Aglaya

Sweet size of 1795, work by Tommaso Piroli (1752 – 1824) from a 1793 drawing by John Flaxman, employed in an edition of the Iliad: Tetis in the palace of Aglaya and Hefesto, supported by two gold automatons.

In Greek mythology, Aglaya or Aglaia (in ancient Greek Ἀγλαΐα, «the resplendent one», «the one that shines», «the splendid one», «the splendid ») -also Aglaye or Áglae- was the youngest and most beautiful of the three Carites. She is the goddess of beauty, splendor, glory, and adornment. Depending on the author of her, she is also called Charis (Grace) or Calé (Beauty).

She was the daughter of Zeus and the oceanid Eurynome, or of Helios and Aegle. Along with her sisters Euphrosyne (goddess of joy) and Talia (goddess of festivities and banquets), she lent her grace and beauty to everything that delights and exalts gods and men. This was probably why Aglaya was called the wife of Hephaestus, the divine artist. The most perfect works of art are thus called works of the Carites, and the greatest artists are her favourites.

Aglaya's marriage to Hephaestus is typically seen as subsequent to his divorce from Aphrodite. According to the Orphic tradition they were parents of a second generation of carites:

• Euclea (Ευκλεια), goddess of good reputation and glory.
• Euphema (Ευφημη), goddess of the correct discourse.
• Eutenea (Ευθια), goddess of prosperity and fullness.
• Filotrosine (Ωλοφροσυνη), goddess of kindness and welcome.

Sostratus relates that once, Aphrodite and the three Charites, Pasitea, Calé and Euphrosyne, competed with each other for their beauty, and when Tiresias awarded Calé the prize, Aphrodite transformed him into an old woman, but Calé rewarded him with beautiful hair and took him to Crete.