Chereads / The Origin of the Greek World / Chapter 7 - The Ares and Aphrodite Scandal: The Hephaestus Net

Chapter 7 - The Ares and Aphrodite Scandal: The Hephaestus Net

The seawater surrounding the island of Cyprus was getting milder, seemingly ready for the beautiful scene that was about to happen. From the waters emerged the one to be deemed the most beautiful of all goddesses-Aphrodite-The goddess of beauty and love-daughter of Uranus, the god who had once reigned over the world. She materialized upon a shell, after arriving on Mount Olympus, she was under the spotlight. The gods were delighted by the new arrival who brightened the splendid abode of the gods even more. Zeus noticed that such beauty would be the cause of a lot of quarrels and disharmony, after all Aphrodite awakened lustful feelings and also feelings of pure envy in the gods. To avoid Chaos, Zeus decided to unite Aphrodite the most beautiful goddess with Hephaestus, a rustic looking god and so Aphrodite submitted herself to the will of the Zeus and united herself with the god of the forges, but despite his brutish appearance, Hephaestus was endearing to his wife, using his talents, he made and covered his wife with the most beautiful jewels, however the blacksmith god was always absent, as he spent great lengths of time working in his forge in the Aetna Volcano.

Meanwhile, the goddess of love struggled with loneliness. There was another god, known as Ares-the god of war, who had a poor reputation, his unrestrained bursts of violence and his thirst for blood turned him into a very feared being by mortals while also being repudiated by the gods, even his father Zeus had no sympathy for the god of war. He picked Athena- goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, as his favorite. But one goddess failed to resist the reckless approach and bad boy manners of the god of war and her name was...Aphrodite. Ares had a perfect athletic build and was stunningly good looking and in Aphrodite's eyes, this contrasted with the god Hephaestus, a rough looking and crippled deity due to the fact that he fell from Olympus when he was just a baby. Aphrodite was tired of being lonely, and so when one day she heard the arrival of Ares who had just returned from yet another war, she stared at that gorgeous blood drenched god and got goosebumps and she promptly offered herself to clean all that blood. Ares felt surprised because for a long time not a single resident of Olympus showed him the slightest courtesy. The insinuating goddess started her seductive ritual and clueless Ares didn't stand a chance against the powers of love.

Away from others, they went to through a night of fiery love and from that day on, whenever Hephaestus went to work, Ares visited Aphrodite on her Marriage bed and to avoid being spotted by Helios-the deity of the Sun and the number 1 gossiper among the deities. Ares ordered Electryon to guard the door of Aphrodite's room so as to warm him if the sun ever came by. Hypnos-the god of sleep had already noticed that something odd was happening between Ares and Aphrodite, but he didn't want to be known as a snitch, so the god of sleep one day hit Electryon with an overwhelming need to sleep and so he fell asleep and did not see the sun approaching. After waking up, Ares noticed that it was day already and he knew that they would have surely already been spotted by the sun. Enraged, Ares decided to punish the negligent watchman and so he turned him to a Rooster and from that day on Electryon never stopped shouting just before the sun came up.

The god Helios told Hephaestus everything he saw but Hephaestus refused to believe that his wife would betray him but decided to set a trap just in case and so he told his wife that he had a big job to do and that he would be gone for a week and as soon as Hephaestus went on his way, Ares quickly found his way to Aphrodite's bed but unfortunately for them, this time, they would not be able to get away with it. The god of forges had weaved a net so fine that it appeared to be invisible and having put it on the bed, right when the gods were in the act, the net entangled them together thereby imprisoning them. Hephaestus called the other gods to witness the shameful scene. All the gods began to laugh. Ashamed and humiliated, Hephaestus decided to disown his wife.

From the union of Ares and Aphrodite were born; Deimos-the deity of feelings of dread and terror that befell those before a battle, Phobos-the deity of feelings of fear and panic in the midst of battle and the beautiful Harmonia-the goddess of concord and harmony.