Chapter 1: The Beauty

Celestial music echoed through the golden doors of Olympus as the feast had begun for the twelve gods. Ceres's young daughter Proserpina was brought to the House of Jupiter for the first time. After it was all over, Venus sat on her throne with her winged-daughter Cupid by her side.

Venus was the goddess of love and beauty, self-born from the foam of the sea, and being what she is, she enters other tales, and such is the power of her magic. Those who even speak her name fall under her spell. Those who glimpse her white shoulders and catch the perfume of her golden hair become mad with passion. They lose their wits and begin to babble, and tell the same story in many ways.

Unlike other Olympians, she is never distracted from her duties. Her work is her pleasure, her profession, her power. She was born from a tragedy. When Saturn butchered his father, Uranus, with the scythe his mother had given him, he flung the dismembered body off Olympus into the sea, where it floated, spouting blood and foam which drifted, whitening in the sun.

From the foam rose a tall beautiful maiden, naked and dripping. It was Venus. She wore nothing but the bright tunic of her hair which fell below her knees and was yellow as daffodils. Waves attended her, bringing her to the island of Cythera. Wherever she stepped, the sand turned to grass and flowers bloomed. The hillsides and barren plains became meadows of flowers and spring, and the air was full of bird songs.

The goddess still remembered the day when Jupiter brought her to Olympus. She was still dripping from the sea as her beautiful brilliant eyes looked about the great throne room. The gods were assembled to meet her, mesmerized by her peerless beauty.

Juno was watchful of her husband. Her eyes narrowed at the newcomer and the lustful Jupiter.

"You must marry her off," she whispered to the King of Gods. "At once without delay!"

Jupiter tried to curb his longing for the sea-born maiden as he turned to his brother, sisters, sons, and daughters.

"Yes. Some sort of marriage would seem appropriate in this case," he said. "I announce that Venus is to be married. However, she must choose her own partner. So make your suit."

Jupiter knew his words were laws. Even Juno would never dare to break them. This way, he would stand a chance if Venus decided to choose him as a lover. He was the King of Heaven after all.

The gods agreed to this arrangement. They closed around Venus, shouting promises, pressing their claims. Earth-shaker Neptune swung his mighty trident to clear a space about himself.

"I claim you for the sea," he said. "You are sea-born and thus belong to me. I offer you grottos, riddles, gems, fair surfaces, dark surroundings. I offer you variety. Drowned sailors, typhoons, sunsets. I offer you secrets. I offer you riches that the earth does not know...power more subtle, more fluid than the dull fixed land. Come with me, and be Queen of the Sea."

Neptune slammed his trident on the floor, and a huge green tidal wave swelled out, higher and higher until it reached Olympus, curling its watery green tongue as if to lick up the mountain itself. Poised there, quivering, not breaking, as the gods gasped in awe, the tide lingered until Neptune's hand reached out and plucked a gem-encrusted box from it. Inside was a beautiful mother pearl. He raised his trident, and the mighty wave subsided like a ripple back to the sea.

Neptune bowed to Venus. She smiled at him but said nothing.

Then the gods spoke in turn, offering her great gifts. Apollo offered her a throne and a crown made of hottest sun-gold, a golden chariot drawn by white swans, and his daughters, the Muses, for her handmaidens. Mercury offered to make her queen of the cross-ways where all must come, where she would hear every story, see every traveler, know each deed, a rich pageant of adventure, and gossip so that she would never grow bored.

Venus smiled at Apollo and Mercury and made no answer.

Then Juno, scowling at the vain maiden, reached her long white arm and dragged her son, Vulcan, the lame smith-god, from where he had been hiding behind the other gods, ashamed to be seen. Vulcan was born because of Juno's jealousy. She was bitter with Jupiter since he had born two gods all by himself. Minerva sprang from her father's head, and Bacchus was born out of his thigh.

Juno decided to get even and gave birth to Vulcan on her own. Yet, her son was born a disappointment. He was so ugly that the Queen of Gods flung him off Olympus, expecting the child to die. Vulcan survived the fall, and though he became crippled, he had a happy childhood with the sea nymphs and dolphins as his playmates and pearls as his toys.

Under special circumstances, he was brought back to Olympus and made a god.

"Speak, fool," Juno hissed into his ear. "Say exactly what I told you to say."

He limped forward with great embarrassment, and stood before the radiant woman, eyes cast down, not daring to look at her.

"I would make a good husband for you," he murmured. "I...I work late."

Venus smiled. She said nothing, but put her delicate finger under the chin of the grimy smith, raised his face, leaned down, and kissed him on the lips.

That night they were married. She was soon the goddess of desire and fertility and thought of nothing but love and passion.

But after marrying the smith-god, Venus finally spoke and began whispering to each of her suitors, telling each one when he might come with his gift. One of them was her favorite. It was from the war god, Mars. With him, she gave birth to a beautiful daughter just like herself, and she named her Cupid. Growing up, Cupid relished in chaos and the confusion of mind so much so that people began to think she was a young mischievous little boy. The young goddess flew to and fro between worlds much like the ankle-winged Mercury.

Her power grew far and wide among the gods and mortals.

But tonight, her mother was in a strange deep thought after seeing Ceres's virgin girl.

"Mother, where are your keen mind tonight?" Cupid asked in a curious chiming voice when she noticed her mother's quietness. "I saw you spoke fondly of Jupiter's new daughter just a while ago, now you seem all gloomy."

Venus heaved a sigh and turned to her ever-obedient daughter.

"My darling girl, I must be honest with you and you alone that I am quite fearful," the goddess said. "Jupiter welcomes new sons and daughters to his heaven. Now our house is almost full."

"What can I do to soothe away your fear, mother?"

A brilliant thought quickly etched onto the mind of the love goddess. She was crafty with her plots and knew that her beloved daughter would carry her bidding.

"Daughter, if you wish to help me, you must listen closely," Venus said. "My child, my princess, my power, take those sure shafts of yours and shoot your speedy arrows to the heart of the great Goddess of the Underworld."

Cupid's sparkling eyes grew wide.

"But why, mother?" she asked.

"Hear me, Cupid darling," Venus said as she stroked the girl's smooth cheek. "Your majestic bow subdued the gods of heaven and even Jupiter himself. You inflicted passion on the Gods of the Sea, Neptune, who rules the Sea. Why should the Queen of Tartarus lag behind? Why not there too and extend your mother's empire and your own? The third part of the world is at stake while my power grows weak."

Cupid was a young mischievous maiden herself, and she did not care much of the consequences. As long as the goddess could show what kind of power her arrows possessed, she would be ready to please her mother.

"And who shall be Pluto's companion?" she asked with a glint of excitement in her eyes.

"Well, do you not see how Minerva and Diana, queens of the chase, have both deserted me?" Venus said in a mournful voice. "And Ceres's daughter Proserpina, if we suffer it, will stay a virgin too, and her fate shall be the same. So for the sake of our joint power, do unite in love that innocent maiden and her aunt, Pluto?"

Cupid gasped but was also intrigued by the notion. Then she nodded with a smile.

Being guided by her wicked mother, she flew away to do her bidding. The goddess opened her quiver and of all her thousand feather-tipped arrows, she selected one, the sharpest and the surest, the arrow most obedient to the bow. She bent her knee then shot the barbed shaft deep into the Dark Queen's heart.

And that wasn't the last of her victim.