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Mythology tells us that Aphrodite was a somewhat promiscuous woman and that Ares, the god of war, was an aggressive and compulsive man, but, what if in truth they just wanted to be with each other?
That brings us to the following story:
Aphrodite had been emerging from the sea for a few days, and despite her young mind, she was chosen by the king of the gods, Zeus, as one of the 12 most important gods of Olympus. It was during a meeting with these same gods, where she met him. Ares, the powerful god of war. He was a young man and very handsome. However, he had very bad fortune since birth, even being rejected by his own father.
Ares, he had always been reserved; either from the constant pain of having been and continuing to be rejected by his father, or simply because of his dark aura, of which his uncles and cousins constantly gossiped about. But what even he could not predict was to be in a meeting of the gods of Olympus together with the most beautiful woman in the universe.
Immediately, Ares was able to quickly confirm that the rumours about her beauty were totally real; Aphrodite was a woman with a thin complexion, pink skin and dazzling blonde hair, not to mention her ffacial features. They were so beautiful that just seeing her face he felt he could faint at that very moment.
She had approached him and greeted him cordially, with a grace and affinity as lovely as a Roman princess, so taking courage, Ares invited her to drink the best wine of Olympus with him, and so they spent hours getting to know each other and learning more from each other. They talked all night about nothing and everything; very personal things she had never shared with anyone else. That she was still nubile, despite her unbelievable beauty and that although she did not mind what the people thought about her, there were times when they exceeded boundaries. It confused Ares, the unexplained anger that he felt. So much so that he decided to find those damned ones.
At the end of the meeting everyone went their respective ways, not without first planning to see each other later. In such an unforeseen way, Ares and Aphrodite began to develop very deep feelings for each other, feelings that they feared to bring to light by the opinion of their family.
They continued to see each other after the different meetings of Olympus, and when they finally decided to see themselves outside Zeus' property, they went for small walks through the numerous forests on the still virgin land, to the misfortune of both, because they only had eyes for each other, they did not realise the inappropriate looks that others, both gods and mortals threw at them. To others, Aphrodites best choice was to marry her to Hephaestus. That’s what everyone expected of her. But she knew she would be unhappy.
Upon learning of her destiny, Aphrodite wept heartbroken in the arms of her beloved, lamenting her imminent separation from him.
On the day of Aphrodite's wedding to Hephaestus, Ares decided to watch from afar, because even being the god of war he could not stand to see on the front page how all his illusions with that woman were destroyed because of Hephaestus.
When the event ended, Aphrodite looked for Ares all over Olympus, and she couldn’t find him anywhere, until she reached the stables. He was sitting sharpening his spear, she greeted him and when he looked up and looked into each other's eyes, the still sensitive couple hugged each other and began to shed hot tears in silence.
Despite her union with Hephaestus and her very recent marriage with him, that did not prevent her from showing all her love to Ares. Her god of war, and that same wedding night, the wedding night she was supposed to share with her husband, she shared it with Ares. It was just the beginning of many more.
Over time, their little family began to spread. And since while she refused any touch from her husband, Aphrodite allowed her lover to do everything.
Nine months later, Aphrodite gave birth to her firstborn, Harmony; a mixture of her father's physical ferocity but with her mother's heart. Later they had a second daughter, Mania, a little goddess of obsessive and possessive love, and somewhat crazy but equally beautiful. And although they had to hide their love of the world, the small family lived very happily in a small cabin in the forest, thanks to the fact that Ares did not have many obligations and he could take care of her daughters happily. While on the part of Aphrodite, the land was always a little more dangerous due to her marriage, so while Hephaestus worked, which was very often, she spent time with her beloved Ares and her beautiful daughters.
But as in all Greek tragedy, her happiness did not last long, because when Aphrodite
arrived with a mark on her neck and very a very tired nature,Hephaestus began to doubt his wife's loyalty. This caused him to order Helios, the sun god, to watch over his wife secretly while he worked.
And to his surprise, that same night Helios informed him that he saw her with Ares and with a couple of girls leaving the forest a few minutes before running back to it.
Even while having suspicions of his wife, he could not help but feel betrayed, so he decided to capture the pair of lovers with a fine net of golden strands, very thin but just as resistant, so he waited to be able to capture them at one of his clearings in the forest.
When the day finally came when his plan would show its effectiveness, no one saw it coming because Ares and Aphrodite were coming out very happy out of the forest holding hands when a heavy gold net was strewn over their heads effectively catching the two of them. Hephaestus called his father and brothers to see and witness the infidelity of his supposed wife.
The gods gathered at the exit of the forest to see what was happening. To say that they were upset was an understatement, because they forced Ares to talk and tell them how long they had been watching and between talks, he was forced to talk to Zeus about his beloved daughters. Although in the first instance the surprise of the council of gods was comical, it was quickly replaced by fury, so they broke into the small house where the girls were and verified that what Ares said was totally real.
Both were ready to be tried when Hera entered the jury with a somewhat annoying face to announce that her son, Ares, had been declared innocent, on the other hand, Aphrodite had yet to be tried. Neither Ares nor his daughters could be in her judgement.
Aphrodite was very nervous and frightened by her punishment, and it was worse when she saw that everyone on the jury saw her with an expression of contempt. Her charges were presented for hours, and at the time of conviction her world collapsed. She had been condemned to see the sacrifice of her own daughter, Mania. Aphrodite did not know why they had to put her family, her children, through torture, because of something she did. Actions that she immediately regretted when the date of the sacrifice was brought forward until the following week.
At the end of the trial she was stiff in one of the jury chairs, sobbing quietly, when Hera arrived and sat next to her.
“I had to save my son Aphrodite. I don't want Ares to suffer, to see the loss of his daughter. Excuse me that we will force you to witness the death of Mania instead.”
Through her teary eyes, Aphrodite can only see Hera’s blurry expression, similar to the one that the jury had towards her just a few minutes ago.
Hera continued, "I can offer you a deal, but I must warn you that it can be a little dangerous. However, I promise you that if you accept, you would save your daughter from her miserable destiny.”
The goddess of love looked up so fast that her hair flew straight to her face.
“Tell me what you want me to do and without hesitation I will, I just want to save my little girl.” Replied Aphrodite.
“Well," Hera began,"I could convince Zeus to sacrifice you and not your daughter, but you are too important among the 12 Gods of Olympus, so I will have two small conditions. The first, is that my son does not know about this and the second is that together with Ares, you birth a God or Goddess to take your place. You will have a week, do you accept?"
Aphrodite meditated on it a few seconds before finally saying, "I accept." I accept." I accept."
When Aphrodite returned home, she saw Ares waiting for her with a meal made by him in the dining room. She greeted him, they had dinner and talked about the judgement, to which she replied not to worry about it, at dusk she used a pinch of her power over him to be able to seduce him and fulfil Hera's second condition.
In the end she succeeded and in just 2 days she gave birth to her new son, Eros, god of love and lust. He was simply perfect to take her place, she spent the following days enjoying her family and giving them small farewells to mentally prepare for what was to come.
When that deadline was reached, she left her house as quietly as she could, not without first kissing her daughters and her beloved. When Hera arrived, she told her that they would raise Eros in her own way along with Ares, she thanked the older goddess and with crystallized eyes she climbed a small podium in the centre of a room, sat down and let her previously immortal life be taken away by a bolt of lightening from Zeus and by a blow from Poseidon’s trident.
The room was silent after the departure of their goddess of love, they stayed there a few minutes before Zeus ordered one of his servants to ask for Ares' immediate presence in the main room of Olympus. With the arrival Ares, with a look of despair on his face, the decision was made to tell him about the recent events bluntly, with Hera telling her son how his beloved had died. The cry of pain that Ares released was enough to shake the whole Mountain of Olympus, they explained to him that she was only defending her daughter and that despite all her pain, he had to train Eros to impersonate her mother on Olympus.
And even with all the pain and sadness of the world Ares together with his mother, they trained Eros. For Ares it was tremendously painful to see Eros' similarity with his mother, but he went ahead.
Aphrodite's death always associated her with her father, so from that day on Ares behaved very cold with him and with the rest of his uncles, he dedicated a large part of the next millennium to raising his children, and when the time came when Eros took his lover’s place in Olympus, he shed tears without feeling ashamed in front of his whole family.
After the departure of all his children from his old house in the forest, a new and final mission was proposed, to enter the underworld and steal the potion used in his beloved Aphrodite to remove immortality.
He spent a lot of time in the underworld, searching in every miserable corner, until he finally found it. Ares did not hesitate for a second and began to uncap the bottle and drink until the last drop, when he felt all his immortal strength leave. He then walked off the highest cliff and fell without thinking twice. During the long, tormenting fall he remembered all the moments he spent with his beloved, his beautiful daughters, their beautiful faces, the body he knew better than anyone and smiled before touching the bottom, hoping to meet her again.
When he woke up, the first thing he noticed were the precious hands that touched his two temples and the melodious voice that called him by name, for a moment he left his two eyes closed waiting and praying that it was not a dream, and when he opened them he saw her, there in front of him with a white robe, immediately took her delicately from his face and planted a tender kiss, a kiss that said unspoken words and transmitted how his love had not disappeared even with the passage of the years.
Because if there was one thing that was for sure it was that Aphrodite and Ares’ fate was not the best, but even with complications,their love remained and remains intact. That’s why Venus and Mars are so close.
End