---
title: Aphrodite and Ares
description: Aphrodite and Ares
author:
  name: Graciela Paula Caldeiro
  url: http://graciela-caldeiro.idoneos.com
canonical: https://mitologiagrecorromana.idoneos.com/en/297197/
source: en/297197/index.md
---

<h2 id="afrodita-y-ares">Aphrodite and Ares</h2>

**Aphrodite** or **Venus**, goddess of love, was married to **Hephaestus** or **Vulcan** the smith, to whom she was never faithful.

One day, Helios, god of the sun, came to Hephaestus and told him that he had seen Aphrodite with her lover **Ares**, god of war, in Hephaestus's own palace.

Enraged with jealousy, Hephaestus, with the intense heat of his fury, forged a metal net so fine and light that it was almost invisible, yet indestructibly strong.

<figure class="commons-illustration" data-commons-id="15397731">
  <img src="/297197/resources/commons-15397731.jpg" width="1280" height="935" alt="Venus and Mars. Carlo Saraceni." loading="lazy" decoding="async">
  <figcaption>Venus and Mars. Carlo Saraceni.<br>Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carlo_Saraceni_-_Venus_and_Mars_-_WGA20836.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wikimedia Commons</a>. Public domain.</figcaption>
</figure>

He placed the net on the bedposts and on the beams of the bedroom. When Aphrodite and Ares made their way to the bed&#46;&#46;&#46; the net caught them so fast that they could not escape!

Hephaestus then summoned all the gods to laugh at the trapped lovers. Poseidon, Hermes, and Helios came. Hephaestus demanded that Zeus return the bride-price he had paid for Aphrodite, but he settled for compensation to be paid by **Ares**.

And while everyone laughed, Poseidon offered to stand surety for the debt. The lovers were then set free.