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This is the story about the creation of red roses, but in order to talk about that we need to go back to the beginning. When Gaea, Mother Earth, was created from Chaos, she created the Earth. She gave birth to her husband Uranus, the god of the sky. Later, with the help of Uranus, Gaea gave birth to the Titans.
One of her children, Cronus the king of the titans, castrated his father Uranus and threw his testicles into the ocean with the fish. In an instant the ocean started to foam and arose Aphrodite. As she stepped onto the Earth, bushes upon bushes of white roses sprang from the ground at the contact. Then Cronus and his wife (who was also his sister) Rhea, gave birth to six children, the gods. Cronus feared that the children would take his throne and devoured five of them, but Rhea hid the last child, Zeus. After Zeus grew up, he came back to kill his father and free his siblings.
Now that that recap is over, let’s talk about Aphrodite. Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty and was loved by everyone which led her to have many lovers, the more popular ones are Ares (god of war) and Adonis, who was just a mortal. Although she did get forced to marry Hephaestus, she didn't love him and cheated on him with Ares. Some stories will say that when Adonis died in a hunting accident, Aphrodite rushed through rose bushes, stepping on the thorns causing her blood to fall on the white roses which created the red rose, but in this story that isn’t the truth.
Hundreds of years later, it was a dark night with rain falling from the sky, Zeus was fighting with his brothers again, which caused him to get angry and so storm clouds formed. But Aphrodite paid no mind to the brothers arguing. It was the winter solstice and all the 12 Olympians and Hades were in the mountains, more specifically Mount Olympus, having a meeting. Discussing what? Aphrodite didn't know and she didn't care to know. Aphrodite was feeling sad and lonely and she didn't know why. She looked at Ares, the god she said she loved, but she felt no love for him, not anymore at least. She used to love his bravery and love for war and that would cause her to feel happy around him, but she couldn't feel that anymore. Maybe the only reason she loved him was for the excitement and the adrenaline rush she had when she was with him doing stuff she wasn't supposed to be doing.
When the meeting was over, she decided to go down to Earth to visit C.C’s Spa, an island in the Sea of Monsters, or more famously known as the Bermuda Triangle, ruled by the immortal daughter of Hecate, Circe. Hecate is the goddess of sorcery and ghosts. Circe is a big feminist, every time a woman would go to her island she would treat them like royalty, but males would get turned into guinea pigs or killed. So it’s safe to say that there are only women on the island. When Aphrodite got there, she was welcomed warmly despite the cold, wet weather outside. The staff gave her a spa while Aphrodite ranted on about men, Ares, and whatever else was bothering her. Circe had heard that Aphrodite was here and decided to meet her. She listened to Aphrodite’s rant and gave Aphrodite her own piece of mind, saying that “... men are only good for one thing, and that is being pets…” and that Aphrodite should just give up on men.
As she was wandering around the resort, she was thinking about what Circe said. Then she started to think about the sadness she had felt earlier causing tears to form in her eyes. As she was wiping the tears away, she bumped into a lady. She was beautiful in an unconventional way, she had light skin with darker random patches. She had beautiful auburn hair and moon-like silver eyes, with flecks of different colors mixed in. She was shorter than Aphrodite and it seemed like she hadn't grown out of her baby fat despite the distinct muscle in her biceps, but to Aphrodite, it made her look more attractive. She snapped out of her daze when she realized that the woman was speaking to her-
“-I deeply apologize for running into you, Lady Aphrodite.”
“No, no, it is all fine, It was my fault for not paying attention,” Aphrodite reassured the woman. The woman seemed to visibly relax at those words even though she seemed to be shocked at the reassurance, but she quickly put a smile on her beautiful face. Aphrodite melted on the inside at the sight.
“Well, my name is Cassandra. It is lovely to meet you,” the woman-Cassandra replied. They decided to walk around together to get to know each other. Aphrodite ended up walking Cassandra to her room and bid her a goodnight.
Soon, Aphrodite walked away a few minutes after Cassandra closed the door. Since Gods don’t need sleep, Aphrodite decided to wander around some more thinking about Cassandra, until Apollo made the sun rise from the east. Then she waited outside Cassandra’s room, so they could hang out some more.
Even though Aphrodite left C.C’s Spa after two days, she visited Cassandra often. Eventually they fell in love, but Cassandra was a part of Artemis’ hunt. Which is a group of girls who vowed to never get married or fall in love with men, basically becoming immortal and vowing their lives to Artemis. They travel around the world killing monsters. But that didn't discourage Aphrodite because she still visited Cassandra a lot despite Artemis' protests.
Years later, during a hunt Cassandra got separated from the rest of the hunters and ended up getting chased by a pack of hellhounds. She tripped and fell into a bush of white roses, the hellhounds quickly took the opportunity and tore her apart. Aphrodite was watching her, quickly appearing behind Cassandra and blasting the hounds away. Then she knelt next to Cassandra’s head, her blood staining the roses red, and Aphrodite cried for her. She was still holding Cassandra's cold, lifeless body when Artemis and her hunters showed up.