When a man loves a woman

Olympos was alive with three hot news items.
1. Demeter was pregnant
2. Apollo had fallen in love with a mortal MAN. Hyacintos. And ended up killing him!
3. Aphrodite was marrying Hephaestos and also taking over Themis' seat in the Dodekatheon.

Among all the gods it was impossible to decide what was the hottest and the juiciest. Which story was the most unexpected.

Demeter had always seemed so content with her gardening and growth and that laid-back status quo life of hers. The goddess had kept on doing her thing all through the years and seemed perfectly happy with that. Then all of a sudden she had become hotly involved with Carmanor. A nobody Cretan god who had swept in from nowhere and if not whiskered her away, so at least 'grown upon her' as Hermes had joked. And Demeter had changed. She had started to care more about her appearance, altered her hairstyle and began dressing up more, using jewelry and make-up to strengthen her natural beauty. Gone where the practical slacker style which had been her look for centuries. Most of all, the goddess seemed happier and more relaxed, didn't pester the weather gods all the time because it was too wet or too dry or too hot or too cold or too many frost nights for this or that seed or vegetable to thrive.

Most of all, she even stopped nagging at Persephone for her desire to be somewhere else than together with Demeter during the months when the daughter was not down in the underworld. Demeter wasn't even complaining about the underworld – well, not as much as she used to at least. Perhaps it was because she had become pregnant again. She would soon have another child to engage in, so she didn't have to focus all her family life upon Persephone. These days she was strolling around with her shoulder length, slightly highlighted hair, growing belly and a necklace and a matching pair of earrings Hephaestos couldn't even remember giving her, since it was so long ago, however the jewelry bore the significant features of Hepheastos' skilled handicraft.

Wherever she went, Carmanor was following her, and he had turned out to be a likeable person. Low-keyed and kind and with a seldom shown but very delightful sense of humour. His affection for Demeter was obvious. He held out chairs for her, conjured up pillows and cups of nectar, massaged her neck or her feet and was generally fuzzing with her in a way no one had ever fuzzed with her. Not unexpectedly Demeter loved it, probably it was something she had missed in her life, since she had never had a spouse for real. Never had more than random one night stands, including that short affair with Zeus which had resulted in Persephone, more than half a millennia ago. So no surprise really why Demeter was so pleased with life as it was right now.

Then there were Apollo. Now that was a completely different story. He had met a young mortal called Hyacintos and had the strangest report with him. First the assumption had been that this Narcissus was just another acolyte of the God of the Music and Prophecies. The adolescent was after all living in Delphi. Some had even hinted at him being a son of Apollo. But no, they had been same sex lovers. An experiment of Apollo no doubt, at least from the beginning. An experiment which had changed into something real and lasting – or at least lasting until that fateful day when the two men had played with a discus, and Narcissus missed the catch. What had distracted him remained unclear, but he had taken the toy in the temple instead of with his outstretched arm. A hit so unlucky that it had killed him almost instantly. Apollo had been disconsolate and more or less closed himself indoors, refusing to see or talk to anyone. If it was loss, guilt or shame, no one could tell, but when even Artemis had given up her tries to soothe him, they all understood that it was serious.

Hephaestos remembered how his older brother had once told him that he wanted to try same sex love some day.
"But I thought it was just a temporary inkling," Hephaestos told Hermes, who was facing first him, then the house of Apollo, where the god was locking himself in. "Something he was pondering because he was bored."
"Bored with what?" Hermes asked a bit at loss.
"Bored with women perhaps," Hephaestos shrugged. "Or with sex, or just with things in general."
"Apollo never gets apathetic like that," Hermes protested. "That's just not in his nature. He's too frivolous."
"You think so?"
"Oh, yes! Ennui is so not Apollo!"
"Well, that was just the feeling I got. Besides it was so long ago."

"Long ago? But he met Hyacintos just last year."
"Yes, but I was referring to our talk about the matter. What can it be?" Hephaestos paused as he rummaged his memory. "More than a hundred years ago. Perhaps 150. I hardly remember under what circumstances he mentioned to me that he wanted to try it out with a man. Back then I just shrugged it off, didn't think that much about it. You know people get these crazy ideas and then they keep thinking about it for a while and then they forget it. At least I had forgot it, and that's what I thought Apollo had done too."
"Apparently not, it seems," Hermes scratched his stubble, he had overslept and skipped shaving this morning.

"Aphrie told me she thought it was a 'god-thing'."
"A 'god-thing'?"
"Yes, as in immortal tedium. When you've tried all the regular stuff and are bored with them, you want to try something irregular. Something kinky."

"Doesn't sound like Apollo either," Hermes insisted. Then he shrugged his shoulders. "But what do I know really? How well do we know each other? How well do we even know ourselves?"
"Getting philosophic?"
"Nah, not really," Hermes made a face. "Gotta go. Have to deliver some petitions to dad."
"They never stop, do they?"
"Nope," Hermes grinned. "Always the same."
"Well, I got work to do too. And I imagine Apollo comes out when he's ready to. Until then... Actually, I don't have the time to broad over that. See you around, Hermy!"
"See you around too, Heph!"

Hermes dashed off, but his thoughts caught up with him half way to the palace of Zeus and he stopped and turned to look at Hephaestos who was returning to his work shop, his steps unusually jolly, something which had come to significate the blacksmith ever since his engagement had been known.
"I wonder... Perhaps it's all about Aphrodite after all."
"What's all about Aphrodite?" a voice was heard from behind, before Hermes even grasped he had thought out loud. Turning around he faced Zephyros, who was sitting on the railing to the landing, carving on a piece of wood with a golden-hilted dagger.

"Perhaps Apollo too had a crush on Aphrodite, and when she suddenly became out of reach, Apollo didn't know how to handle the situation," Hermes said.
"You mean that Apollo bunked up with this Hyacintos because he had lost the race for Aphrodite's heart?" the Wind asked, knitting his brows as he put down the figure he had been carving, it was a reclining woman figure with a quite over-sized bust.
"Yeah, sort of," Hermes said as he regarded the little wooden woman trough half-closed lids, almost pretending she was real.
"Doesn't that sound rather farfetched?" Zephyros asked. "You know, Apollo have never been with Aphrodite as far as I know - at least not seriously. A few one night stands of course, but then who hasn't?"
"Yes, but he was one of her first lovers when she came here about a century ago."
"A century ago, you say? I'd be less surprised if Ares went on and did something crazy. After all he and Aphrodite has been on and off all the time. Until now that is. I actually thought she'd marry him if anyone."

"Yes but..." Hermes began, then he smirked. "Ares is always doing crazy things, so how can any of us tell if it has to do with Aphrodite or not."
"Valid point," Zephyros admitted.
"I'm actually surprised he didn't take all this harder than he did," Hermes went on. "I'd thought he would've torn up heaven and earth over Aphrodite and Hephaestos' pending marriage."
"What is it he's doing away in Lucitania then?" Zephyros asked. "To me that looks very much like tearing up heaven and earth."
"Uh, it's just another war I guess," Hermes sighed. "I gotta go, before Zeus gets impatient with me. See you around."

And then Hermes was off again, not stopping another time. But he sure had got Zephyros thinking, and then the Western Wind went and talked to his wife Iris who in turn talked to Hestia and Hemera, who just had to tell Eos, Thalia, Dike and Selene who couldn't wait to run off to gossip with Eudaimonia, Paidia, Pandaisia, Pannykhis, Antheia and Auxo...

O0O0O

Aphrodite though, she couldn't care less for gossip. Not at the moment. She was so happy and pleased with how life was shaping up. It seemed to her that everything was turning out to the best. There was a slight pain in her chest though, which was labelled Ares. However she knew that she had made the right decision that day in Zeus' office. She had picked Hephaestos over Ares, and thus selected a man for her who was perhaps not as exciting and volatile, but safer and more reliable. Most of all, Hephaestos loved her deeply and unconditionally, especially now since she had agreed upon becoming his, and thus letting him for once in his life win over his older brother.

He had showered her not only in jewelry and lovely knick-knacks but also in attention and passion, showing that he could be as attentive and tender as Carmanor was to Demeter. All right, Aphrodite was not pregnant, and she didn't plan to be in quite a while, but to Hephaestos, having her was quite enough by now.
"Isn't it wonderful," she said to the statue of the pipe-playing satyr as she stopped by the fountain. "Being appreciated for what you are, not for something you perhaps can give somebody in the future."

She listened to the quietly trickling water, it was almost as if the statue was replying her. Don't forget to show that appreciation back, it was telling her. Don't forget to show Hephaestos that you appreciate him too for what he is to you. And not because of these ear rings he gave you this morning.

"Oh, but they are lovely," she whispered in response as she leaned down and regarded her mirror image in the almost still pool, where a few red leaves floated around, telling of the autumn, which had come to a sudden halt the last few days, because of an unusual warm weather. "And he did give me breakfast in bed this morning."

Why not doing the same to him tomorrow them, give him breakfast in bed, the satyr told her.

"But I'm not an early riser," she complained and turned to look at the statue. When the wind was moving the shadows of the leaves across his face it looked almost as he was smirking at her.

He knows that, the statue said. Therefore he'll assess it even more.
"You think so?" Aphrodite asked in return but the voice remained silent and she shrugged her shoulders. Well, of course, the statue or her sub conscious or whatever it was had been right. She should make breakfast in bed to her beloved tomorrow. But now she had to move on, it wouldn't do getting too late for her very first Dodekatheon Council.

With a smile playing upon her rosy lips she started off towards the Palace of Zeus, up marble stairs and down winding garden parts. Of course there was a better, quicker way, the main road laid in gold, but Aphrodite had always preferred those small garden trails. They were so lovely and they gave her time to think things over. They were also often places of solitude, not like the more populated main roads.

But as she closed in on the main Palace, even the gardens got more populated. She came across nymphs of Demeter, who were trimming bushes and clearing away weed and there were two satyrs, real this time, who wrestled in a clearing. At an intersection she met Akraia, Euboia and Prosymna who were congratulating her of her coming marriage and her new position. Smiling back, Aphrodite thanked them. Lovely people, they seemed genuinely happy for her sake. Then again, most people had been, and those who might not be, like Ciresia and friends, they had been oddly absent these last days.

Soon she ascended the last flight of stairs and came out on the large open place in front of the palace. Here, her beloved was in full work with creating a new fountain instead of the other one which had become ruined when Ares and Poseidon had had argument about something a few weeks back and the former god had hurled the latter against the centerpiece so it had broken. Now Hephaestos was creating a new work of wonder, a fountain suite dedicated to the Kouretes, the old warrior immortals who had been the teachers of young Zeus. It was still very much a work in progress, with huge marble blocks sitting around an empty bowl where water would soon flow, and on easels, sat large wooden panels with nailed up papyrus sheets where Hephaestos had sketched up his work using coal and some water colours. Aphrodite would really love to have a closer look, but she was running out of time, and thus she sped by the construction and the other gods who were gathered around it, discussing and admiring the work of the son of Zeus. Seeing her they nodded at her, waved and flashed off smiles, and she felt oddly proud of this ongoing creation. It was after all her beloved who was doing this.

Hepheastos himself was waiting for her in the shadow under the portico. How considerate! Ares would never do such a thing, she knew. If he was just the slightest worried about being late, he would have rushed inside, obsessed as he always was about being right in time. Coming late for something simply didn't exist in the world of Ares. But for Hephaestos it was more important that his beloved felt comfortable when entering the Dodekatheon Council for the first time ever.
"Hi there, sweetie, you look lovely!" he smiled gently and leaned over, giving her a chaste kiss on her chin. No doubt saving himself for later, after the meeting.
"So do you," she replied truthfully, seeing that he had bothered with washing himself off and changed into a clean set of clothes, instead of the worn, torn and often dirty work clothes he had usually sported, even for Dodekatheon gatherings, earlier. But Aphrodite had decided to bring out the style and class in this man, conjure up the handsomeness which hid behind a careless clothes style and his earlier so significant stubble and unkempt hair.

It seemed to be working, he had shaved this morning and washed and combed his hair, tying it back and out of the way in a ponytail. All in all, he looked lovely and she beamed back at him.
"Am I very late?" she asked but he shook his head.
"No, not at all. The solar clock may not be mounted yet, but I assure you we have several minutes to spare. But to not look rushed upon appearance, let's go!"
"Yes, and then you'll have to tell me about the Fountain of Fabulousness later."
"Actually it's part of my presentation to the Dodekatheon today. We'll go out and have a look at it after the meeting and just before we hit the buffet in the Poplar Garden Square."
"I can hardly wait, honey" she beamed up at him as they started up the broad stairs to the meeting room at the third floor.

O0O0O

"Goddesses and Gods! Inhabitants of Olympos," Zeus' mighty voice was booming across the Poplar Garden Square, attracting the attention of every god and goddess gathered there, and they sure was a crowd. "I'm pleased to see so many of you here today, even though I know there is a lot to do down in the mortal world right now, with the ongoing wars, the plague and the upheaval in Sicily. We have been discussing these things thoroughly in the Dodekatheon today, and that is why it took so much time. But before I turn your attention to these events, I want to point out a change in the composition of the Dodekatheon. A lot of you know already that Themis has resigned, since she's leaving Olympos to travel west, seeking new challenges and adventures. However, our young Goddess of Love has now accepted to take her seat. So I wish you all to give a heartily welcome to Aphrodite, our new member of the Dodekatheon."

It wasn't often she blushed, but this time she did while she stepped forward, accepting the collective welcome of the other Olympians, as she let go of Hephaestos' hand before squeezing it one final time to collect some of his down to earth strength. After that she was beaming as held out her hands to accept the appraisal from her fellow Olympians.

For a second she beheld the countenance of Ares from the corner of her eye, he appeared oddly pleased with himself but she guessed it had to do with the ongoing war, which seemed to be going his way now. He had talked about it quite a lot in the meeting and she had refrained to look at him back then, she didn't want to become tangled up in some mixed feelings. Frankly, she could not deny that he was still affecting her, that she still had feelings for him, even if she had done her best to suppress them.

Then Aphrodite pushed these thoughts aside while greeting the gods and goddesses who were celebrating her, calling out her name and she waited a few moments before she held her short speech which wasn't really more than an elaborated 'thank you'. (Zeus could do the long ones - he was good at them.) Then she took two steps back again and Hephaestos was there taking her hand.
"What do you say?" he asked as Zeus began talking again. "Shall we skip the buffet and split? Go back to our place?"
"Is that really conventional?" she rose her brow at the inventor.
"I'm not sure," he returned. "But I guess when a man loves a woman he just want to be with her. And then I guess everything goes."
"Yes," she smirked and put her index finger upon his nose. "Let's do it. Because when a woman loves a man, she doesn't care much for decorum."

And while Zeus went on talking, very few noted that Hephaestos and Aphrodite slid behind the backs of Poseidon and Hera and then disappeared from view.

THE END