Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty, who served as the main antagonist in Night of the Cyclops.

History

Ancient times

Aphrodite was one of the most prominent Greek deities, and son named Eros, who was also a god of love. Over time, Ælita, a young mortal Greek woman was considered the most beautiful woman in the world, even in the eyes of the other gods. In her jealousy Aphrodite ordered her son Eros to shoot Ælita with one of his magical love-arrows, in order to make her fall in love with Seilenos, a hideous satyr.

Instead Eros fell in love with her, which angered his mother even more, and she turned Ælita and her entire community into satyr-like beings, who would be tormented every year by a cyclops, who seemed to kill the girl and destroy the harvest of cursed humans. Overtime the mother Ælita began to prophecy of a figure called "Ægipan", who would save them from their cursed existence.

Night of the Cyclops

In 1962 Hellboy, whom the cursed satyrs considered the Ægipan of prophecy, killed the cyclops, Aphrodite emerged from the sea in gigantic form, alongside her son. Aphrodite was angered by the death of her monster and attempted to step on Hellboy and Ælita, but Eros came between, explaining that while Ælita was the most beautiful woman in the human world, she was still the most beautiful among the goddesses, also admitting that he still loved the human.

Aphrodite in the end agreed to spare Ælita and her community, and even turned them back to humans, but demanded Eros that he has to stop loving her, demanding him to shoot the "Ægipan" (Hellboy) with one of his arrows, in order to make him fall for the young woman. Eros agreed and shot Hellboy, who fell unconscious after the arrows and returned to the humans world.

Personality

As a powerful Greek goddess, Aphrodite was arrogant held a low view on humans, considering them lesser beings. This is proved by her jealousy of Ælita, a mortal woman, which led to the goddess to punish an entire community. She also could not let her son Eros be in love with this human woman, considering this as an act of betrayal.

After Hellboy had killed the cyclops, the goddess stated that she was "pissed off", which the cambion found strange, since he did not except such use of language from a mythical Greek goddess.