Aphrodite Apotheca

[Malik Fisher]

Just as the name entails, I want to get any and all information about Aphrodite for a project of mine. This would include but isn't restricted to:

• Mannerisms and Personality Traits
• Stories both rumored to have been in the mythos and general abridged stories
• Relics said to have been associated with her
• The extent of her abilities if any
• Any counterparts in other mythologies

What I know of her is limited by my own ignorance and whatever disney told me. I've never heard of stories that were solely about Aphrodite, but I'd be highly interested in them.

 

[Orc Knight]

To explain why she could possibly hate it. She's still a Greek Goddess and they can be very human and even if she is an incarnation and representation of Love. It may not exactly be hate, but she didn't like the mortal his son was in love with and she could be pretty cruel and petty. As for the rest of it, a dip into Wikipedia might help a bit more then just off the cuff and could lead to resources with more examples.

 

[Malik Fisher]

Ah thank you for the info. Now I'm wondering if she is the embodiment of love or if she resides on two different planes of existence: having her 'earthly' personae control the very concept of love. This is all just speculation since I know next to nothing.

 

[pmmg]

I have to say yes, some people love to hate things.

Given that she is a Greek goddess, and the Greek pantheon had all types a character flaws, I suspect this is in her. I believe she was also a jealous goddess. She becomes jealous of Psyche in one story and orders Eros to punish her, but it does not work out well, and Eros gets smitten instead. Aphrodite also intervenes in the Trojan war to save the life of her son Aeneas, and is attacked by Diomedes. I suspect she did not have much love for him. She also takes sides in the war and cajoles Ares to take up the side of the Trojans. She had a reputation for being easily offended and impulsive like all the Greek gods.

I suspect she was not exactly the embodiment of agapeic love, and was more on the side of just erotic love.


Also, love and hate are so closely related. Love's opposite is really indifference. Hate requires equal amounts of ongoing passion.



Eidted:

Sorry I was just answering the poll.

Mannerisms and Personality Traits

Pouty, Indulgent, unfaithful, petty, and of course, delightfully loving.


Stories both rumored to have been in the mythos and general abridged stories

She's in the Iliad, and the myth about Psyche. She is the goddess that offered Paris Helen if he would call her the most beautiful, which he did, and kind of started the Trojan war. She is married to Hesphatus, who is beclaimed to be ugly, which Zues ordered as a way to keep the other goddesses from becoming too jealous of her.



Relics said to have been associated with her

I don't know all of these, but she does have a girdle that when worn, no one can resist the wearer, which she loaned to Hera once to seduce Zeus.

Given she was the wife of Hesphastus, I suspect she could have any type of item she wanted, including armor and spears and swords and such.

The extent of her abilities if any

Well, love and beguilement. Instant travel to Olympus and back. Immortality. Though it seems she did not apply it, pretty much dominion over any mortal.

In Xena, she can throw fireballs.

Any counterparts in other mythologies

Venus for sure. Given that many of the mythos seem to over lap each other on many edges, I suspect she might have origins with Ishtar, Isis, and Inanna, or pretty much any fertility of love goddess of the Mediterranean region that preceded the Greeks.

 

[Malik Fisher]

Ooh~ that's pretty helpful as well, thank you.