Aphrodite's greatest weaknesses were her vanity, jealousy, and hate of anyone considered more beautiful than herself.
Strengths: Potent sexual attractiveness, dazzling beauty. Weaknesses: A bit stuck on herself, but with a perfect face and body, who can blame her? Aphrodite's parents: One genealogy gives her parents as Zeus, king of the gods, and Dione, an early earth/mother goddess.
Aphrodite's Anger
Like other gods, Aphrodite would punish anyone, mortal or god, for slights against her. Theseus' son Hippolytus became a devotee of the virgin goddess, Artemis, and thus shunned the pleasures of the flesh. This angered Aphrodite, who felt that Hippolytus did not worship her sufficiently.
Her special powers were those of love and desire. She had a belt that had the power to cause others to fall in love with the wearer. Some of the other Greek goddesses, such as Hera, would borrow the belt from time to time. Aphrodite had the ability to cause fighting couples to fall in love again.
In Greek mythology, Psyche was a mortal woman whose beauty was so great that it rivaled that of the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite became so jealous of Psyche that she sent her son, Eros, to make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest man in the world.
Aphrodite's marriage was arranged by Zeus to avoid a war.
As a result, Aphrodite was forced to marry the ugliest god in Olympus, Hephaestus. Aphrodite was unhappy about this marriage and both parties continued to have affairs with other gods and goddesses.
Who was Aphrodite married to? Aphrodite was compelled by Zeus to marry Hephaestus, the god of fire. However, they were an imperfect match, and Aphrodite consequently spent time cheating with the god of war, Ares, as well as a slew of mortal lovers, such as the Trojan nobleman Anchises and the youth Adonis.
Aphrodite could be both generous and vengeful. She gave Paris the most beautiful woman in the world as payment for naming her the fairest of the goddesses. The women of Lemnos saw the other side of Aphrodite. These women failed to honor the goddess, so Aphrodite cursed the women with a bad case of body odor.
Aphrodite's enemies included Hera, Zeus' wife; Athena, the goddess of war; Helios, the sun; and Artemis; the goddess of the wilderness and virginity. Aphrodite was considered the most beautiful of all the goddesses, which naturally inspired jealousy and envy.
Her lovers included Ares, the god of war, and the mortal Anchises, a Trojan prince with whom she had a famous son, Aeneas. Her most famous lover, however, was the handsome and youthful mortal Adonis.
According to her myth when she wept in sorrow and grief her tears were transformed into flowers and as they fell to the ground they blossomed into anemones. The Tears of Aphrodite is an art installation by Émilie Gautier and Rebecca Devaney that began on International Women's Rights Day 2019.
Aphrodite held Adonis in her arms as he bled to death. As she cried over her beloved, her tears fell into the pools of blood around them, and they were transformed through her love: from those tears mingled with the blood there bloomed the most beautiful anemone flowers.
The name Psyche means "soul" in Greek and was commonly referred to as such in Roman mythology as well, though direct translation is Anima (Latin word for "soul"). She was born a mortal woman eventually granted immortality, with beauty that rivaled even Aphrodite, goddess of love.
Aphrodite's Curse is about a dynasty's fall from grace, unrequited love and retribution. A powerful family is brought to ruin, the consequences unforeseen and irreparable. The trouble begins with King Minos who asks the gods for a bull to be sacrificed so that he may become ruler of Kretos and surrounding lands.
Shakti is one of the most powerful Hindu goddesses. She is even referred to as “The Great Divine Mother.” She is illustrated colorfully in art. She has multiple arms and their power in numbers is believed to hold a great force over humans.
Immortality: Aphrodite is an immortal, as she cannot die through natural causes or weapons that can easily kill a mortal. Only other gods, divine weapons or other immortals, can probably harm her. Amokinesis: Aphrodite attracts both men and women naturally through her presence and/or by her will.
It was even suggested in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite that there were only three deities who could resist the passions that Aphrodite aroused, and they were Athena, Artemis, and Hestia. Note that all three were goddesses, and all were also virgins by choice.
Type of Hero
Despite being known to have frequent affairs against her husband Hephaestus (especially with her lover Ares, the God of War), she is often portrayed in myths as a friendly, kind, benevolent, and even generous entity.
The myths tell us that Aphrodite qualities are essential for the joy of life, but the shadow side of Aphrodite manifests when a woman is completely identified with Aphrodite's powers, when other archetypal qualities of the feminine are unimportant to her.
She was married to Hephaistos (god of fire and metalworking) but was famously caught sleeping with Ares (god of war). Other divine lovers included Dionysos (god of wine) and Hermes (god of travel and commerce), from whom she gave birth to the fertility deities Priapos and Hermaphroditos, respectively.
Years before the original film, Aphrodite grew jealous of her priestess Medusa, fearing her to be more beautiful than her. Further infuriated when Medusa and Poseidon did away in her own temple, Aphrodite cursed Medusa into becoming a hideous Gorgan while also turning her beautiful hair locks into snakes.
It is said that the boar which killed Adonis was no ordinary beast but the god Ares, who was one of Aphrodite's many lovers. Jealous of her passion for Adonis, Ares, disguised himself in the form of a boar and attacked the young man.
(1) DIVINE LOVES. APHRODITE The goddess of love and beauty was pursued by Zeus when she first emerged from the sea but managed to escape him. According to some, she later had an affair with the god, and through the curses of Hera bore a deformed son: the god Priapos (most sources however say his father was Dionysos).
Hippolytus' Rejection
Unfortunately for Hippolytus, young men in ancient Greece were expected to worship Aphrodite during and after puberty because she was the goddess of love and sexual desire. By choosing to worship Artemis only, he rejected Aphrodite and refused to worship her.