| Hephaestus | |
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Hephaestus at the Forge by Guillaume Coustou the Younger (Louvre) |
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| God of Technology, Blacksmiths, Craftsmen & Volcanoes. | |
| Abode | Mount Olympus |
| Symbol | Hammer, Anvil, Tongs, and/or quail |
| Consort | Aphrodite, Aglaea |
| Parents | Hera and Zeus, or Hera alone |
| Siblings | Ares, Eileithyia, Enyo and Hebe |
| Children | Thalia, Eucleia, Eupheme, Philophrosyne and Euthenia |
| Roman equivalent | Vulcan |
Hephaestus ( /hɪˈfiːstəs/, /həˈfɛstəs/ or /hɨˈfɛstəs/; 8 spellings; Ancient Greek Ἥφαιστος Hēphaistos) was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else, according to some accounts, of Hera alone. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Like other mythic smiths but unlike most other gods, Hephaestus was lame, which gave him a grotesque appearance in Greek eyes. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and he was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly in Athens. The center of his cult was in Lemnos.[1] Hephaestus's symbols are a smith's hammer, an anvil and a pair of tongs, although sometimes he is portrayed holding an axe.
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Hephaestus is given many epithets, some of which include:[2]
Erichthonius, Cacus, and Caeculus
Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, and almost any finely-wrought metalwork imbued with powers that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus: Hermes' winged helmet and sandals, the Aegis breastplate, Aphrodite's famed girdle, Agamemnon's staff of office,[4] Achilles' armor, Heracles' bronze clappers, Helios' chariot as well as his own due to his lameness, the shoulder of Pelops, Eros' bow and arrows. Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes, his assistants in the forge. He also built automatons of metal to work for him. This included tripods that walked to and from Mount Olympus. He gave to blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide. In one version of the myth, Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestus's forge. Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to man, the woman Pandora and her pithos. Being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus.[5]
In the mainstream tradition, clearly attested in Homer's Odyssey and perhaps also in the Iliad (and supported by Attic vase paintings), Hephaestus was born of the union of Zeus and Hera.[6] In another tradition, attested by Hesiod, Hera bore Hephaestus asexually.[7]
Hera, or Zeus(depending on who's telling), threw Hephaestus out of heaven in disgust because he was lame (even though Hera was the goddess of family);[8] alternatively, he was rendered lame by the fall. In the Homeric account, he fell all day and right at sunset he landed in the ocean,[9] where he was brought up by the Oceanids Thetis (mother of Achilles) and Eurynome.
Another explanation states that he was flung by Zeus, because he came to his mother’s rescue when Zeus had her in fetters for opposing him.[10] Another account says that he fell for only a day and landed on the island of Lemnos, where he was cared for and taught to be a master craftsman by the Sintians, an ancient tribe native to that island.[11] In every case, he remained forever unfavorable.
Hephaestus was the only Olympian said to have returned to Olympus after being exiled.
In an archaic story,[12] Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical golden throne, which, when she sat on it, did not allow her to leave it.[13] The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he refused, saying "I have no mother".[14]
At last Dionysus, sent to fetch him, shared his wine, intoxicating the smith, and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule accompanied by revelers, a scene that sometimes appears on painted pottery of Attica and in Corinth,[15] as well. In the painted scenes the padded dancers and phallic figures of the Dionysan throng leading the mule show that the procession was a part of the dithyrambic celebrations that were the forerunners, in Athens, of the satyr plays of the fifth century.[16]
The theme of the return of Hephaestus, popular among the Attic vase-painters whose wares were favored among the Etruscans, may have carried this theme to Etruria.[17] As vase-painters portrayed the procession, Hephaestus was mounted on a mule or a horse, accompanied by Dionysus, who held the bridle and carried Hephaestus' tools, which include a double-headed axe.
The traveller Pausanias reported seeing a painting in the temple of Dionysus in Athens, which had been built in the 5th century but may have been decorated at any time before the 2nd century CE, when Pausanias saw it:
"There are paintings here – Dionysus bringing Hephaestus up to heaven. One of the Greek legends is that Hephaestus, when he was born, was thrown down by Hera. In revenge he sent as a gift a golden chair with invisible fetters. When Hera sat down she was held fast, and Hephaestus refused to listen to any other of the gods save Dionysus – in him he reposed the fullest trust – and after making him drunk Dionysus brought him to heaven."[18]
According to most versions, Hephaestus's consort is Aphrodite, who cheats on him with a number of gods and mortals, including the god Ares. However, in Homer's Iliad, the consort of Hephaestus is a lesser Aphrodite, Charis "the grace" or Aglaia "the glorious", the youngest of the Graces, as Hesiod calls her.[19]
There is a Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, the Hephaesteum (miscalled the "Theseum"), located near the agora, or marketplace. An Athenian founding myth tells that the city's patron goddess, Athena, refused a union with Hephaestus because of his unsightly appearance and crippled nature, and that when he became angry and forceful with her, she disappeared from the bed. His ejaculate fell on the earth, impregnating Gaia, who subsequently gave birth to Erichthonius of Athens;[20] then the surrogate mother gave the child to Athena to foster, guarded by a serpent.
On the island of Lemnos, his consort was the sea nymph Cabeiro, by whom he was the father of two metalworking gods named the Cabeiri.
In Sicily, his consort was the nymph Aetna, and his sons two gods of Sicilian geysers called Palici. With Thalia, Hephaestus was sometimes considered the father of the Palici.
Hephaestus fathered several children with mortals and immortals alike. One of those children was the robber Periphetes.
This is the full list of his consorts and children according to the various accounts:
In addition, the Romans claim their equivalent god, Vulcan, to have produced the following children:
Hephaestus, being the most unfaltering of the gods, was given Aphrodite’s hand in marriage by Zeus in order to prevent conflict over her between the other gods.
Hephaestus and Aphrodite had an arranged marriage and Aphrodite, disliking the idea of being married to unsightly Hephaestus, began an affair with Ares, the god of war. Eventually, Hephaestus found out about Aphrodite’s promiscuity from Helios, the all-seeing Sun, and planned a trap for them during one of their trysts. While Aphrodite and Ares lay together in bed, Hephaestus ensnared them in an unbreakable chain-link net so small as to be invisible and dragged them to Mount Olympus to shame them in front of the other gods for retribution. However, the gods laughed at the sight of these naked lovers and Poseidon persuaded Hephaestus to free them in return for a guarantee that Ares would pay the adulterer's fine. Hephaestus states in the Odyssey that he would return Aphrodite to her father and demand back his bride price: this is the one episode that links them.
The Thebans told that the union of Ares and Aphrodite produced Harmonia, as lovely as a second Aphrodite. But of the union of Hephaestus with Aphrodite, there was no issue, unless Virgil was serious when he said that Eros was their child.[21] Later authors might explain this statement when they say the love-god was sired by Ares but passed off to Hephaestus as his own son.
Hephaestus was somehow connected with the archaic, pre-Greek Phrygian and Thracian mystery cult of the Kabeiroi, who were also called the Hephaistoi, "the Hephaestus-men," in Lemnos. One of the three Lemnian tribes also called themselves Hephaestion and claimed direct descent from the god.
Hephaestus was identified by Greek colonists in southern Italy with the volcano gods Adranus (of Mount Etna) and Vulcanus of the Lipari islands. His forge was moved there by the poets. The first-century sage Apollonius of Tyana is said to have observed, "there are many other mountains all over the earth that are on fire, and yet we should never be done with it if we assigned to them giants and gods like Hephaestus".[22]
Hephaestus was reported in myth as cholōs, "lame", and ēpedanos, "halting".[23] He was depicted with crippled feet, and misshapen, either from birth or as a result of his fall from Olympus. In vase-paintings, Hephaestus is usually shown lame and bent over his anvil, hard at work on a metal creation, his feet sometimes back-to-front: Hephaistos amphigyēeis. He walked with the aid of a stick. The Argonaut Palaimonius, "son of Hephaestus" (i.e. a bronze-smith) was also lame.[24]
Other "sons of Hephaestus" were the Cabeiri on the island of Samothrace; they were identified with the crab (karkinos) by the lexicographer Hesychius, and the adjective karkinopous ("crab-footed") signified "lame", according to Detienne and Vernant.[25] The Cabeiri were seen as lame too.
In some myths, Hephaestus built himself a "wheeled chair" or chariot with which to move around, thus helping him overcome his lameness while showing the other gods his skill.[26] In Homer's Iliad it is said that Hephaestus built some bronze human machines to help him get around.
Hephaestus’s ugly appearance and lameness is taken by some to represent arsenicosis, an effect of low levels of arsenic exposure that would result in lameness and skin cancers. In place of less easily available tin, arsenic was added to copper in the Bronze Age to harden it; like the hatters, crazed by their exposure to mercury, who inspired Lewis Carroll's famous character of the Mad Hatter, most smiths of the Bronze Age would have suffered from chronic poisoning as a result of their livelihood. Consequently, the mythic image of the lame smith is widespread.[27]
Parallels in other mythological systems for Hephaestos's symbolism include the following:
The minor planet 2212 Hephaistos discovered in 1978 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh is named in his honor.[30]
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