Aphrodite is the Olympian goddess of love. Although often spiteful and selfish, and very immature at times (as shown by her feuds with Discord and her son,Cupid), the influence of her half-brother Hercules and her friendships with mortals such as Iolaus, Xena andGabrielle leads her character in some surprising directions.
She was played by actress Alexandra Tydings.
Relations[]
Aphrodite treats Hercules as her protective older brother, affectionately referring to him as "Big Bro" (a physical description, given that she was millennia older than him) and was probably the closest to him of all the Olympians. She frequently took his advice and assisted him on his adventures. Although she was manipulating him during their initial encounter, Aphrodite eventually became friends with Iolaus, Hercules's most frequent ally. Xena and Gabrielle often found themselves entangled in Aphrodite's hare-brained schemes, though their relationship with her improved to the point where the goddess was even willing to stand up to Athena on their behalf.
She was also quite close to her brother Ares, largely due to the connection they shared. Aphrodite literally goes insane when Ares loses his godhood as War and Love must co-exist in cosmic balance. In spite of her affection for Ares, Aphrodite has no time for his flunkies, in particular, Discord, with whom she shares an almost adolescent rivalry.
Aphrodite's relationship with her son Cupid is generally strained for a variety of reasons, namely her overprotectiveness and the fact that she is his boss as well as his mother.
Like many Olympians, Aphrodite occasionally has trysts with mortals. Two children produced from such couplings are Deon and Aeneas.
History[]
Before her tryst with Hephaestus, she is portrayed as being a bit promiscuous: she steals a boyfriend away from Hera and because of that Hera places a curse on her son Cupid. Cupid falls in love with a girl namedPsyche, who is said to be more beautiful than Aphrodite, which makes her extremely jealous. Out of jealousy, Aphrodite tries to shoot a love arrow at Psyche. When Cupid tries to stop her, Hercules is accidentally hit and falls in love with Psyche. Thanks to Hera's curse, Cupid literally turns into a green-eyed monster with jealousy at the thought of losing Psyche. The curse is eventually lifted when the truth comes after he confesses his love for Psyche and she marries him. Aphrodite gives Psyche Ambrosia to make her a goddess to make amends since she is the one who started the mess. Although she soon realizes she is now a mother-in-law, which does not make her very happy. She becomes a grandmother later on when Psyche and Cupid have a son named Bliss.
On Hercules, Aphrodite is usually the comic relief or the viewers' window into the politics of Mount Olympus. Though she is originally introduced as a scheming goddess, devious and almost as uncaring as Ares, she quickly evolves into a more benevolent fun-loving character, though still prone to mood swings. She is also the only member of his Olympian family apart from Zeus Hercules seems to have any sort of close relationship with (in one episode he refers to her as his favorite little sister, and is somewhat close to her son Cupid who refers to him as "Uncle Herc"), despite the trouble she seems to cause him.
Aphrodite determines to break up a royal family marriage that will end a war, only because the newly allied kingdoms plan to destroy her temples. As her son Cupid explains to Gabrielle, "When the Goddess of Love decides to do something petty and spiteful, she can be a tad difficult to reason with."
Powers[]
As an Olympian goddess, Aphrodite possesses the normal range of Powers and Abilities of olimpic god:immortality, enhanced stamina, reflexes, senses, agility, teleportation, telekinesis, conjuration, regeneration, invisibility, intangibility, invincibility, flying, shielding, time travel (restricted by order of Zeus), healing (restricted by order of Athena), switching souls from one body to another and shape-shifting. She also displayed an ability to generate an aura to prevent the soul of a worshiper from being taken to the Underworld for the span of one day- she is the only Olympian seen to display this ability, but it is very possible that this is a perk any Olympian can use occasionally.
As the Goddess of love, Aphrodite's particular power is to create love, desire, pasion and affection, and cause people to fall in love, Aphrodite can not, eliminate love born by itself.This lovely goddess could also control minds when she had ever needed or wanted to. So being the personification of Love, is really a powerful Olympian Goddess with powers like her counterpart Ares.
If Aphrodite ever loses her Godly powers, all mankind will lose the feeling and the ability to love and time after time they will despise each other, not just that Ares the God of War will also lose his Godly powers because War must be balanced with Love and vice versa.
Crime[]
Aphrodite betrayed her family and teleported Xena to Olympus. Because of this, Xena killed her sisters Athena and Artemis.
