Hestia declined with thanks and quickly shook her head. "Death is the domain of your brother Thanatos. My involvement will dilute his power. It's really not a good idea."
Without waiting for Hypnos to detain her, Hestia turned around and left. The Rainbow Goddesses found Hestia in the bustling crowd of gods and took her to a secluded place. They told the chief goddess about the moon goddess's request with concern.
The ones waiting in the secluded place were the moon goddess Selene, who had been attacked, the dawn goddess Eos, and the long - unseen sun god Helios.
Hestia stopped in her tracks. Wearing a cold mask, she stepped forward and asked, "Children of the goddess of light, why do you seek my help?"
Selene said softly, "Someone attacked my sister Eos. Although I blocked it, we still have a strange feeling."
Eros, attached to Aphrodite, had cursed. The flames of love burned in the hearts of the two goddesses. Fortunately, at that time, Aphrodite, who was still an intermediate - level god, didn't have the idea of killing Eos. She just wanted to give Eos a lesson. So the consequences of this curse weren't very serious.
The cold divine power suppressed the fire of love. After examining them, Hestia told the two goddesses, "This is a curse of love. You will invest all your emotions in a love affair and end it with disappointment and pain."
The moon goddess and the dawn goddess looked at each other. The huge stone hanging in their hearts finally disappeared.
"Thank you for your help, Goddess Hestia."
Helios nodded to Hestia to express his gratitude and left the sacred mountain with his sisters.
The Rainbow Goddesses followed Hestia, silently comforting the chief goddess.
"Don't worry about me." Hestia walked calmly on the way back to the temple. "It was my decision after careful consideration to let Mnemosyne's power make him forget all about me."
The messengers were silent, watching Hestia return to the temple.
The revenge of the primordial god of love came quickly. He used the power of love and lust on Atlas, who was holding up the sky. In the love - filled drops splashed from the god of strength, he transformed seven nymphs. These nymphs weren't complete goddesses. In Eros' plan, they were supposed to be born on the earth to obtain the title of daughters of the Earth Mother, gain territorial divine power by dividing the power of the earth, and also make Tyche ashamed.
But Styx had long been on guard against this move. She used the mountains of Ourea to block the nymphs who were about to land on the earth. The nymphs were tainted with the power of the mountains and were born as mountain nymphs. The eldest of them was named Maia. They were collectively called the Oreads, meaning daughters of the mountains, with bright black eyes.
Eros couldn't move for the time being, so he had to make Pontus take the hit.
The primordial sea god suffered an undeserved disaster because of Tyche's displaced anger. The strait was closed by the earth. The gods of the Pontus family had to move further away and live in the sparsely - populated outer sea.
The sons and daughters of the Ocean God, who had opened up rivers and lakes during the great flood, were overjoyed. Pontus' retreat was of great significance to these weak gods. The extra territory at least gave them a way out. Even if their water source dried up, they could still return to the ocean and continue to live as gods.
After getting this vent, Hestia finally had time to pay attention to the humans on the earth.
The chief gods' desire for faith was increasing. Especially after the two goddesses were promoted to powerful gods, the intermediate - level gods couldn't sit still. The remaining two chief god positions still had no owners, which made them itch with anxiety.
At this time, the strategic goddess Athena went to Mount Etna on the sea. Here, Typhon, the trouble - maker, was suppressed. The anger of the father of monsters never extinguished. The Cyclopes and the craftsman god Hephaestus often came to this volcano to forge powerful weapons with the help of Typhon's anger.
After Hephaestus left the sacred mountain, he returned to the temple on Mount Etna to make a gift for the Grace of Elegance, Aglaia. He didn't notice Athena's visit at all.
The sound of the hammer hitting the hot iron was endless. The craftsman was focused on forging the heated ore. Various impurities were stripped away by Hephaestus' divine power, leaving only pure gold. After being re - fired, the liquid gold was poured into the mold and cooled, becoming a shining ornament.
After completing this work, Hephaestus found that the strategic goddess had been waiting quietly for a long time. Just like the god of wealth Hades underground, the craftsman, who was focused on forging and creating, and the strategic goddess, like other gods of the same kind, didn't have a strong desire for power. They lived their peaceful and stable days calmly.
Hephaestus apologized to Athena for his neglect. "Daughter of Metis, the goddess of wisdom, I was indulged in creation, so much so that I couldn't even notice the passage of time and the earthquake of the earth. Please forgive my discourtesy. As an apology, please accept my gift."
After saying that, Hephaestus went back to the back hall to change his sweat - soaked clothes. After washing up, he took out a beautiful necklace from the treasure chest and gave it to the strategic goddess.
The craftsmanship of the necklace was extremely complex. Clear sapphires were set in gold. Looking carefully, you seemed to be able to see the surging seawater and waves.
In the rare contacts between the craftsman and the goddesses, the beautiful and luxurious jewels could always make them turn anger into joy and show smiles on their faces. His mother, the goddess of marriage Hera, and his brother's partner, the goddess of love Aphrodite, were the same.
But the strategic goddess didn't take this delicate and beautiful gift. She smiled and shook her head to decline, and said in a gentle voice, "Respected Hephaestus, your concentration and enthusiasm are not wrong at all. You are worthy of the title of the craftsman god. Your love for smelting is greater than the fierce Ares' desire for blood."
"I beg you to make a solid shield for me. Please rest assured that I will take good care of it."
The straightforward Hephaestus readily agreed. He made an appointment with Athena for the time to pick up the shield and then immersed himself in the casting work again.
Athena, who came to the earth, taught women the art of weaving. The women loved this goddess of handicrafts and weaving and regarded Athena as their protectress.
Athena inherited the power of thunder and her mother's wisdom. The goddess wandered on the earth, constantly gaining power from faith. The divine power of the guardian was quietly born, adding glory to the strategic goddess' pantheon.
What Dione worried about finally happened. The cursed dawn goddess fell in love with a human.
Tithonus, the son of King Laomedon and Strymo, was a handsome and beautiful young man. His elder brother Priam was widely regarded by the people as the next king. Tithonus, who didn't have to shoulder any responsibilities, grew up in the indulgence of his parents. His daily job was just to look after his father's flocks.
The carefree Tithonus frolicked in nature all day long. His innocence attracted the dawn goddess, who had opened the gates of heaven.
Eos transformed into a beautiful human girl and clung to the young Tithonus day and night, becoming an inseparable companion to the young man. However, to Eos' sorrow, Tithonus didn't understand what love between men and women was all about. He just thought the goddess was a lovely playmate and confidante.
Tithonus could share any secret with Eos, but he didn't think the girl in front of him was more important than his flocks.
It was different for the dawn goddess. Tithonus was her beloved. She accompanied the young man in his play every day, listening to his sorrows and joys, and was completely infatuated.
Thus, a not - too - short and not - too - long period of time passed. Tithonus was still as happy as ever, but there was no sincere joy in the smile on Eos' face.
This unprovoked love was a terrible curse. The dawn goddess' sorrow grew deeper and deeper day by day. She loved Tithonus so much that she couldn't even imagine losing him one day in the future. Human life was so short, and death was inevitable. She begged her sister, Selene, the moon goddess who led souls to the underworld, to show mercy, but only received her sister's stern reprimand.
Immortality was the characteristic of gods, and humans didn't have such a privilege.
The dawn goddess, blinded by love, went to King Zeus, the king of the gods, and asked him to grant Tithonus immortality.
The solemn and just Zeus refused this unreasonable request. However, Eos didn't give up. She wept and begged Zeus, and her desperate voice moved all the gods.
Aphrodite, who had cast the curse, felt extremely guilty. She stood up and earnestly begged the king of the gods to fulfill this love. "Majestic king of the gods, please grant Eos' request considering that they truly love each other."
After speaking, the goddess of love secretly used her power to arouse the gods' sympathy for the dawn goddess. Under the unanimous pleading of the gods, Zeus was finally moved. He let Nike, the goddess of victory who guarded the golden apples, pick a fruit from the tree and give it to the dawn goddess. Unfortunately, the golden apples on the tree were not ripe. Such fruits could only save mortals from the threat of death, but couldn't keep Eos' lover forever young.
The overjoyed Eos didn't know these. She hurried back to Tithonus and let him eat the golden apple. She thought she was about to have perfect happiness. Every dawn, Eos came to her lover's side to accompany him. She sat beside Tithonus, listening to her beloved tell everything he saw in a gentle voice, such as the newborn lambs, the breeze blowing through her hair, and the clouds covering the stars at night...
Eos thought such days were as happy as a dream. As the days and months passed, one month passed, and then a year passed. The goddess found that Tithonus' hair began to lose its luster. The grayish - white gradually replaced the brown, and it began to fall out and become sparse. The smooth skin was also covered with wrinkles. The pure eyes that had fascinated the goddess also became hazy.
Tithonus' voice was no longer clear. His hoarse voice could no longer sing beautiful songs, which terrified Eos. The goddess of age and old age, Geras, quietly visited this human favored by the dawn goddess and took away his best youth.
Eos wept and hugged her lover. Tithonus' vigorous body began to shrink and become smaller. His straight figure became hunched - backed. His thin bones could no longer support him to walk, and he could only curl up in Eos' arms and be fed. This pain made him lose his last bit of dignity. The departure of his relatives had already tormented him. He could no longer hold on. Tithonus used his last strength to ask Eos to bring him relief, but the magic of the golden apple always brought Tithonus' soul back to his withered body.
After several times, the tortured Tithonus had already closed his consciousness and no longer responded to external stimuli.
Eos couldn't bear to see her lover suffer any more, so she asked her sister Selene to take Tithonus' soul to the underworld. However, the moon goddess shook her head helplessly, indicating that she couldn't do it. "The power of the golden apple is connected to the incomplete divinity inherited from the Titans by humans! The ancient divine blood has been passed down from the children of Prometheus and Epimetheus. His soul has been bound to the divine blood in his body and cannot be separated."
Seeing the only skin - and - bone hunched body in her sister's arms, Selene couldn't understand Eos' persistence. She asked, "Noble goddess with glorious bloodlines, this human is not worth your suffering so much. If you want to kill your boring time, why not find a more handsome partner for yourself?"
Eos, with hollow eyes, hugged the unrecognizable Tithonus and didn't listen to her sister's concern. She exhaled on her increasingly small lover and turned Tithonus into a carefree cricket. This happy little insect made a buzzing sound like singing, flew out of the dawn goddess' hands, and disappeared into the grass.
Selene comforted her suffering sister, but her puzzlement deepened. She didn't know that because of her intervention, the pure - hearted moon goddess would also be hurt in the thorns of love.
The dejected Eos returned to the temple in the eastern mountains. It would take her a long time to recover from this pain.
Selene, full of bewilderment, returned to the moon chariot. The moon goddess sprinkled the cold moonlight to give guidance to the wandering souls on the earth. The souls always felt afraid when they went to the underworld underground, and the peaceful moonlight would calm their unease and lead them peacefully to the dark underworld.
Just as Selene was flying across the night sky and patrolling the earth, a sleeping young man in the valley caught her eye. Under the influence of the power of love and lust, the goddess couldn't help but come to the young man's side. The young man was sleeping on the grass, completely unaffected by the sorrows and worries of the human world. Selene couldn't help but kiss his cheek. The sleeping young man opened his eyes warily and only saw the back of a woman shrouded in moonlight disappearing.
The young man, Endymion, was the son of the nymph Callisto and Eetion, the leader of the Elis city - state. He just thought it was an illusion and inadvertently told his mother this beautiful dream as a story in a conversation. However, the nymph Callisto didn't think what her son experienced was illusory. She let her son return to that valley to wait for the arrival of the goddess, and specially boiled some herbs that could hide his breath into a medicinal solution for him to drink.
In a daze, Endymion saw the woman flying out of the moonlight again. Her beauty made Endymion hold his breath and he subconsciously opened his eyes.