Aphrodite

"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

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
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.

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 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.

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, (excluding Poseidon, and Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus, Athena, Dionysus and Artemis with her Hunters) 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 lustfull 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

Aphrodite is the personification of beauty, and appears to others as their personal epitome of physical attraction which is why her true appearance is unknown. Aphrodite will take very good care of how she looks to others and can see the tiniest flaw, as seen in The Titan's Curse when she asked Percy to hold her mirror and fixed some flaw he couldn't see. However, when talking to Percy she wore a red dress and had her hair in a cascade of ringlets, while wearing makeup. Percy said that when she smiled, she looked like Annabeth and a TV actress he had a crush on in fifth grade.

When Piper saw her in Medea's department store during a dream, she is seen very differently. Aphrodite had shoulder length hair, a graceful neck, and a great figure. She was also wearing jeans and a snowy white top, while looking at clothes on the 50% off rack. Her eye and hair color change as Piper looked at them, as she says that Aphrodite tried to match Piper's view of beauty. The biggest change is that when visiting Piper, Aphrodite had no makeup on. Aphrodite's more simple appearance while visiting Piper may be a result of Piper herself not liking to use makeup or making herself look overly girly, resulting in Aphrodite herself using no makeup and wearing just a simple outfit.

When Hazel Levesque, Piper McLean, and Annabeth Chase met her in The Mark of Athena she appeared to Annabeth to have "dark chocolatey curls". This made Annabeth instantly jealous, because she'd always wished she'd had dark hair so she would be taken more seriously than a blonde. Other traits Aphrodite appeared to have at that time were wearing her dress with "easy grace", "perfect yet understated makeup", and "feminine charm that no man could possibly resist". This could indicate that Annabeth personally is jealous of those traits as well, or that Aphrodite naturally has these particular traits at most times. Aphrodite's outfit at the time consisted of a pink silk dress with a hoop skirt and lace, along with a pair of "tall white silk gloves" and a "feathered pink-and-white fan".

In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, it is mentioned that Aphrodite often travels in a golden chariot pulled by a flock of white doves. However, she sometimes rides in the chariot of Ares, along with the god of war himself.

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 goddess of love, she has absolute control and divine authority over the emotions of love and desire.  She has the mystical and powerful ability to arouse love and passion in others. She also possesses the ability 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, she can 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: Her voice has a mesmerizing effect, capable of influencing the emotions of others or of placing them in her thrall. Her charmspeak is far more powerful than Piper's.
 * French: She speaks and understands French perfectly, as it is the language of love.
 * Infallible visual acuity: She  was able to see microscopic flaws in her makeup that Percy didn't
 * Personification of Desire: As the goddess of love and beauty, she is the personification of all desire and fulfillment and has absolute power over her realm. She has power over craving of the unattainable. The force of physical appetite or emotional need. Strong envious desire. In contrast she is also lords over satisfaction, extending to the attainment of one's desire.
 * In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Aphrodite was able to make Pygmalion' beautiful ivory statue come to life.

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 may have children or descendants at Camp Jupiter near San Francisco. 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.

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.

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."
 * 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. It never says she arose right away. She may have arisen after Zeus and his siblings were fully grown, after which Zeus adopted her as his daughter. Thus, Hestia could very well be the eldest Olympian.
 * 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.
 * In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods it is confirmed that Aphrodite did indeed arise from the sea after Zeus and his siblings, and children began to rule the world from Mount Olympus.
 * This implies that Aphrodite lied to Piper in Lost Hero when she said she was the eldest Olympian.
 * 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.