Reading Notes: Mars and Venus

-Sol spies down and sees that Venus is having an affair with Mars behind Vulcan's back
-Having been told about the affair by Sol, Vulcan is shocked
-He goes to his forge to craft a bronze net so thin that one cannot see it, yet strong enough to hold done a pair of gods
-He sets a trap for his wife and her lover
-In the middle of their adulterous act, Vulcan springs the trap, snaring Venus and Mars in the bed, and calls for the rest of the gods to come and see
-When the other gods enter, they find the situation humorous and laugh at Vulcan's expense
   -If my memory serves me right, it is Mercury who says to Apollo that he wished to have been the one shamed having been in bed with Venus.
   -Vulcan's goal was for the other gods to sympathize with him. He gave Venus, his wife, any materialistic want, only for her to be unfaithful. Now he hoped that the two adulterers would be punished, especially Mars. But that was not the case.

Vulcan Surprising Venus and Mars in Bed before an

 Assembly of the Gods by Johann Heiss (1679)

Source: Wikimedia Commons

"Mars and Venus" from Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000)