Who Really Launched 1000 Ships?

Beauty, passion, intrigue, love, jealousy, magic, and treachery, these are all elements of the story of Aphrodite, but Nemesis will have to tell it because I have my mortal hide to worry about.

Greetings. My name is Nemesis. Sometimes I am referred to as the Goddess of Divine Retribution, but you can leave off that "goddess" bit. I AM Righteous Indignation, born many ages ago to Night, daughter of Chaos. My sister was Eris whom you may know of as Discord. Life was good back then -- playing all sorts of memory-building games with my little nieces and nephews of whom my favorite was Lethe. Then my relatives gave birth to the gods and we old ones were cast off as "insignificant." But I go too fast.

My aunt was Gaia who formed the Earth and produced a mate for herself called Uranus. One of their offspring was Cronus who, you may recall, took a sickle to his father/brother and cast Uranus' genitals into the sea whence the lovely goddess born of the foam, Aphrodite, sprang. I think that makes Eris and me Aphrodite's cousins or great-aunts, or something. At any rate, we should have been accorded some respect. Ha! She even forged an alternative genealogy to make our relationship less direct. She claims she's Zeus' daughter.

Zeus is a major villain in this piece, but he always manages to shed accusations like a snake its skin, so you probably won't believe me when I tell you what he did....

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