9 thoughts on “Aphrodite and Hephaestus”

    1. Well, one of those things about Greek myth is that there are examples of figures whose parentage depends on who you ask. For instance, Priapus (yes, really, he’s a minor fertility god) is listed as the son of one of:
      1. Aphrodite and Dionysus
      2. Aphrodite and Hermes
      3. Aphrodite and Zeus
      4. Aphrodite and Adonis
      5. Chione and Dionysus
      6. Pan and ???

      So there really isn’t one ‘canon’ for Greek myth as much as a bunch of stories that can and do contradict each other in the details.

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  3. Except that Aphrodite has children with most of the gods, but especially with Ares. I’d be more inclined to go with her and Hephaestus having a purely political marriage

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  5. Considering how closely inbred all of those gods are, the children could just as easily be Hephaestus’ as Ares’ or anyone elses.
    Or maybe Hephaestus is sterile, but they want kids anyway.

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  7. Two problems I see with the premise:

    1.) The version of Persephone and Hades where Persephone chose to go with him isn’t revisionist – there are multiple versions within Greek mythology that basically tell the story from different perspectives. From both Kore and Hades’ perspective, this young nymph/demi-god stumbled upon the entrance to Hades and decided she liked it there. Hades didn’t coerce or force her to come; he largely had no say in the matter. Kore then became more feared than Hades himself with her vengeful personality (the story then changes as to how), and refused to leave. Zeus got tired of the argument between Kore (who was tormenting the rested dead) and Demeter (her mother, who was tormenting the main world in protest of her favorite daughter leaving her), and so split Kore’s time between Hades and her mother’s lands. He even went so far as to rename her Persephone, which means “bringer of destruction”. Then the other version where she was taken against her will is usually Demeter’s and Zeus’ perspectives, where they paint themselves as the heroes in what was essentially a hissy fit.

    2.) Hera threw Hephaestus off the mountain because of his ugliness, not Zeus. Hephaestus was the result of her trying to have a child on her own (goddess of fertility and all that) after she saw Zeus birth Athena from his head (not knowing that Metis, whom she had turned into a fly, was alive and well in there). Hephaestus was born misshapen because he had no father, and Hera, in her disappointment in his appearance, threw him off the mountain.

    3.) This version, where Aphrodite was a kind and caring wife to Hephaestus, doesn’t match her personality in any other myths. She started the Trojan War because she wanted to be known as the most beautiful goddess, so she had her son brainwash Helen into believing she loved Paris. Ares was not the only god Aphrodite cheated with, and quite a few other stories had multiple gods catching her and her beaus in flagrante delecto. She cursed the nymph Echo to only repeat the last words of others because she thought her too talkative, and then cursed Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection because he claimed that he was more beautiful than any god. And many more stories of her shallowness, pride, envy, and vanity. Not to mention her being the goddess of love in a society that wasn’t strict about monogamy meant that her having multiple partners made more sense than her being faithful. Her being an unfaithful spouse in an arranged marriage fits her personality better than her being a loving wife.

    There’s a cultural difference between us and ancient Greece that I don’t think you’ve taken into account, particularly in the fact that while women were married off as political tools, considered property, and otherwise denied personhood, they weren’t seen as weaker than men – just different with different roles in society.

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