Aphrodite

Aphrodite was the Olympian goddess of beauty, love, desire, passion, pleasure, and fertility. She was the motherless daughter of Uranus, which makes her the only second generation Olympian to not be a child of Zeus.

Aphrodite was killed by Deicidia during the Battle of Olympus. Later reincarnated by Hades as Beline.

Birth and Marriage
After Cronus dismembered Uranus, he hurled his father's remains into the sea. His genitals created some foam, from which Aphrodite was born. The sea in which she was born is said to be near Paphos, a city on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. There she met the three Horai (season goddesses), who clothed her in a beautiful white dress, a delicate golden crown, golden earrings, and a golden necklace, and subsequently escorted her to Mount Olympus.

Due to her incredible beauty, Aphrodite caused a lot of problems on Olympus when she first arrived. While Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, and Hermes all instantly wanted her for themselves, Hephaestus didn't participate in the commotion, and instead sat in the shadows, quiet and dejected, knowing that his ugliness stripped him of any chance of competing for the gorgeous Aphrodite. Hera, feeling that her godly family was about to unravel, was determined to prevent that, and hastily ordered the other Olympians to silence themselves. As the goddess of marriage, she felt an obligation to pick the perfect husband for the new goddess and proclaimed that such a perfect match was her son Hephaestus, much to Ares' and Aphrodite's dismay. Hephaestus himself was so surprised that he fell off of his throne. Athena was quick to agree with Hera as well, pointing out that if Aphrodite were to marry anyone else, all of the other male gods would never stop fighting about it, while it would be nearly impossible for them to be jealous of Hephaestus. Hence, Zeus married both of them right then and there, with Hephaestus promising to be a loving husband.

She would later have her husband forge her a magical golden girdle, which made her completely irresistible to anyone she fancied. Hera would borrow it from her on at least one occasion, to make amends with Zeus after a particularly unpleasant argument or if she ever wanted something from him.

Humiliation by Hephaestus
While Hephaestus did keep his word, Aphrodite would stay away from her husband as much as possible, with them never having any kids. She soon began an affair with Ares, the handsome and passionate god of war, which became the worst kept secret on Mount Olympus (as they were seen together many times by Helios), with Hephaestus being the only person that didn't know, possibly because he wanted to believe that his wife could love him. Aphrodite gave birth to five children from Ares: Eros, Deimos, Phobos, Harmonia, and Anteros, yet their lack of resemblance to Hephaestus would make her husband suspicious.

One day, when Hephaestus pretended to depart for Lemnos, Ares and Aphrodite retired to the latter's bedroom but were imprisoned and immobilized by an unbreakable golden net set by Hephaestus as soon as they jumped into bed. A returned Hephaestus then proceeded to lead the rest of the gods into his bedroom, determined to humiliate the cheating pair. However, Zeus and Hermes found the situation hilarious and were promptly joined in prolonged contagious laughter by the other gods, with Athena taking the chance to jeer at Aphrodite. Finally, however, Poseidon managed to collect himself and requested that Hephaestus release the pair. The blacksmith god begrudgingly agreed, but only on the condition of Zeus repaying him all the gifts that he had made for Aphrodite's dowry. Poseidon then insisted that Ares be released as well, vouching to ensure that the war god would pay any price that would settle this debt. Hephaestus agreed, requesting a price of a hundred wagon loads of the best armor, weapons, and war spoils from Ares' fortress. With an agreement reached, Hephaestus finally released them both.

In the subsequent years, however, Hephaestus continued to find ways to trap and publicly embarrass Ares and Aphrodite. While he was still married to his unfaithful wife, Hephaestus would now feel entitled to pursue relationships with other women as well, the first of them, much to Aphrodite's chagrin, being Aglaia, who was one of her three Charities handmaidens. Despite the public humiliation, however, Aphrodite continued her affairs with Ares. She would also have romances with both mortals and other gods over the centuries.

Athena's Flute
When a proud Athena performed with her newly invented flute before Aphrodite, Demeter, and Hera, the goddesses began giggling and whispering to each other, with Aphrodite being the one to demonstrate how Athena's facial features comically contort while she plays. An embarrassed Athena fled in humiliation, and hurled the flute off of Olympus, cursing it to give the worst fortune to the next person to play it, which ended up being the satyr Marsyas, in which he felt entitled enough to challenge Apollo to a contest and lost, which resulted in him being flayed alive (although Apollo claims that he didn't flay him).

Pandora
Desperate to punish the Titan Epimetheus for the actions of his brother Prometheus (who had stolen divine fire from the gods and shared it with mankind), Zeus offered him quite a few gifts, but the Titan refused, heeding his wise brother's advice.

Finally, Zeus took Aphrodite's suggestion of using a woman. Hence, at Aphrodite's direction, Hephaestus molded the very first woman out of clay, and all the gods participated in ensuring that this first woman was perfect in every way: Athena gifted her with cleverness and curiosity, as well as teaching her weaving and crafts; Apollo taught her to sing and play the lyre, Demeter taught her how to tend a garden, Poseidon gave her a pearl necklace and promised she would never drown, Hermes gave her deceitfulness, while Aphrodite herself gave her beauty and charm to make her irresistible. As a result, this woman was named "Pandora", meaning "all the gifts".

Stunned at her beauty, Epimetheus forgot all about his brother's warning and promptly married her. Aphrodite soon dropped off a large ceramic jar as a gift for Pandora and encouraged the latter to never open it. After several days, however, Pandora, overwhelmed with curiosity, finally opened it, unleashing Hunger, Thirst, Poverty, Murder, Death, Jealousy, and many other evil things into the world. Only Elpis, the spirit of Hope, remained in the jar.

Hippolytus
After learning that Hippolytus, a charming and handsome prince joined Artemis' hunt without any interest in flirting with her Huntresses, the goddess was greatly enraged. Hence, when Hippolytus returned home to visit his father, Theseus, the two got into an argument about Hippolytus marrying and having children, despite the latter insisting on remaining with Artemis. Unbeknownst to father and son, Aphrodite was manipulating their emotions into a rage, resulting in Theseus drawing a sword and striking Hippolytus dead. Artemis, however, managed to persuade her nephew Asclepius to resurrect her dear friend with the Physician's Cure, angering Aphrodite again, making her complain to Zeus. The king of Olympus appeased her and Hades by personally striking down Asclepius with a thunderbolt.

Pygmalion
Pygmalion, a Cypriot sculptor, failed to find love among local women and carved a beautiful ivory statue resembling Aphrodite, his ideal of what a woman should be. Much to his dismay, he found himself deeply in love with the statue. Hence, during the Feast of Aphrodite, Pygmalion went to the goddess' temple and requested her assistance in finding a woman as wonderful as the goddess herself, and as beautiful as his ivory statue. Touched by his passionate love, Aphrodite granted the sculptor's request, making the statue come to life as a woman who returned Pygmalion's passionate love and affection.

Anchises and Aeneas
Zeus would eventually come to blame Aphrodite for inducing his many affairs with mortal women since that always caused problems and arguments with his wife Hera. Hence, as a punishment, Zeus somehow made her fall in love with a mortal shepherd Anchises. Aphrodite disguised herself as a mortal maiden and approached him. Awed by her beauty, Anchises would soon propose to her and they had a wonderful honeymoon. Several months later, however, Zeus' enchantment finally wore off, much to the goddess' shock and embarrassment. She had to leave, making Anchises promise never to reveal who his wife had been. Aphrodite subsequently raised their demigod son Aeneas until he was five, after which she brought him back to his father. When Anchises got older and less careful, he eventually let it slip that Aeneas's mother was actually Aphrodite herself and as punishment, Anchises was lightly struck by Zeus' thunderbolt, injuring his legs.

Aeneas would grow up to become a great prince of the city of Troy, participating in the 10-year-long Trojan War, and later sailing to Italy, becoming the first leader of a new people, who came to call themselves the Romans.

Adonis
One Greek princess, Smyrna, refused to worship Aphrodite, so the goddess punished her by making Smyrna fall in love with and seduce Cinyras, her own father. Afterward, an infuriated Cinyras would pursue her with a bared sword, threatening to kill her. However, Aphrodite took pity on the woman and transformed Smyrna into a myrrh tree.

Nine months later, the tree split open, revealing a baby boy inside. Due to her own busy schedule, Aphrodite chose Persephone to help her raise him, with both goddesses taking turns raising the boy (whom Aphrodite named Adonis), shuffling him back and forth between Aphrodite's secret lair on Cyprus and Persephone's Palace. He would eventually grow up into an incredibly handsome young man, by far the most handsome mortal man in the world. As a result, both goddesses instantly fell in love with Adonis and began fighting over him. With them unable to reach a compromise, both goddesses took Adonis to Mount Olympus, where Zeus decided that it would be best for Adonis to spend a third of each year with each respective goddess, and have the final third to himself.

During the time he spent with Persephone, Adonis would have to hide in closets and under her bed every time Hades entered her chambers since the latter did not know about his wife's secret boyfriend.

For a while, Adonis and Aphrodite were a happy couple and had a demigod daughter Beroe. One day, however, while hunting in the woods, Adonis came across a fierce wild boar (most likely placed there by a jealous Ares) that stabbed him to death with its tusks. A devastated Aphrodite turned his body into blood-red roses and anemones.

Trojan War
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 unlimited wealth and control over all Asia and Europe if she was picked while Athena offered battle skills, intelligence and success in war. 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 Menelaus 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.