Love and War Bound

Hephaestus (Vulcan), the smith and craftsman of the gods, was married to Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of love and beauty.

It was not a happy marriage because they had no children and Aphrodite was an unfaithful wife, having children with gods and mortals. (Hephaestus was also unfaithful, too.)

Among her many infidelities, Aphrodite had a long love affair with Ares (Mars), the god of war and strife.

Homer recorded one of their trysts in the Odyssey. While Odysseus was a guest in the Phaeacian court, the bard Demodocus sang of Aphrodite's infidelity.

Helius the sun god saw most things during the day, as he drove his sun chariot across the sky. It was one of those days that Helius witnessed Aphrodite taking her lover in her bed, while Hephaestus was absent. Helius easily recognised Ares. So Helius went and informed Hephaestus that his wife had cuckolded him.

Hephaestus decided to take revenge on the lovers. The crippled craftsman created an invisible net, which he set over the beautiful bed. Then he informed his wife that he was going to the island of Lemnos for a while, Aphrodite saw this as an opportunity to spend time having sex with Ares during her husband's absence.

Once Hephaestus left their home, Ares sneaked into the house and into bed with the naked goddess. In the midst of their lovemaking, the net fell upon them, trapping them in a net they couldn't break free from.

Hephaestus immediately walked back to his bedchamber with a host of other gods to witness the disgraced pair. Only the male Olympians appeared, while the goddesses stayed in Olympus, preferring not to witness such indecency. The smith god blamed both of his parents for his marriage to Aphrodite. Hephaestus announced that he would not release them until they returned the gifts he had given to Zeus and Hera.

Apollo and Hermes, the two younger Olympians, were amused at the humiliation of the naked war god and love goddess. They compared Hephaestus to the tortoise that defeated the hare (Ares) in a race. Hephaestus had certainly outwitted Ares. Hermes admitted that he wouldn't mind being in Ares' place, if he could bed with the love goddess, regardless of the consequences.

Only Poseidon wasn't amused with his two nephews' jests. Poseidon tried to persuade Hephaestus to release the adulterous pair. At first, Hephaestus refused the request, because he wanted to extract the most out of his revenge, until Poseidon promised that he would pay their fines if no else would.

Hephaestus released his wife and her love. Ares immediately fled to Thrace, while Aphrodite went to Paphos on the island of Cyprus where the Graces bathed the love goddess in a sacred pool, before massaging oil on her flawless body.

Aphrodite's Revenge

The Roman poet, Ovid, gave us a slightly different ending to this amusing tale.

When Poseidon (as Neptune) saw Aphrodite's naked beauty, he was filled with lust for the love goddess. So Poseidon's motive for urging Hephaestus to release his wife was really motivated by self-interest, not to appease the cuckolded husband.

Aphrodite repaid Poseidon by sleeping with him, so she became the mother of Eryx, an Argonaut who sailed with Jason.

Poseidon wasn't the only god who desired her. Ovid continued the story with Hermes also gaining her favour, and she became the mother of Hermaphroditus (see Hermaphroditus and Salmacis).

Aphrodite didn't forget to punish the informer, the sun god Helius. Helius loved a nymph named Clytie. Aphrodite made Helius fall in love with another girl named Leucothoe, daughter of Orchamus king of Persia.

Clytie became jealous of her rival, so she spread a rumour so that Orchamus thought his daughter had been seduced by a mortal lover. Orchamus buried Leucothoe alive. Helius vainly tried to save her.

Helius abandoned Clytie, who was madly in love with him. She lay on the ground, watching his chariot drive through the sky for nine days, until she wasted away and died.

Leucothoe was transformed into a sweet-smelling shrub, while Clytie was turned into heliotrope, where the head of the flower always faces the sun during the course of the day.