The question was posed to me recently that if Diana was given the gift of beauty from Aphrodite at birth, then how and when did this manifest itself.  Of course this hinges on the not-yet established assumption that Diana still got blessings from the goddesses upon her birth which has not been defined one way or another yet, although the revelation that Zeus is her father might change that (though both can still fit within the origin easily enough.)  The Perez origin, most of which has to be a little changed now, described how the souls of the Amazons came from those of women who had met their deaths at the hands of violent or vengeful men.  Only one such woman at the time was pregnant, and these two souls met in the Cavern of Souls, where they waited for rebirth.  As the unborn infant was not yet ready to be born anew (actually born for the first time) the other Amazons were freed while Diana’s soul waited.  When it was deemed that the time was right the soul was released into its mortal form.  As it was being released though it gained its blessings.  Some of these blessings dealt with physical abilities such as strength and speed, while others dealt with mental abilities such as a hunter’s mind or wisdom.  Of course these are attributes which are a combination of both nurture and nature – even if you are born smart or physical capable you still need to work at these things in order to hone them – but beauty on the other hand is not really something which requires much other than what nature gave us at birth.  This is not true of course, there are environmental factors which can lead someone to be less attractive, as well as subsequent physical damage, but generally speaking the genes we are born with result in our appearance.  There are of course some complications with that, as our attractiveness changes over time based on what processes our bodies are undergoing.  For instance, someone might not be considered attractive at 13 but then will be at 18.  Underlying this all as well is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  To go back to her birth though, it should be noted then that her beauty likely took affect right away, thus in essence Diana has never really seen her true face (which to be fair is she looked like her mother would not be that unattractive either) but the presence of the one blessing altered her perception forever. 

I always found the Perez origin of the Amazons to be rather interesting, and I hope that in some way they incorporate that into the new 52. The thing about beauty though is that it is mostly subjective "eye of the beholder" and all of that. Beauty differs from person to person. Many see beauty in appearance and some others see beauty in a persons character. Diana had the natural beauty of a newborn child that makes so many respond with the term adorable. As Diana grew into a woman her appearance is stated to be rather stunning, but in my personal experience I believe the beauty of her character far outshines her appearance.

@RazzaTazz: nice post...... i was thinking the same thing when i saw the question in the forum but couldnt put into words....... u did a great job....

@Delphic: i do agree that beauty can be seen in a person,s character as well.... but when they say "the beauty of aphrodite" i think they mean just physical attractiveness....

I think the new origin with Zeus as her baby daddy Dianna will be beatuiful in the physical sense, cause lets face it thart are not many ugly Greek gods (cept maybe Hephaestus). If her character has not been changed too much then she should still be strong, caring, compassionate, etc,
traits which can show her inner beauty.

@cloudzackvincent said:

@Delphic: i do agree that beauty can be seen in a person,s character as well.... but when they say "the beauty of aphrodite" i think they mean just physical attractiveness....

I'm pretty sure that's what they mean too when they refer to Aphrodite, but I just wanted to point out the beauty of character aspect.

@Delphic: ok... got it :)

I figure that physically WW would be the perfect textbook example of ancient classical beauty with the right proportions of limbs/body, symmetrical features, healthy looking skin etc. She probably has a kind of "it" factor on top that makes people's heads turn and get lots of stares on top of that. In one of the elseworld stories when superman met WW for the first time, he said that Lois Lane was the most fascinating woman he knew, but WW was the most magnificent he had ever seen.

Well,I don't know so much about Wonder Woman.

What I'd like to say is,it's not nature.God gives us everything.

And why beauty should be only about how people look on the outside? In my humble opinion,the inside is what counts,infinite times more.External beauty fades in time. But what we have in our soul,never goes away.

There's a story from the Greek mythology about this-I happen to be from Greece so..you know!!:)

When people learned that they had to offer sacrifices to the Gods,it raised the question which parts of the animals that the humans should offer and which ones they would eat themselves.So,Prometheus tricked Zeus in favor of the humans.In one plate,he put the bones of a beef and wrapped them with attractive,luscious,tasty fat and in the other plate he put the best parts of the meat,wrapped up with the animal's skin.Zeus came down from Olympus to Sicyon (according with the myth) to choose.Drifted by the external appearance of the food he preferred the plate with the bones but when he realized his mistake,it was already late-that's why ancient Greeks offered the bones and the fat of the animal as a sacrifice.

Another thing that says outer looks is not everything-as it is viewed today.

Sorry for the theatrical monologue-style!!:)

@Godlovesusall said:

Well,I don't know so much about Wonder Woman.

What I'd like to say is,it's not nature.God gives us everything.

And why beauty should be only about how people look on the outside? In my humble opinion,the inside is what counts,infinite times more.External beauty fades in time. But what we have in our soul,never goes away.

There's a story from the Greek mythology about this-I happen to be from Greece so..you know!!:)

When people learned that they had to offer sacrifices to the Gods,it raised the question which parts of the animals that the humans should offer and which ones they would eat themselves.So,Prometheus tricked Zeus in favor of the humans.In one plate,he put the bones of a beef and wrapped them with attractive,luscious,tasty fat and in the other plate he put the best parts of the meat,wrapped up with the animal's skin.Zeus came down from Olympus to Sicyon (according with the myth) to choose.Drifted by the external appearance of the food he preferred the plate with the bones but when he realized his mistake,it was already late-that's why ancient Greeks offered the bones and the fat of the animal as a sacrifice.

Another thing that says outer looks is not everything-as it is viewed today.

Sorry for the theatrical monologue-style!!:)

That's an interesting story

@kapitein_zeppos: i think superman said lois was the most compelling woman he ever saw not fascinating..but anyway i think trinity is non canon... another thing is..i don't think lois is supposed to be very pretty at least according to john bryne's interpretation.... becz... altho it has been years since i read the john bryne's retelling of superman's origin..i recall when he narrates about his frst meeting with lois to his parents he says something in the lines of " she was not the most beautiful physically" or " she was not as beautiful as a movie star" ..i don't recall the exact line tho..

@lorex said:

I think the new origin with Zeus as her baby daddy Dianna will be beatuiful in the physical sense, cause lets face it thart are not many ugly Greek gods (cept maybe Hephaestus). If her character has not been changed too much then she should still be strong, caring, compassionate, etc, traits which can show her inner beauty.

Yeah, in Greek Myth Heph was ugly because Hera created him on her own, although some say it was the fall from Olympus to Earth that crippled him. If Zeus is WW's father, then yeah, she'd be perfect, Hercules & the other heroes that were his sons all had godly powers, & would no doubt look good too. So, all of the "gifts" from the goddesses still be there from the god of gods.@cloudzackvincent said:

@kapitein_zeppos: i think superman said lois was the most compelling woman he ever saw not fascinating..but anyway i think trinity is non canon... another thing is..i don't think lois is supposed to be very pretty at least according to john bryne's interpretation.... becz... altho it has been years since i read the john bryne's retelling of superman's origin..i recall when he narrates about his frst meeting with lois to his parents he says something in the lines of " she was not the most beautiful physically" or " she was not as beautiful as a movie star" ..i don't recall the exact line tho..

I once read that Lana was supposed to represent that ideal Highschool fantasy: the home coming queen, the head cheerleader, most popular, dates the captain of the sports team(s) , all those traits that dont really matter much once school is out, & her looks start to fade & she hasnt much of an education because she coasted through on her looks, & now her husband, if he hasnt left, is basicly Al Bundy.

Lois on the other hand, may only be a 3, has a face for reporting in newpapers, is smarter, nicer, humble, someone who you'd actually want to spend 40+ years with & can be counted on to teach proper values & morals to their kids.