When you brag about sexually
conquering a goddess, you can expect Zeus to be ticked off. He hurls a
thunderbolt down at Anchises. Zeus, it must be said, is a good aim with his
thunderbolts. They are his weapon of choice and has had to face down many
titanic opponents (including his father) with them. He’s not going to miss. So
it’s a safe bet that Anchises is a dead man.
Except he isn’t. Zeus missed. Kind
of. Remember that girdle Aphrodite has, the one that makes her more beautiful?
Well, turns out it can deflect Zeus’s thunderbolts. This bears repeating.
Aphrodite’s
golden belt can deflect thunderbolts—the most powerful weapon known to the
gods.
WTF?
This is big, like massively big.
Okay, the thunderbolt is Zeus’s big advantage over the other gods. They don’t
dare step out of line due to the fear of retribution by thunderbolt. Yet here’s
Aphrodite protecting her mortal love and deflecting it, almost casually. This
is something serious, here. If Zeus can’t use his thunderbolt on Aphrodite,
what is there for her to fear? What is it that will keep her in check?