The Villain of Ancient Greece

Hestia governs the domestic affairs of all peoples.

Fire symbolizes her existence, and at the same time serves as the guarantee of a household’s continuity, stability, harmony, and prosperity.

Therefore, her vow of chastity represents the integrity and sanctity of the divine family line.

And because this vow was sworn upon Zeus’s hair, it symbolized the transfer of the unique authority over the household system from Hestia to Zeus.

That was why Zeus came to possess absolute authority over family order on Olympus, gaining the power to govern all domestic affairs and thus becoming the unquestioned Father God and patriarch of the Gods.

And it was from that very moment that the royal power struggle of the previous generation had already reached its conclusion.

Whether it was Hades, the god of the underworld, or Poseidon, the god of the seas, both had lost the true qualification to participate in the contest.

Hearing this, Lorne could not help but feel confused.

”That doesn’t seem right.

Didn’t Poseidon always remain obsessed with the kingship of Olympus? Hasn’t he constantly competed for it?”

”But he never won.”

Athena replied slowly, her tone carrying deeper meaning as her gaze drifted toward the rolling sea.

At once, Lorne’s heart jolted and suddenly recalled Poseidon’s long history of divine authority struggles.

Although Poseidon possessed vast oceanic resources and a massive divine bloodline, his authority and influence were rigidly confined to the seas.

Because of this, his connection to the mortal world was weak.

It was difficult to name him as the founder or protector of any major city.

And in contests for patronage over cities, he was more often the loser.

Zeus drove him out of Aegina; Dionysus pushed him out of Naxos; Apollo expelled him from Delphi.

In his competition with Athena over the naming rights of Athens, he lost again, and was later driven out of Troezen by Athena as well.

Argos, which he once held, was taken by Hera.

In retaliation, Poseidon sent drought upon the land, and later submerged the region beneath the sea.

His and his descendants’ kingdom became the ocean itself.

And even there, Zeus eventually punished Poseidon’s lineage for impiety by sinking Atlantis into the depths…

As these memories surfaced in his mind, Lorne began to feel a chill crawl up his spine.

Poseidon clearly held a strong hand, yet he lost again and again.

Not only to Zeus, but gradually even to younger gods like Athena and Apollo, who could step on him at will.

It was as if some invisible force had continuously interfered with his attempts to seize power.

— Fate? Inevitability?

Lost in thought, Lorne experienced for the first time just how terrifying those unseen, intangible rule-based forces truly were.

”In fact, from the moment my aunt made her decision,” Athena said quietly, her hands clasped behind her back as she stared at the surging waves, ”Poseidon and Hades had already lost the possibility of competing with Father God.”

”Because their paternal authority was never complete.”

”...?”

Lorne could no longer suppress his curiosity and turned an inquisitive gaze toward Athena.

And today, perhaps stirred by something unspoken, the goddess naturally provided the explanation.

In fact, whether it was the previous generation of the Twelve Titans or the six siblings of Olympus, Zeus and his sisters, each generation of divine king offspring always consisted of paired, even numbers of male and female gods.

This numerical balance followed the reproductive logic of primordial life authority, facilitating orderly pairings that ensured the continuation of pure divine bloodlines.

But having the numbers align did not mean the gods would necessarily obey fate and form pairs accordingly.

Among the six elder Olympian gods of that generation, only Zeus and Hera completed a systematic union.

Logically speaking, Poseidon and Hades should also have chosen wives from among their sisters, forming alliances that balanced power.

However, of the remaining two goddesses, Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, was first deceived by Zeus and lost her chastity to him.

Hestia, on the other hand, decisively rejected Poseidon’s courtship and instead swore to Zeus that she would remain chaste for the sake of the household lineage.

As a result, Poseidon and Hades were unable to fulfill the divine mandate of continuing the orthodox royal bloodline and were thus invisibly eliminated from the competition.

As the eldest brother, Hades, who lacked ambition, accepted the situation and dutifully took up residence in the underworld.

As compensation for his sacrifice, Zeus personally arranged for his daughter with Demeter, the beautiful spring goddess Persephone, to marry Hades.

— Hades failed to marry Demeter and expand underworld authority into the mortal land, yet instead married a younger, more beautiful niece…

But unlike his elder brother, Poseidon, who ruled the seas, refused to accept this outcome.

Thus, on one hand, he proposed to Hestia; on the other, while Demeter was away searching for her daughter, he forcibly violated her, attempting to draw her into his faction.

Out of fear of the divine mandate governing royal bloodline continuation, Zeus neither intervened beforehand nor pursued the matter afterward.

However, this act completely enraged Demeter.

And disheartened, the goddess of agriculture withdrew from public life and rarely appeared on Olympus thereafter.

Hestia, likewise, spoke up for her younger sister and grew increasingly disgusted with Poseidon’s ruthless pursuit of authority, thus firmly aligning herself with Zeus.

With one side rising and the other declining, Poseidon, gradually marginalized within the Olympian household system, naturally found himself incapable of standing alone against Zeus, the supreme patriarch.

As a result, he continuously sought allies and even began proposing to his nieces.

Athena herself had once received advances from that uncle.

But such crude methods, coupled with his overt utilitarian intent, were naturally incapable of moving the hearts of the Olympian goddesses.

And from that point on, the goddesses of Olympus gradually began to uphold chastity....either by choice, or by necessity.

Among the Twelve Olympian Gods, six were goddesses, and no fewer than three of them swore vows to protect their chastity.

That number alone made it obvious that this could not have been entirely voluntary.

Clearly, Zeus had always intended to marginalize one of his brothers from the royal lineage of Olympus.

In the end, Poseidon had no choice but to settle for the sea nymph Amphitrite as his queen, binding himself deeply to the marine gods, and...through his sole authority over the seas, attempting to contend against the new Sky Father Zeus, who held dominion over the entire world.

But repeated defeats had already proven the outcome beyond doubt.

As the hidden secrets of Olympus were peeled away layer by layer,

Lorne could not help but fall into deep thought.

”So Hestia’s direct withdrawal not only helped His Majesty the God King immensely, but also completely stabilized that lineage’s privileges?

And to be safe, any pairwise unions among the Twelve Olympians were implicitly forbidden as well?”

Lorne paused for a moment, clarity settling in his heart, as his gaze drifted toward the camp beyond the dense forest.

”In other words, from the very beginning, Apollo never had any chance at all! The moment he dared to cross the line, there would be no need for us, the God King himself would personally step in and punish him!”

Athena nodded, then shot Lorne an annoyed glare.

”Now you finally understand? You were worrying for nothing about my aunt. As long as she behaves herself and doesn’t act recklessly, no one can touch her.”

Thinking of Hestia’s exalted status, as well as her absurd privilege of distributing public offerings while still receiving a separate share herself, Lorne finally felt completely reassured.

At the same time, however, a faint sense of loss crept into his heart.

Who would have thought that the one who looked easiest to deceive was actually the kind you could only look at, but never touch…

Still, another contradiction suddenly occurred to him, and he frowned as he voiced it.

”Wait, what about Hephaestus and the Goddess of Love? Aren’t they both Olympians as well? Didn’t they unite?”

”Yes. And Aphrodite’s ’husbands’ thought the same thing…”

As she spoke, Athena raised an eyebrow slightly, a trace of teasing flashing through her eyes.

Hearing that loaded response, Lorne could only laugh helplessly.

No wonder Zeus had been so determined to push through that marriage.

It was nothing more than a political marriage, meant to pair the restless, passion-driven Aphrodite with the son least likely to ever inherit kingship.

After all, the lame and ugly god of fire, unloved by his mother Hera from the very beginning, had already lost any chance at seizing power.

Even if he married Aphrodite, he posed no threat whatsoever.

But then—

Suddenly, the amused look in Lorne’s eyes froze, as a long-overlooked figure surfaced in his mind.

Hephaestus, Aphrodite’s lawful husband, posed no danger...

but what about her long-term lover, Ares?

In later Roman mythology, that god, renamed Mars, the god of all legions, would completely rise to power.

That outcome was likely something even the incomparably cunning God King had failed to foresee.

Tsk tsk.

The prime-time drama of Olympus was only getting more interesting.

As Lorne silently applauded the patience and endurance of his great-grandfather-slash-brother,

he looked back at Athena and asked curiously,

”How do you know all this?”

”It’s Prometheus..”