Athena's Links
Athena is absolutely obsessed with Aphrodite. Athena couldn't care less about conventional definitions of beauty -- she finds beauty and pleasure in violence, evil, and war. However, Aphrodite, who perfectly embodies beauty as a concept, deeply appeals to Athena. It's like horseshoe theory, where she loves war and bloodshed so much that it somehow loops around to her loving love and beauty, but only in its absolute state (AKA: Aphrodite) and nothing less. She fell in love with Aphrodite at first sight.
Aphrodite takes great care in upholding her appearance, and feels angry when she's perceived as anything except beautiful. So, the fact that Athena believes her to be the epitome of beauty, no matter her appearance, made her fall in love with Athena.
Also, both of them like watching mortals killing each other. So that's something. lmao