6 The Tale of Aphrodite and Hephaestus

The Tale of Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Olympian goddess of love, beauty. Even though married to Hephaestus, she had affairs with all Olympians except Zeus and Hades, most famously with Ares, the god of war. She also had famous romances with two mortals, Anchises and Adonis.

Aphrodite was so lovely that only the three goddesses – Artemis, Athena, and Hestia – were immune to her charms and power. Unsurprisingly, the second she got on Olympus, she inadvertently wreaked havoc amongst the other gods, each of whom instantly wanted to have her for himself. So as to prevent this, Zeus hurriedly married her to Hephaestus, the ugliest among the Olympians. Of course, this merely alleviated the problem: Aphrodite didn't plan to remain faithful.

So, she started an affair with someone as destructive and as violent as herself: Ares. Helios, however, saw them and informed Hephaestus, after which the god made sure to devise a fine bronze net, which ensnared the couple the next time they lay together in bed. To add insult to injury, Hephaestus called upon all the other gods to laugh at the adulterers and freed them only after Poseidon agreed to pay for their release.

Poor Hephaestus! He couldn't have known that when Poseidon fell in love with her. He must have found out later, since Aphrodite gave Poseidon at least one daughter, Rhode. And she didn't give up on Ares either! In fact, after the bronze net scandal, she bore the god of war as many as eight children: Deimos, Phobos, Harmonia, Adrestia, and the four Erotes (Eros, Anteros, Pothos, and Himeros). It seems that only Zeus and Hades managed to never fall for the goddess of love.

When Aphrodite wasn't busy making other people fall in love, Aphrodite had some time to fall in love herself.

Once, she took a baby boy she had found beside a myrrh tree to the Underworld and asked Persephone to take good care of him. However, when she went to visit him after many years, she instantly fell in love with the now unusually handsome mortal. So, he asked to have Adonis – for that was the boy's name – back. Persephone wouldn't allow this. Zeus settled the quarrel by dividing Adonis' time between the two goddesses. However, Adonis preferred Aphrodite and, when the time came, he didn't want to go back to the Underworld. Persephone sent a wild boar to kill him, and Adonis bled to death in Aphrodite's arms.

Few dared to resist the power of Aphrodite, and she had mercy for none of them. Hippolytus preferred Artemis to her and vowed to eternal innocence. Aphrodite made his stepmother Phaedra fall in love with him, which resulted in the death of both her and Hippolytus.

The Tale of Hephaestus

Hephaestus is the god of blacksmiths and fire. Called "the celestial artificer," he was also associated with other craftsmen (sculptors, carpenters, metalworkers) and, as evident in the name of his Roman counterpart Vulcan, with volcanoes. Even though an ugly god lamed by his own mother, he was the husband of none other than Aphrodite herself.

He is arguably the most extraordinary member of the Olympian Pantheon. Bearded and ugly, stocky, and lame, he neither possesses the physical flawlessness of the other gods nor does he stimulate the fitting respect. Sometimes he is depicted with an oval cap and almost always with a hammer and an anvil.

Homer says that Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera. However, he is unclear whether he was born lame or whether he was lamed after his father threw him from Olympus for intervening on behalf of his mother during a quarrel between Zeus and Hera.

Hesiod, however, claims that Hephaestus is solely Hera's child and that she gave him birth by parthenogenesis to get back at her husband who had done the same with Athena. In this version of the story, after bringing him to the world, Hera was so disgusted with Hephaestus' looks and ashamed of his deformity that she was the one who threw him out. Hephaestus was severely hurt from the fall, but he was rescued by Thetis and Eurynome, who sheltered him in a cave under the Ocean for the following nine years.

Later on, Hephaestus got his revenge. He made a golden throne, so beautiful that Hera accepted it right away. However, the minute she sat on it, she was all tied up by the numerous delicately fashioned cords invisible to anyone's eyes but their creator's. Many gods tried to persuade Hephaestus to free Hera, promising him a place on Olympus in return. However, he was unremorseful and released his mother only when Dionysus got him drunk.

No one but him was able to build the beautiful, indestructible bronze mansions where all the other Olympians lived. Crafty and cunning, he added a distinctive element here and there, such as the secure doors of Hera's chamber which no other god but her could open.

In the "Iliad," Homer tells us something even more fascinating. Namely, that Hephaestus had fashioned for himself handmaidens of gold, who were able to understand him, speak to him and assist him. And they weren't the only creations of this kind. Among other automata, Hephaestus sculpted golden dogs to guard the palace of Alcinous and Talos, a giant bronze man to protect Crete. Some even say that, at the request of Zeus, he also sculpted the first mortal woman, Pandora.

Finally, Hephaestus was the creator of some of the most stunning pieces of military equipment ever seen. Most famously, as a favor to Thetis, he created the shield of Achilles, whose five bronze layers he masterfully engraved with scenes representing almost all aspects of life. But he was also the one who made the scepter of Agamemnon, the breast-plate of Diomedes, and the sword of Peleus.

Most commonly, his wife is said to have been none other than Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty herself. However, she wasn't very faithful to him, sleeping with Ares behind his back. One day, Hephaestus caught the lovers and trapped them in a fine-woven chain-net, after which he called upon the other gods to laugh at their shame. Poseidon persuaded him to free the adulterers, but Hephaestus wasn't done. When Ares and Aphrodite's daughter Harmonia married Cadmus, he gifted her a magical necklace which would bring misfortune to her and everyone who will afterward wear it.