Aphrothena

I

Unexpectedly, Athena and Aphrodite began to have feelings for each other and from long years of friendship, as they spent more time together and began to know more about one another, those feelings of friendship blossomed into pure and sincere yet strong love.

Aphrodite was allured by Athena’s bravery and wit while Athena was allured by Aphrodite’s beauty.

Not platonic, but romantic love. Aphrodite may have been married, but that didn’t stop her. This wasn’t just an another affair or a passing fancy but it was something genuine, something not even the goddess of love herself felt before. They spent more time together, exchanging kind words , then kisses and fondles. Cute. The Olympian Gods became known about this relationship, many with their own opinions. Some enraged and some amused, but most seemed to feel the latter. Days and days passed, months and months, years and years, decades and centuries and millennia, but their love only grew stronger and stronger.

Unbeknownst, the two have decided to have a child, and a child they did have. Aphrodite gave birth one day. It was a daughter, gorgeous, the most beautiful baby, so beautiful that she caught everyone’s eyes, and only brought her mothers closer. Since being the daughter of the goddess of wisdom, she could speak by one year, form sentences by two and speak normally by three, playing the harp at four and writing prose by six.

The mix of beauty and wisdom astonished everyone.

The child grew up, intelligent and pretty. So many infatuated by her, asking for her hand, but she rejected. Her name: Aphrothena.
By the time she was a teenager, Aphrothena was very beautiful.

Her hair were long, a chocolate brown colour while her eyes were light grey, her skin soft and white like alabaster while her body was voluptuous and feminine yet lean, with a flat abdomen, her arms and legs long but lean while her feet and hands were small and smooth, but she was tall too.

She was kind, polite, caring, independent and curious. Enjoying things like art, philosophy, poetry and literature, music too. Her thinking was logical. Men asked for her hand, citizens and kings, even Apollo, but she rejected each and every single one of them, being into other women like her mothers, but fully women, no exceptions. Athens were her favourite city, the centre of civilisation. She enjoyed the dialogues of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, plays of Euripides and Aeschylus, poems of Sappho and literature of Homer.  Aphrothena liked to swim also, which made her closer with Poseidon (not romantically, but as friends).

Despite nature not being her favourite place to be, she liked to walk in the forests and other landscapes of the mortal world for her inspirations, before returning to Olympus where she mostly remained. Liked Athena, she stayed a virgin and spinster but didn’t hesitate to try to look for young girls she found attractive and her type.

II

One day, she fell in love with a daughter of a farmer from Corinth named Palatheia. She went down to Gaia (Earth) and began talking to her, in awe with the girl’s long golden locks and brown eyes (as well as body, voice and personality), sat on a rock by a rose bush. For days they met in secret, talked and even kissed a few times, fondled too. One day, Palatheia’s father, Perestraphus, found out and forced an arranged marriage to a soldier, but she died on her way to the wedding, killed by a cow (accidentally). Seeing this, Aphrothena went down to and wept, hearing her beloved’s last words and breath, kissing ger very gently for the last time.
Then she took Palatheia’s long strand of the golden locks and put it into her own, also made her own hair smell like roses. Afterwards, the body was taken by her and buried it near the top of Mount Olympus, where no mortal could find it. The rock which they sat on and the rosebush which grew nearby (as well as a but of land underneath and around those) was taken by her, hidden near the top of Mount Olympus, not far from the grave, but no mortals could find it (it was hidden from them by a charm).

Perestraphus demanded the body of his daughter, but that was rejected.

During her time on the surface, Persephone saw Aphrothena weeping on a rock (a different one) and asked what happened. The latter explained and then the Queen of the Underworld was so angry that she took all the fertility from Perestraphus and when he died, she ensured that he’d have a place in the Underworld where he’d be mercilessly tortured for the suffering he caused not only for his daughter but also for the young goddess.

III

It was hard to move on, but she did, eventually. Her mothers comforted her and she saw companionship with some nymphs like Dryope (daughter of Hyacinthus) . Seeing the sorrow, Morpheus felt pity for her and allowed Aphrothena to see her beloved in her dreams which made her very joyful.  To distract her daughter from the remaining sorrow and nostalgia, wanting to protect her from any negatives feelings and ensure her well- being, as a good mother should, Athena asked her father Zeus for any deities that his granddaughter could be, so Zeus granted her to be the deity of

She was busy with her new duties, but did not fail to commemorate her beloved Palatheia by visiting the ‘memorial’ site and her grave near the top of Mount Olympus. Nonetheless, she continued to the things she liked: swimming, reading, writing, watching plays, play the harp and lyre, enjoy art and listen to the philosophical discussions of the mortal philosophers.

She became closer with her mothers, grandfather and other Olympian gods, as well as with the nymphs, becoming a very close friend with Dryope. It was a long time before she could look at young maidens again, feeling guilt and fearing that someone could replace her dearly beloved.
The dream Palatheia saw this, and ensured her dearest that it is alright for her, wanting her to be happy and not lonely, saying there is no need for the guilt.

Despite having many, many children, Aphrodite really loved her daughter, caring and supporting her as a good mother should. Athena did the same.