Yoh!

"Hephaistos seems at a loss to know by what gift he may gain the favour of the goddess; for his lure is spent in advance because her armour was born with her."

I first found it humorous, the image of the blacksmith stressing because his new crush already had an armour and he didn't know what else to gift a woman. But then I reflected a bit more on it, in a way I have not in a while.

In the texts, Haephestus is given Aphrodite as wife after releasing Hera from the binding he put her in (an act of rightful revenge after she casted him away duento his appearance), which leads to an extremely unhappy marriage, with her almost immediately taking Ares as a lover and Haephestus divorcing her. Mind, Aphrodite had willingly accepted to marry whomever could break Hera's binding, this was not something she was forced to do.

Then there was Athena. Haephestus loved her from the moment he met her. After leaving Aphrodite, he asks Athena to marry him, begs her for her love. He refuses him, but creates a temple for him in Athens, for him to be revered just as her. He follows her there, and after another refusal, he tries to force himself onto her.

Please, mind the time and the place, matters of concent were primitive as humans were, so, with care not to sin of leniency, we can read the event without the vitriol such act would elicit today.

With that in mind, I did not see his action as one born from anger, as a man outraged from being rejected. Haephestus' wrath in other stories has almost always stemmed from rejection: Hera tossed him off a cliff due to being ugly, Aphrodite cheated on him not even a fortnight after their wedding, he is a man who despises rejection. But mind the manner: He is no Poseidon, he does not make the volcanoes explode, or arm an army to march and fight for him; he instead crafts, the one thing which gives him power. For Hera, a throne which binds her permanently, for Aphrodite and Ares as golden net which traps them for all to witness their affair.

I do not read his attack on Athena as anger. I read it as desperation. There were no artifacts, no magical binding to render the goddess defenseless, for he did not hate Athena, not even resent her. But, when the goddess of love, who loves freely and openly, cannot bear to rest by his side, and then the goddess of wisdom, who does not choose men lightly if ever, but sees people for worth beyond the surface, says she can respect him but never love him... then what does that leave him with?

*checks mutuals' accounts*

"Yep, everyone still alive. Great!"

Yes, we dont care about ants as equals to us, but ants don't care about each other either. They do not mourn their deas, do not connect to a partner individually, they act on the most basic chemical function.

But as you go up, you see the most complex organisms innevitably develop more complex connections: elefants care for their sick, crows cooperate to help a single memeber of the murder, humans will plunder to the depths of the deepest cave to save trapped young kids who they have never even met.