Before Artemis and Apollo, Zeus had already fathered many daughters, though the circumstances were often unusual.
The eldest were the Horae and the Fates, born to him and the Goddess of Justice, Themis. Two pregnancies produced six daughters in total, all during the ten-year Titanomachy when he overthrew Cronus.
These daughters matured into adult Divine Beings within days of birth and were even able to join battles as war goddesses.
Sometimes, Zeus felt his only role at that time was to cooperate with his aunt Themis in producing these six goddesses, who held the Authorities of time and fate.
After the birth of the three sisters of time and the three sisters of fate, the Goddess of Justice never gave him another chance.
Shortly after, he had the Graces with the ocean nymph Eurynome and the Muses with another aunt, the goddess of memory Mnemosyne.
Though not as powerful as the goddesses of time and fate, these daughters still marked the end of Zeus's opportunities with those two "elders" after their births.
Back then, Zeus truly felt like a "tool god."
At the end of the Titanomachy, Metis also became pregnant—with what was expected to be a daughter.
However, fearing the prophecy that Metis would bear a son who would overthrow him, Zeus swallowed her whole.
That daughter never even got the chance to be born, and Zeus felt not the slightest regret or sorrow for it.
To secure the throne of the King of the Gods, anything was worth it—anything could be sacrificed.
Later, before marrying Hera officially, Zeus had an affair with his second sister, Demeter, resulting in the birth of Persephone.
As Persephone grew, Zeus noticed that her face, which closely resembled Demeter's, stirred desire in him—tempting him to act.
His abnormal behavior was discovered by Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and grain. She fled with Persephone, and neither had appeared before him in many years.
At the time, Zeus was still consolidating his divine throne and had no time to care about them.
So, in a sense, it wasn't until Artemis and Apollo that Zeus truly felt what it meant to be a father.
Especially knowing that these two children would help him stabilize his rule over Olympus, he became even more eager to play the role of a "good father."
As for Bolos… What Bolos?
He still couldn't accept a child who looked somewhat like his enemy, even if that child was born of his beloved Hera.
…
While Zeus was learning how to be a "good father" on Mount Olympus, Hera's real son—who had been falling through the sky for an entire day—finally landed.
He crashed onto an island in the sea called Lemnos.
There, Tethys, granddaughter of the ancient sea god Pontus, daughter of the kindly sea god Nereus and the ocean goddess Doris, found the child.
"What? You're the child of the King of the Gods Zeus and the Queen of the Gods Hera? How did you end up here with a crippled leg?"
The newborn son of the Queen of the Gods could already speak and understood everything that had happened to him. He told Tethys, the sea goddess, about his tragic fall.
Hearing that Hera had rejected him for his ugliness, Tethys looked at him and indeed found him rather unsightly.
Still, Tethys wasn't as obsessed with appearance as Hera was. She comforted Hephaestus and said, "True ugliness lies within the heart, not in one's appearance."
She decided to raise this child of the King of the Gods and someday return him to Zeus as a gesture of goodwill from the lineage of ancient sea gods toward the Olympus Divine Realm.
Ever since the union of the King of the Seas, Pontus, with Amphitrite, daughter of the Lord of the Ocean Oceanus, the ancient sea gods had been targeted repeatedly by Oceanus's faction.
Skirmishes between the two sides erupted frequently across the seas.
Tethys had grown tired of war. She began to wonder if this child of the King of the Gods could be the key to ending the conflict.
She named Zeus and Hera's son Hephaestus.
Under her care, Hephaestus learned many crafts. His talent for forging even surpassed that of the legendary Cyclopes.
Fueled by anger toward the mother who abandoned him, he worked harder than any ordinary Divine Being to prove she had made a terrible mistake.
Hephaestus didn't know that, on Mount Olympus, a child who had taken his place was drinking Queen of the Gods Hera's divine milk and growing stronger every day.
The Queen of the Gods' milk was indeed more nourishing for divine growth. Polo's Divine Power had increased at an astonishing rate, and he was now nearly considered an adult.
In just five years, his Divine Power had almost reached its peak.
And yet, Bolos had not changed his appearance to match adult Divine Beings like Apollo, Artemis, or Ares.
Some perks, after all, could only be enjoyed by children.
"Bolos, you've already grown up. It's not appropriate for me to nurse you anymore."
Behind the curtain, Queen of the Gods Hera sighed helplessly at her beloved "eldest son."
"Even Ares and Hebe were weaned years ago. Why can't you stop?"
Ares and Hebe were two other children born to Hera after Bolos. Like Artemis and Apollo, they were twins.
But for Divine Beings, twin gestation did not mean simultaneous birth. Ares was born more than a year before Hebe.
"What do they know? Drinking more milk means growing faster and becoming a powerful Divine Being sooner."
"Don't think I don't know. It hasn't had any real effect in the past two years." Hera snorted, swatting away Bolos's mischievous hand.
"Just one last time. Just one last time."
Bolos continued drinking and playing, thoroughly enjoying himself. Hera blushed slightly but didn't stop him.
She had grown used to Bolos's antics over the past five years.
This "last time" had already stretched on for nearly three months, and he still hadn't stopped.
"This really has to be the last time. Didn't you say you were close to acquiring your Divine Office? If you're still in this child's form when the second Divine Power blessing comes, you'll be permanently locked in this form. You won't be able to grow up, even if you want to."
"I understand."
Bolos felt a twinge of melancholy. If he wanted to enjoy these perks again, he'd probably have to fully claim Hera as his own.
What Hera said was true.
In the future, that little god of love, Eros—Cupid in Roman mythology—was forever stuck in child form because of this very reason.
Perhaps Eros liked being childlike and playful, but Bolos didn't. He preferred the kinds of games adults played.
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