Aphrodite
| Aphrodite | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Aliases | Lady of Dawn | |
| Alignment | Chaotic Good | |
| Divine Rank | Intermediate Goddess | |
| Pantheon | Greek | |
| Portfolio | Beauty, love | |
| Domains | 3E: Chaos, Charm, Good 5E: Light |
|
| Home Plane | Olympus (Arborea) | |
| Worshippers | Artists, bards, lovers, elves | |
| Favoured Weapon | Dagger | |
Aphrodite is the Greco-Roman goddess of beauty and love. She is most relevant to /tg/ for appearing in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition as part of the Olympian pantheon to be worshipped by player characters and NPCs. As such, she appears as part of the Great Wheel and is an important NPC in Planescape.
She is one of the many figures of Greek myth to influence modern language, providing the basis for the work of aphrodisiac, a substance that improves sexual performance. Claims of various natural substances being such tend to be dubious and/or placebo, but it’s a common enough claim and the existence of modern medicine capable of it means one really existing doesn’t stretch suspension of disbelief in the slightest, so it frequently appears as a property of fictional Drugs.
Historically, her exact Portfolio and nature have varied greatly. Spartans had a warrior's edge to her as a likely offshoot of Ishtar. The Athenians, despite having Athena being their patron deity (though she was never that womanly), had a subhuman view of women and considered Aphrodite's sphere of love to be a type of madness (lots of tragedies have many people die because of horniness) as opposed to truer brotherly love. While some Christian monks pushed her as a Celestial Virgin Mary, having a Portfolio over Divine Beauty and love rather than the more earthly, hedonistic kind she was normally known for.
