her interest in Percy's love life, saying that his desire to save Annabeth was very cute. She also said that she wasn't going to make Percy's love life easy.Although, she doesn't seem to like Artemis because in the Titan's Curse she says, " Oh, Artemis. Please. Talk about a hopeless case. I mean, if they were going to kidnap a goddess, she should be breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think? I pity the poor dears who have to imprison Artemis. Bo-ring!"

Children
Some of her most famous children are: With Ares Her demigod children are usually quite beautiful and always worry about their appearance. Most of her children are girls and some boys.Her boys are said to be neat and irresistible. It is revealed in The Titan's Curse, that when it comes to playing Capture the Flag against the Hunters, they are focused, and say that they "will show them love isn't worthless".
 * Silena Beauregard (deceased)
 * Marilyn Monroe
 * Aeneas
 * Eros
 * Deimos
 * Phobos
 * Harmonia

Powers
Aphrodite controls who falls in love and who doesn't. Percy notes that she believes in love so much that it is hard not to be giddy about it when she's around. To add, she can make her appearance change to make her irresistable to men. Aphrodite is also the goddess of beauty, so she controls one's beauty too. She can also control hair, makeup, clothes, ect. Presumably possesses the standard powers of a God. Because of her love power, she is sometimes considered the most powerful of the Olympians, as love is immensely powerful.

Aphrodite also possesses the powers of:
 * Enchanting
 * Luring
 * Empathy
 * Teleportation
 * Immortality
 * Immunity
 * Invincibility

Film
In the film adaptation of The Lightning Thief. In the film, she was seen only once, at Mount Olympus during the summer solstice. In the film, she is played by Serinda Swan.