Aphrodite came before Zeus as noted earlier . She rose from the foam created when Cronus, father of Olympians, threw Uranus genitals into the sea. The goddess of love, lust and mating never had to do much work. She had no responsibility other than making love. Aphrodite possessed a magic girdle that made its wearer an object of desire for everyone who saw her. She took particular delight in causing her fellow Olympians to fall in love with mortals. (Zeus paid her back by making her fall in love with the mortal Anchises and gave birth to the hero Aneas.)

Like other gods and goddesses, Aphrodite also harshly punished those who refused to honor her properly i.e. celibates or others who withstood pleasures of love. Hipplolytus was one of the mortals punished for refusing erotic joys.

Hephaestus and Ares

Aphrodite was married to Hera's son Haphaestus who was gruff, ugly and lame. Unsurprisingly, the marrage was not a happy one. Aphrodite had countless affairs with both gods and mortals. The most famous of them was Ares. One night, the lovers stayed together for too long. They were in Ares' palace in Thrace and were spotted by Helius in his golden chariot.

When Helius told Hephaestus what he had seen, the smith god fashion an unbreakable bronze net. He caught the couple on their bed the next morning. The cuckholded god quickly gathered all the other gods to witness the shame of the naked and helpless couple.

Hephaestus then demanded the return of the marriage he had given to Aphrodite's adoptive father, Zeus. Zeus refused, calling the adultery a marital dispute and ridiculing Hephaestus for making it a public spectacle.

Poseidon fell in love with the naked goddeess at first sight. So he suggested that Ares should pay for the marriage gifts. Poseidon then gladly serve as guaranteer which means that if Ares defaulted, Poseidon would pay and take Aphrodite as his wife. Ares did ultimately default, but Hephaestus was still in love with his wife and did not want a divorce, so he never brought it up again.

Aphrodite and Hermes

The legend goes

that when the Goddess rose from the ocean, she wept an arc of tears in bright jewel tones as she searched for something she had lost. Her tears solidified into a snaking line of seven islands behind her, and her grief became a land of ice. These islands were once known as the Eritque Arcus Archipelago that lay between the shores of Norway and what is now the North Pole.

For centuries these islands prospered and produced a bounty of grains, fruits, vegetables, and wildlife full of color and nourishment for the people who lived there. A mysterious visitor came to one of the islands and was welcomed with open arms, and he basked in the land of the midnight sun, likening it to “walking on clouds.” He returned to where he came from and sang praises of his time on this island, writing of its many blessings and the graciousness of its people. Adventurers began to seek its shores, seeking paradise and superhumans that the retelling of stories builds up over time.