Aglaea
Youngest of the three Graces, personification of beauty and radiance who married Hephaestus
The Myth of Aglaea
Aglaea, also spelled Aglaia, was the youngest of the three Charites or Graces, daughters of Zeus and the Oceanid Eurynome. Her name means "splendour" or "beauty," and she personified the radiant aspect of grace — the outward shining of inner goodness. In Hesiod's Theogony, after Aphrodite was caught in adultery with Ares, Hephaestus took Aglaea as his wife, a union that paired the god of craftsmanship with the essence of aesthetic perfection. She and her sisters Euphrosyne and Thalia were constant companions of Aphrodite and attendants at divine celebrations. They were worshipped collectively across Greece, with notable cults at Orchomenus in Boeotia where anionic stones represented them, and their rites involved nighttime dances.
Parents
Zeus and Eurynome
Symbols
Fun Fact
She married Hephaestus after Aphrodite's scandal, giving the craftsman god a wife who was grace itself
Explore Further
Charites
⚡ godGrace, beauty, and festivity
Collective name for the three Graces who embodied charm, beauty, and creative inspiration
Thalia
⚡ godFestivity and abundance
One of the three Graces, personification of festivity and rich abundance
Euphrosyne
⚡ godJoy and mirth
One of the three Graces, personification of joyfulness and good cheer
Venus
⚡ godLove, beauty, desire, fertility
Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, identified with the Greek Aphrodite but also revered as ancestress of the Roman people
Phaenna
🌿 nymphradiance, beauty
One of the Charites (Graces) in the Spartan tradition, whose name means "the shining one," honoured alongside Cleta at Sparta.
Libera
⚡ godFemale fertility, freedom, wine
Roman goddess of female fertility and freedom, consort of Liber, sometimes identified with Proserpina
Aphrodite
⚡ godGoddess of love, desire, and beauty
The goddess born from sea-foam whose power over desire could override the will of gods and mortals alike.
Ops
⚡ godAbundance, harvest, earth
Roman goddess of abundance and the harvest, wife of Saturn, equivalent to the Greek Rhea
Aphrodite
⚡ godGoddess of love, beauty, desire
Goddess of love and beauty, born from the sea foam. Aphrodite's power to inspire desire was so great that even the gods were not immune.
Hebe
⚡ godGoddess of youth
Hebe served nectar to the gods and married Heracles.
Liber
⚡ godWine, freedom, fertility, male vitality
Ancient Italian god of wine and freedom, later merged with Bacchus and the Greek Dionysus
Megaera
⚡ godUnderworld
One of the three Erinyes who punishes oath-breakers, the jealous, and those guilty of marital infidelity