Post by Aphrodite on Jan 6, 2008 4:45:28 GMT -5
[Aphrodite]
The Basics
Name: Aphrodite ("Risen from the foam")
Race: Goddess of Love, Pleasure, and Beauty
Age: Through mortal eyes she would appear to be an eternally beautiful young woman, though she is still often considered to be one of the original Goddesses due to her conception not of proper parents but of Heaven and Sea.
Height: 5'7"
Hair Color and Eye Color: Aphrodite's hair falls in light blond tresses to a point mid-way down her back. It is usually seen down and flowing freely, not bound by ponytails or braids. Her eyes, set into a porcelain complexion, are bright aquamarine in colour, shining with love for those around her, though entwined with threads of subtle allure.
Make Us Love You
Likes:
♥;; All things romantic -->;; Of course.
♥;; The sea -->;; From whence she was born.
♥;; Passionate love -->;; What is love without passion?
♥;; Freedom -->;; No more inhibitions!
♥;; Her son, Eros -->;; Her little love-angel ...And other children.
♥;; Doves, sparrows, and swans -->;; Feathery messengers of love.
♥;; Symbols of beauty -->;; Just like her.
♥;; Her followers -->;; Bless them.
♥;; Physical pleasure -->;; Not to be shied away from.
♥;; Ares -->;; Her non-marital beau.
Dislikes:
♥;; Inhibitions and people that are overwhelmed by them -->;; Never sacrifice freedom for prudence.
♥;; Mortals who think they rival her beauty -->;; Arrogant fools!
♥;; Hephaestus -->;; Her (unfortunate) husband. She dislikes being tied down in matrimony, and he knows it, though somehow he is still quick to punish her infidelity.
♥;; Hate -->;; As opposed to love, of course.
♥;; Ungratefulness -->;; All I ask is a little worship for the love I grant you...
♥;; Hera -->;; How dare she sign away my hand to someone without my consent?
♥;; People who are ignorant enough to not believe in or respect the power of love -->;; Really, what are we without it?
♥;; Helios -->;; He tattled on me. What are we, children?
♥;; Eos -->;; She consorted with Ares. I'll damn her with constant desire.
♥;; Mortal arrogance/ignorance -->;; Enough said.
Habits:
Aphrodite does not possess a lot of overly unique habits. She bites her lip when nervous or shy and stares off into space when she's bored. She is in fact often quite dreamy, getting lost in her head at various times throughout the day and sometimes letting her focus drift away from the material world into the ideal realms of her head, sometimes earning the annoyance of those whom she is supposed to be paying attention to. It is clear when she is anxious or excited because her eyes almost seem to glow from anticipation and she seems very bouncy. When incensed she tenses and her eyes seem to smoulder due to their loss of their usual perky gleam. Whenever she comes across a spring or waterfall or any other body of water she almost always stops to dangle her feet in or bathe, as she maintains a love of the water element and its purifying qualities.
Personality:
Aphrodite is an interesting and often misunderstood girl. Born from the sea, she possessed a natural and freedom-loving spirit from the beginning. Because of this, she was filled with a love for everything around her, especially the raw, passionate feelings shared between two beings entwined deeply in love, and the connection that one can have with another through not only spiritual but sexual means. This appreciation for the natural pleasures of life earned Aphrodite unfortunate reputations of frivolity and promiscuity, however her adventures with men are not merely for the sex, but for the natural passion and love and all that she represents. "Zeus has sex. Aphrodite makes love."
Generally, Aphrodite tends to be quite amiable. She is easy-going most of the time due to her open-mindedness and lack of tendency to judge. She is free-spirited and typically fun to be around. However, she does have a history of being quick to anger when it comes to matters of overly egotistical mortals. This isn't so much because she has an inflated ego herself, but because she knows (as all other deities of Olympus do) that no human can rival the specific characteristics of a certain god or goddess. No one is wiser than Athena, a better huntress than Artemis, or certainly more beautiful than Aphrodite. Any mortal who were to think themselves so would simply be overly proud, and conceit to the level of godly comparison is never to be tolerated. Aphrodite is quick to defend her forte if it is ever questioned, and just as quick to punish those who dared to question it.
If there was another fault to be said about Aphrodite, it would surely be her carelessness. She is so carefree that she doesn't place a high importance upon the petty conflicts that go on in the world, whether between mortals or gods. (Really, who cares that Paris ran off with Helen? I declared the match. There was no need to start a war over it.) Frankly, she would rather live life than argue about it.
Aphrodite's charitability is often depreciated, but she is not nearly as selfish as she is often made out to be. She is quite generous towards her followers and does what she can as the Goddess of Love to bestow gifts of partnership between both gods and mortals, or to restore harmony between quarrelling lovers. In her eyes, the world would be so much nicer if there were more love than fighting.
Ironic, then, her attraction to Ares. Perhaps the reason the two seem to attract so is their similar traits of unpredictability.
Family;; Keeps Us Insane
Parents:
Aphrodite is unique in that she doesn't have actual parents; rather, she was born of the sea. Her father would probably be considered Uranus (Heaven), seeing as a certain severed body part of his created the sea foam from which she rose...but that's another story.
Siblings:
Aphrodite's lack of parents give her a lack of siblings; merely a child of the sea. It might actually be a good thing that she has no real parents or siblings to speak of; the incest would be overwhelming (not that the gods generally disfavoured that).
Family Dynamics:
Aphrodite possesses love to a certain extent for all those around her, whether family or not. However, her son Eros holds a special place in her heart, as he is one of the only people around her who are her immediate family, due to her lack of parents and siblings. The love between a mother and son is strong at the worst of times; the bond between the Goddess and God of Love must be particularly intense.
Despite Aphrodite's tolerance of most, there is one member of her family who she holds a severe disliking for...that being, ironically, her husband. Hephaestus, the Smith God, manages to earn her contempt. Essentially, Aphrodite resents their marriage heavily. She is indignant about being married off to someone, and him, of all the gods! He is dirty and bitter in her eyes, and quite the opposite of beauty. Aphrodite never really wanted to be married at all; she wanted her freedom to be with who she wanted, spreading her love wherever the wind took her. She detests the absence of the freedom to be with who she wishes, and is not ashamed to admit that she is often unfaithful to him. His anger of the fact that he is not able to tame her wild tendencies increases her dislike for him.
History:
Aphrodite's immortal life began with the severed loins of Uranus (Heaven), tossed into the sea by Cronus where they became the sea foam from which she arose as a creature of pure beauty from the womb of the sea. From the moment of her birth, she presided over the realms of love, beauty, and all things associated. Indeed, she was the epitome of beauty, seeming almost to emit a radiant glow as she stepped from the sea as a fully formed young woman, perfectly shaped body dripping as grass grew beneath her very feet.
Her beauty was so great that Zeus, the king of the Gods, was worried that it would cause disputes between the deities.
At this point, Hera had a son. He was born ugly and deformed which caused the Queen Goddess to resent him, and as a result she threw him off of Olympus in shame of having borne such an atrocity. He fell for a day before he landed in the sea, where he was saved by nymphs who looked after him as he developed smith talents. He was enraged at his mother for her rejection of him and vowed to punish her, expertly crafting a beautiful golden throne which he used to enslave Hera when she sat in it. Despite the pleas of the other deities, he refused to release her in order to have his revenge. A reward was needed in order to coax him into releasing the Queen.
Enter Aphrodite. Zeus, in a burst of intellect, decided to marry off Aphrodite to Hephaestus. She would serve as his reward for releasing Hera, and this union would also eliminate his concerns of the jeopardized peace of the gods. Therefore, Hera was happy, Zeus's fears were soothed, Hephaestus was given the gift of the most beautiful creature as his wife, and the rest of the gods had their queen back. The only one who received displeasure was dear Aphrodite.
She was indignant at being married off to someone, especially someone who she saw as ugly and bitter. She wanted to live a life free of restraints and saw the forced marriage as a way to hinder her freedom. Indeed, some of the Gods feared her. She was a very powerful Goddess and was unpredictable, a trait that wasn't wholly welcome. Having her essentially 'tied down' would calm their concerns.
However, Aphrodite simply refused to submit, and didn't allow Hephaestus to curb her affairs. This, of course, made him angry, and he always tried to catch her during one of her encounters so he could have his revenge on her infidelity.
This change came during one of her famous affairs with the God of War, Ares, whom she seemed to much prefer over Hephaestus as well as most of her other lovers. Helios, the sun God, witnessed her consorting with Ares and alerted her enraged husband, who plotted to ensnare the two lovers in the midst of their adulterous affair. This he managed to do, beckoning the rest of the gods to view the display. The female deities, thinking the whole event too shameful to witness, remained behind, while the males hurried forward to catch Aphrodite and Ares in a very compromising position. Some of them laughed at the two, while others remarked upon Aphrodite's flawless beauty, making fresh comments about how they would love to be in the position of Ares, bedding the Goddess of Love. The two were released after negotiations made by Poseidon, though Aphrodite's outrage at being displayed that way by her husband made her detest him even more. However, even this embarrassing entrapment did not prevent Aphrodite from following her heart's desires, and she was continually unfaithful not only with Ares but with other Gods such as Dionysus, Hermes, and Poseidon (among others).
Indeed, Aphrodite seemed to always be in love with love, and she delighted in setting up and guiding the relationships of her mortal followers. One such instant, famous because of its consequences, involved the mortal Paris. He was commanded to choose the most beautiful of goddesses between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, and decide who should be given the gift of the golden apples. Of course, his choice was Aphrodite, though the others tried to sway him with promises of wisdom and riches. Aphrodite awarded his fair choice with the love of the most beautiful mortal alive, this being Helen of Troy. Of course, this promise caused all sorts of issues in the mortal world due to Helen's other consorts, as well as the immortal world as each of the deities chose sides as the Trojan War progressed. Of course, during this war that she indirectly caused, Aphrodite sided with Helen and Paris, preferring to be on the side of love rather than politics.
Aphrodite was involved in many other famous events such as the dispute over Adonis and the persecution of Psyche, and situations where she demonstrated both her wrath to those who crossed her and her generosity to those whom she wished to help. She bore numerous children with different men, both mortal and otherwise, including Eros by Zeus, Anteros of Ares, Hermaphroditus by Hermes, Hymen and Priapus by Dionysus, and others.
The conflicts recently breaking out between the deities are not really a major concern of Aphrodite, however, her annoyance with the mortals has been growing and growing since she began to lose her followers and the fools lost interest in the Gods all together. This has made her perhaps a little irritable, so although she hasn't had any major recent quarrels with the gods and is basically standing on the sidelines of the brewing battles, if her patience is pushed she may be forced to take a more prominent role in the unfolding immortal wars. After all; love can only go so far in the realm of the gods before infuriation takes over.
Extra:
[/center]Because Aphrodite was born a young woman in the prime of her youth, she never really experienced a childhood. However, her childlike innocence was quite intact at the time of her birth, despite the fact that she was already in her sexual prime. Because of this, her sexual escapades do not make her a flirt or harlot, but are rather simply her innocent way of going through life as she sees it, celebrating the ideals of love, pleasure, and beauty that thrive in her domain. [/font]
