Under Tyche's watchful eye, Rhea endured the wedding ceremony until its conclusion. The moment Tyche left her side, Rhea rose and walked towards the garden.
The gods parted to make way for the Queen of the Gods. Rhea approached Aphrodite, who stood amidst the flowers, and whispered, "Give it back to me!"
The love goddess, still disoriented, did not understand Rhea's meaning. The Queen of the Gods trembled and repeated, "Give me back my love!"
A butterfly resting on a white rose shook off glittering dust and fluttered away from Aphrodite.
The goddess of love, as if guided by an unseen force, offered a piece of advice, "No matter how profound the love, it will fade with the passage of time. But it does not disappear; it simply transforms into familial affection."
"If you fall into confusion and pain because of its departure, then what you love is love itself, and what you truly cling to is yourself, lost in love."
Rhea was silent at first, then began to laugh madly, her body trembling.
The gods were astonished by the Queen's loss of composure, but then saw her suddenly cover her face and weep, "It's not like that! I love him more than myself!"
When she looked up again, Rhea had regained her composure. Smiling, she motioned for her sisters to return to their seats.
"Aphrodite, to thank you for your counsel, I have decided to give you a husband!" Rhea grinned, her white teeth belying a primal fear of being torn asunder.
Rhea surveyed the assembled gods and chose Menoetius, the god of courage, a son of Iapetus, the god of the soul, and a brother to Atlas, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.
"Menoetius, you shall be Aphrodite's husband!" The Queen of the Gods chose the god of courage not to humiliate Aphrodite. "Goddess of Love, show me yourself how to feel love and affection for a husband you do not know!"
Aphrodite, now fully aware, could not accept such a husband and refused Rhea without a second thought.
Rhea gripped Aphrodite's arm tightly, disregarding the goddess of love's cries of pain.
Menoetius, overjoyed by this unexpected turn of events, belatedly crossed the gods and offered his sincerest thanks to the Queen.
Ignoring the increasingly intense pain, Aphrodite cried out her refusal once more, "This is not my will. I refuse to accept such a husband."
"You will come to love him," Rhea stated, fixing her gaze on the goddess of love. "You must love him!"
The gods, unwilling to offend the Queen of the Gods for Aphrodite's sake, watched indifferently as the goddess of love's helplessness and fear grew. Aphrodite struggled to break free from Rhea's grasp, a fierce anger rising within her.
Aphrodite's cheeks flushed, and she vehemently rebuked Queen Rhea's command. At this moment, Cronus, under his wife's influence, agreed to marry Aphrodite to the god of courage. The goddess of love, unable to defy the immense divine authority of the King of the Gods and the Queen, wept in sorrow and indignation.
What a twist of fate, that the goddess of love would not enter marriage through love. What a magnificent irony.
For the first time, the goddess of love displayed her anger. Her rosy divine power of desire flickered with an eerie red light, and a powerful, ancient force erupted. The golden-haired goddess of love looked at the King and Queen of the Gods and uttered a curse, "I curse you! Cronus, when you are lax, the power of lust will cloud your reason, leaving you unable to extricate yourself! Rhea, I also curse you in the name of love! Your jealousy will torment you incessantly; the flames of envy you ignite cannot be extinguished. You must constantly hold onto your husband, and you will never again possess complete love!"
The power of Eros, the primordial god of love, was drawn from the depths of Aphrodite's soul, transforming into a curse that entwined Rhea and Cronus.
Tyche, watching from the shadows, smiled silently. The curses of the primordial gods could not be removed, and Rhea and Aphrodite would never find reconciliation.
The curse of the primordial god of love took effect immediately. Cronus, manipulated by Rhea, uncharacteristically shifted his gaze from his wife and became captivated by a beautiful nymph attendant beside him.
Rhea did not reclaim her lost love. Instead, a fierce fire of jealousy ignited within her heart, burning away her sanity. Rhea glared menacingly at the preening attendant nymphs. The ravages of time had etched indelible wrinkles upon their alluring bodies. The nymphs shrieked, knocking over the golden vases and platters they held, and collapsed onto the chaotic floor.
The Queen of the Gods did not stop there. The youthful, vibrant nymph attendants were transformed into aged, withered crones by the power of time. They struggled helplessly to rise, and upon seeing their tree-trunk-like withered arms, they broke down in sobs.
All the gods were stunned by this succession of events, so much so that no one stepped forward to stop Rhea's rampage.
Themis, the goddess of justice, suddenly stood from the throne of the chief god, preventing her sister from delivering a fatal blow.
"Rhea! What are you doing!"
Themis shielded the helpless nymph attendants, looking at the contorted face of the Queen of the Gods in disbelief.
The order brought forth by the goddess of justice brought back a portion of Rhea's sanity. The Queen of the Gods struggled to quell the surging flames of jealousy within her, crying out in agony from the pain that nearly tore her apart.
All the chief gods rose and approached the Queen of the Gods, attempting to soothe her suffering.
Phœbe and Tyche, working together to stir the waves of fate, could not diminish the effect of the primordial god of love's curse by even a fraction.
The goddess of prophecy sighed softly, "We are all powerless in this matter."
Iapetus, the god of the soul, also shook his head and sighed, "It is more powerful than the curse left by the Sky God, which the King of the Gods has always worried about. Perhaps only Chaos, the progenitor of the gods, can lift it."
"Unless the Queen of the Gods is willing to swear an oath to the River Styx to remain eternally pure and become a virgin goddess, then the power of lust will not affect Rhea," Tyche said softly. "My mother, Tethys, the benevolent sea goddess, has a spring that can restore a goddess's chastity. If the Queen of the Gods bathes in the spring, she can regain her purity. However..."
Tyche looked at Rhea with a troubled expression and then turned away, saying with reluctance, "I just don't think the Queen of the Gods would be willing to do that."
The Queen's memories told her that she and Cronus deeply loved each other. However, the flames of love, extinguished by Eros, could not be rekindled. In their place, the flames of jealousy grew ever stronger, a jealousy that defied reason and manipulated her emotions, causing tearing pain.
Rhea could initially grit her teeth and endure, but her gaze, once fixed on her husband, now held a deep weariness and loneliness, as if a bird were trapped within her body.
The Queen of the Gods struggled to look up at Cronus. The King of the Gods leaned on his throne with a vacant expression, his dull eyes devoid of any emotion.