Goddess Thine

A Love Story

"For your punishment, you must marry Hephaestus," Zeus announced, and a hush fell over the court. He had just sentenced his lovely Aphrodite, the most beautiful of the Goddesses, to a life bound to the ugliest God.

Her crime? She had helped Helen escape Troy, and the controlling man who was her husband, to be with one who would love and cherish her as she deserved. Yes, it had been partly so that she would win the Golden Apple. Yes, it had started a war. A war that they all knew was coming regardless.

Aphrodite watched on, face blank, amused by Zeus's reaction to her lack of one. He had clearly expected her to be furious, for her to prove the rumours of her vanity true. But she was not the Goddess of cruelty, or of anger, or vanity or greed. Aphrodite was the Goddess of Love. She simply remained passive, nodding.

She wondered if anyone else noticed as Hephaestus limped out of the room, tears in his eyes. Hera did, thankfully, walking after her son, shooting a murderous glare at her husband, who didn't seem to notice. How cruel an irony, Aphrodite mused within herself, that the Goddess of Marriage and faithfulness and family should be bound to such a man.

Seeing he would get no rise from her, Zeus waved his hand. "You shall be wed at midnight, take the next month as a honeymoon. I hope you can stand it," he added, and again she merely nodded, stepping gracefully from the chamber, following Hera and Hephaestus.

--
She found the queen alone, watching as her eldest son limped into his workshop. Aphrodite hesitated. She wasn't entirely sure she should do this. But she had to.

"Hera, my queen," she began quietly, and the woman sent a glare her way.

"What do you want, after taking everything else from me?" Hera was still bitter, it seemed, about the Apple. Of course, it also could have been about any number of other things, any one of her husband's many mistresses. But Aphrodite steeled herself, stepping closer.

"I actually wish to ask for your Blessing," she murmured, watching as Hephaestus slammed his door shut in the distance.

"My Blessing? For what purpose?"

"I wish to have your blessing to marry your son."

"Ares? Seeking to elope and escape your punishment?"

And after he had promised not to say anything. Not that she had anything to hide, seeing as how he had taken her with only the barest concern for her actual consent. He left her alone, carrying a son that luckily inherited very little from his father, and everyone had something to say about it. But she could be mad about that later.

"No, Hera. Hephaestus. Zeus may not care what he or you think, but I do. I don't want to be married to a man that will never love me, or who feels that our union is a punishment, regardless of what his father or anyone else says."

The elder Goddess looked rather taken aback by that. Aphrodite wasn't surprised. This was why she stayed away from Olympus. All anyone could see was a pretty face, and rumours from spurned lovers.

"You would willingly marry my boy?"

"I would."

"You would love him? Be faithful?"

"Despite the rumours, my queen, I would. I would only ask that he do the same."

"He- how dare you?"

"Zeus holds no secrets, nor does Ares. I have not heard of your oldest breaking any hearts, but that doesn't mean he is incapable of such. He is not so ugly as the world would have him think. He is also strong, warm, clever. I happen to know many a young man and woman that value those above petty things."