“c7″>In the meantime, her brother, Ares, was indeed running amok;
he had managed to get Discord to help him in his scheme by throwing
a golden apple which was etched with the words, "For the most
beautiful" in the midst of his mother and sisters. Naturally,
Aphrodite won after promising the poor mortal sucker chosen to
judge the contest the most beautiful woman in the world. Aphrodite
flexed her little-used love powers to make Helen, the wife of
Menelaus, to fall for Paris and to run away with
him.

“c7″>Ares used his sister's growing vanity and refusal to
listen to love-pleas to embroil nearly all of Olympus into a war
between Troy and Greece – even the Amazons were involved. His power
grew as the war stretched into years. Aphrodite was enjoying her
solitude, but one day, she realised she was missing something. One
day, Aphrodite realised that, even though she had the admiration of
gods and mortals alike, she was terribly lonely.

“c7″>All of the gods were busy with their silly Trojan war and she
had ceased to hear the mortals who still bothered to pray to her.
She decided to listen to just one mortal – an eloquent little girl
who used to entertain her with offerings in the form of ballads and
stories. The child was a farmer's daughter and didn't have
any money to buy more fancy offerings and sacrifices, but at least
she never offered her fish – and what's more, the
little girl had never once asked Aphrodite for anything in return.
The goddess felt a moment of fear then – would the child still
speak to her? It had been years since she'd listened to her –
or any other mortal, for that matter. Aphrodite felt twinge of
guilt – but only briefly – before she began to listen for the
child's voice.

“c7″>Where was she? Had she stopped telling stories? Oh, wait –
there! With a pang, the goddess realised that the child was now a
young woman, living on her father's farm. She was still telling
her stories, though, only now there was a certain, sad resignation
about her. At the same time, Aphrodite felt a restlessness in the
young woman.

“c7″>"She needs to fall in love – that oaf they've
arranged for her to marry will never make her happy!" the
goddess cried out in dismay. "I hope I remember how to do a
love spell – gosh, I'm out of practice!"