I Do Not Own Greek Mythology

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She was often criticized.

Why was the goddess of love unfaithful? They said she didn't deserve her position. She didn't know what true love was.

They were wrong.

Aphrodite knew what true love was, it was why she was unfaithful to her husband.

Hephaestus didn't love her. To love someone was to place their happiness before your own. To protect them at the cost of yourself.

When Hephaestus married her, she hadn't been interested in him. He had tried to bribe her, making her famous girdle and countless jewelry

He had tried to spoil her, never once asking what it was she wanted.

And even after her numerous affairs, her request for divorce, he refused.

And sadly, the gods were patriarchal. Without Hephaestus request, she was to be forever married to a man she did not love.

As for why she had so many affairs, she was the goddess of lust and sexuality as well. Without a man she loved, she released this lust by sleeping with numerous men and gods.

Should she ever encounter one who loved who truly, she would remain eternally faithful, and fulfill all his carnal desires.

As for the accusation that she was vain, she was the goddess of beauty and she knew it. To call anything more beautiful than her was an insult, for what could be more beautiful than beauty personified? It was the equivalent of calling Hephaestus' creations junk, Athena stupid, or Artemis a slut. It was impossible for her not to take offense when something was called more beautiful than her.

No, Aphrodite knew love.

She loved her children as fiercely as only a mother could. And while she had made mistakes, such as the whole situation with Psyche, what parent hadn't? Even Hera, the goddess of Motherhood, had made mistakes raising her children.

She knew the love of her friends, friends she would go to war for, as few as they were.

She knew the fleeting love of a crush, having experienced it with each of her conquest.

But she had never known true love.

And yet she knew, when it came, she would know it.

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Though I am a fan of Hephaestus, as he's one of my favorite Greek Gods, only topped by Artemis, I do feel that in a way, Aphrodite gets the short end of the stick in terms of her being portrayed as a cheating b****h. I mean, she's the goddess of love and, at least in Mythology, was forced to marry Hephaestus as a bribe to get him to release Hera from a magic throne he'd trapped her on as revenge for her throwing him off of Olympus. You'd think that the goddess of love would marry someone she fell in love with, but she wasn't given the option. As for when Hephaestus does get a divorce, when he catches her with Ares in a net, that's only in one version of the myth. And it's not always applied to later myths.

As for her being a slut, aside from the virgin goddesses and Hera, most of the gods and goddesses are. Go to their pages on Wikipedia and look at how many children and consorts they had.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed.