But mythology is too unconscious not to betray itself. Herodotus[953] says that the Thracians worship three gods only: Ares, Dionysos and Artemis. Between Ares and Dionysos there would seem to be but little in common, but in one current myth their kinship comes out all unconsciously. It is just these unconscious revelations that are in mythology of cardinal importance. The story is that known as ‘the bonds of Hera’ (Ἥρας δεσμοί). Hephaistos, to revenge himself for his downfall from heaven, sent to his mother Hera a golden throne with invisible bonds. The Olympians took counsel how they might free their queen. None but Hephaistos knew the secret of loosing. Ares[954] vowed he would bring Hephaistos by force. Hephaistos drove him off with firebrands. Force failed, but Hephaistos yielded to the seduction of Dionysos and was brought in drunken triumph back to Olympus. It was a good subject for broad comedy, and Epicharmus used it in his ‘Revellers or Hephaistos.’ It attained a rather singular popularity in art; the subject occurs on upwards of thirty vase-paintings black and red figured. Earlier than any literary source for the myth is unquestionably the famous François[955] vase (early sixth century B.C.) in the Museo Civico at Florence, where the scene is depicted in broad epic fashion and with some conscious humour. All the figures are inscribed. Zeus is there and Hera, seated on the splendid, fatal throne. Dionysos leads the mule on which sits the drunken Hephaistos. Up they come into the very presence of Zeus with three attendant Silenoi carrying respectively a wine-skin, a flute, a woman. It is the regular revel rout. Behind the throne of Hera crouches Ares in deep dejection, on a sort of low stool of repentance, while Athene looks back at him with scorn. Why are Ares and Dionysos thus set in rivalry? Not merely because wine is mightier than war, but because the two, Ares and Dionysos, are Thracian rivals, with Hephaistos of Lemnos for a third. It is a bit of local mythology transplanted later to Olympus. The diverse fates of these two Thracian gods are instructive. Ares was realized as a Thracian to the end. In Homer he is only half accepted in Olympus, he is known as a ruffian and a swashbuckler and like Aphrodite escapes[956] to his home as soon as he is released: ‘Straightway forth sprang the twain; To savage Thrace went Ares, but Kypris with sweet smile Hied her to her fair altar place, in pleasant Paphos’ isle.’ The newly admitted gods, such as Ares and Aphrodite, are never really at home in Olympus. Dionysos, as has already been seen (p. 366), has no place in the Homeric Olympus, but, once he does force an entry, his seat is far more stable. In the _Oedipus Tyrannos_ Sophocles[957] realizes that Dionysos and Ares are the great Theban divinities, but Ares is of slaughter and death, Dionysos of gladness and life. He makes his chorus summon Dionysos to banish Ares his fellow divinity: