Eternal Flame

A prize for Paris for choosing her over Hera and Athena as the most fair

A punishment against Tyndareus for forgetting her when he was sacrificing to the gods

A punishment against Menelaus who promised a hecatomb to Aphrodite as a price for marrying Helen, but didnt offer it

(Image: Aeneas Knocked Down by Diomedes, painting by Giulio Romano for the Palazzo Ducale. Notice the horses to the left of Aeneas)

In Homeric canon, when the gods took Ganymedes to Olympus for his exceptional beauty, his father Tros received horses as compensation from mighty Zeus himself. While this probably doesn’t make up for kidnapping one’s child, these animals were a special divine breed and were bred by the gods of Olympus. As such, they were better than all regular horses bred by mortals.

These heavenly horses were eventually passed down to Laomedes. King Anchises, who was presumably aware of their divine origin, managed to get his own mares to breed with them behind Laomedes’ back and without his permission, effectively stealing the breed and acquiring his own supernatural equines. When the mares gave birth to six supernaturally swift foals, Anchises gifted two of them to his son Aeneas, one of the heroes of Troy.

(Image: ‘The Battle of Diomedes and Aeneas’ by Jan van Orley, ca 1720)

Aeneas put them to good use in the Trojan war, having them drive his chariot into battle against the Greeks. Not much is known about their appearance, other than that their manes were white. Unfortunately for Aeneas, the horses were stolen by the Greek hero Diomedes, who was honestly kind of a dick throughout the book. They were entrusted to Deïpylus, who drove them back to the safety of the Greek camp.

Aeneas would have perished then and there, had not his divine mother Aphrodite intervened: she held a magic sheet of garment over him that sheltered him from harm before rescuing him from the battlefield.