Hestia presided over the domestic affairs of the populous. Fire symbolized her presence and guaranteed the eternal continuity, stability, harmony, and prosperity of the family.
Therefore, her vow of chastity represented the integrity and sanctity of the family line, and the fact that this process was sworn by Zeus's hair signified that Hestia had transferred the unique authority of the family to Zeus.
Thus, Zeus indisputably held the highest domestic status on Olympus and wielded the authority to manage all family affairs, becoming the deserved Father God and the great patriarch.
From that moment, the dispute over the throne of the previous generation was settled.
Both Hades, the God of the Underworld, and Poseidon, the God of the Sea, had already lost the qualification to truly compete for the throne.
Hearing this, Luo En couldn't help feeling perplexed.
"That doesn't seem right," Luo En objected. "Hasn't Poseidon always coveted the throne of Olympus and never ceased to compete for it?"
"But he has never won..."
Athena mused with profound significance, her gaze distant as she looked towards the sea.
Suddenly, a shock went through Luo En's heart, and he couldn't help but recall the history of that Sea King's struggle for divine power.
Although Poseidon possessed vast oceanic resources and descendants of divine blood, his authority and influence were strictly limited to the sea.
Thus, his connection with the world was weak; it was hard to say he was the creator or protector of any particular city.
And in the battles with other deities for cities, he was often the loser: he was driven out from Aegina Island by Zeus, outmaneuvered on Naxos Island by Dionysus, expelled from Delphi by Apollo; and in the competition for the naming rights to Athens, he also lost to Athena, was pushed out of Troezen by her; his control over Argos was snatched away by Hera; as a result, he once sent drought as revenge and later turned the region into the sea. His and his descendants' kingdoms were the ocean. Even there, Zeus sunk Atlantis to the seabed for their disrespect towards the deities...
After these recollections, Luo En even felt a chill down his spine.
Poseidon held good cards in his hands, yet he lost battle after battle, not only to Zeus but gradually even Athena and Apollo, the younger generation, could step on him. It seemed as though in this process, an intangible force was constantly interfering with the Sea King's quest for power.
—Destiny and inevitability?
Luo En pondered, for the first time recognizing how fearsomely powerful those unseen, rule-based forces could be.
"Actually, from the moment my aunt made her decision, Poseidon and Hades had already lost any chance of competing with the Father God," Athena said, her hands clasped behind her back as she watched the gathering waves on the sea, her voice turning grave, "because their patriarchal authority was never complete..."
Hearing this, Luo En couldn't contain his curiosity and cast an inquiring glance at Athena.
And today, perhaps moved by something, Athena naturally provided an answer.
In fact, whether it was the former generation of twelve Titans or Zeus's six siblings from Olympus, each generation of divine rulership had an even number of males and females.
This set number followed the original logic of the reproduction of divine life, conducive to their pairing off and thus smoothly continuing the pure bloodline.
But just having an even number did not mean that the goddesses and gods would necessarily follow destiny and choose partners amongst each other.
Among the six chief gods of the previous generation of Olympus, only Zeus and Hera had completed a systematic union.
Logically, Poseidon and Hades should have also picked one sister among them to become their wife and ally, balancing each other out.
But of the remaining two, the Agriculture God Demeter was first tricked by Zeus and lost her virginity to him.
Hestia outright rejected Poseidon's courtship, swearing to Zeus to remain chaste for the family line.
As such, Poseidon and Hades could not fulfill their destiny of continuing the legitimate divine bloodline and were subtly kicked out of the game.
As the eldest brother with little ambition, Hades was content with the status quo and dutifully resided in the Netherworld.
In return, Zeus, acting as a father figure, gave his beautiful daughter, the Goddess of Spring Persephone—born from Demeter—to his own brother as a wife.
—Hades did not get to marry the Agriculture God Demeter to expand the realm of Hades to the earth, but instead married a much younger and more beautiful niece...
However, unlike his eldest brother, the Sea King Poseidon, who ruled over the ocean, was not willing to rest in defeat.
So, on one hand, he proposed to Hestia, and on the other, taking advantage of Demeter's absence in search of her daughter, he raped his sister, attempting to pull her into his camp.
Fearing the destiny of continuing the divine bloodline, Zeus did not stop him beforehand nor did he hold him accountable afterward.
However, this act thoroughly enraged Demeter, driving the heartbroken Agriculture God into seclusion, seldom appearing in public in Olympus thereafter.
Likewise, Hestia stood up for her sister, grew even more disdainful of Poseidon's unscrupulous methods for power, and firmly sided with Zeus.
As one fell and another rose, Poseidon, now increasingly marginalized from the Olympus family, naturally became even less likely to oppose Zeus, the great patriarch, by himself.
Hence, he continually looked for allies and started to propose to his nieces. For instance, Athena herself had once received an avowal of love from that uncle.
But such blunt tactics and obvious utilitarian motives understandably could not move the goddesses of Olympus.