Hephaestus

Hefested in the forging by Guillaume Coustou (son), Louvre.

In Greek mythology, Hephaestus (in Greek Ἥφαιστος Hêphaistos, perhaps from φαίνω phainô, 'to shine') is the god of forge and fire, as well as blacksmiths, craftsmen, sculptors, metals and metallurgy. He was worshiped in all the industrial and manufacturing centers of Greece, especially in Athens. The approximate equivalent of him in Roman mythology was Vulcan, in Japanese Kagusuchi, in Egyptian Ptah, and in Hindu Agni.

Hephaestus was rather ugly and crippled and lame, though his wife was Aphrodite. Even the myth says that, at birth, Hera saw him so ugly that she threw him off Olympus and gave him a limp. So much so, that he walked with the help of a cane and, on some painted vessels, his feet sometimes appear upside down.

In art, he is depicted as lame, sweaty, with a scruffy beard and bare chest, bent over his anvil, often working in his forge.

Hephaestus's physical appearance indicates arsenicosis, that is, chronic arsenic poisoning that causes lameness and skin cancer. Arsenic was added to bronze to harden it and most Bronze Age smiths would have suffered from this disease.

Birth

Hephaestus was the son of Hera, along with Zeus. In Hesiod's Theogony, Hera conceived him alone, jealous because Zeus had given birth to Athena, who had sprouted from his head. In the Iliad, it is stated that Zeus was the father of Hephaestus.

The tension between both versions was such that although in one and the other it is narrated that Athena ended up being born from Zeus, in which Hephaestus was earlier, it was said that it had been he who had opened the head of the father to free the sister, while in the other version it was held that it had been Prometheus.

Anyway, in Greek thought the destinies of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, and Hephaestus, god of the forge that made the weapons of war, were related. Hephaestus and Athena Ergane (as patron saint of artisans) were honored at a festival called Calchaeas on the thirtieth day of the month Pianepsio. Hephaestus also made many of Athena's accoutrements.

Hera, mortified for having given birth to such a grotesque offspring, soon threw him off Olympus. Hephaestus fell for nine days and nine nights to the sea, where, as his own character tells in the Iliad, two goddesses of the sea, the Nereid Thetis (mother of Achilles) and the Oceanid Eurynome, picked him up. and he was cared for on the island of Lemnos, and there he grew up to become a master craftsman.

Other versions affirm that it was his father Zeus who threw him out because of a conspiracy between Hera and Hephaestus to overthrow him, and in the Iliad it is narrated that it was because he freed his mother, who was imprisoned with a gold chain between earth and heaven after a fight with Zeus. Hephaestus fell on the island of Lemnos, and was crippled with a limp.

Having made golden thrones for Zeus and other gods, Hephaestus took revenge by making a magical gold throne that he sent as a gift to Hera. When this she sat on it, she was trapped, unable to get up. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus and free her from it, but he refused, still angry at being thrown from it. Then Dionysus intervened, who got Hephaestus drunk and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule. Hephaestus, upset by the ruse and master of the situation, imposed severe conditions to release Hera, one of which was to marry Aphrodite.

Hephaestus and Aphrodite

In the Olympian pantheon, Hephaestus was formally married to Aphrodite, whom no one could possess. Hephaestus was very happy to have united with the same goddess of beauty and forged magnificent jewelry for her, including a belt that made her even more irresistible to men. Aphrodite was given to Hephaestus by Zeus as thanks for helping him in the birth of Athena, since Zeus had a severe headache after swallowing the pregnant oceanid Metis and Hephaestus helped him extract her from her. Also, it must be remembered that some mythological versions indicate Zeus as the father of Aphrodite.

However, Aphrodite secretly gave herself to Ares, the god of war, as narrated in the Odyssey. When Hephaestus learned of these love affairs through Helios, the sun, which sees everything, wove an almost invisible, unbreakable golden net with which he trapped the lovers in bed in one of their encounters. Hesiod recounts that the event was the cause of great uproar on Olympus, as Hephaestus called all the other Olympic gods to make fun of the pair of lovers. Hermes, the Argiphonte, the messenger of the gods commented that he would not have minded feeling such shame. Hephaestus would not release them until they promised to end their affair, which they did, but they both escaped as soon as Hephaestus raised the net, and did not keep their promise.

According to some authors, his unfortunate marriage to Aphrodite was what prompted him to assault Athena when she came to him for new weapons.

Prometheus

Prometheus had created the human being in the likeness of the gods, but it took so long that he had no way to protect him. Taking pity on his defenseless creation, he stole fire from Olympus so humanity could warm itself. According to some versions, Prometheus stole fire from the chariot of Helios (in later mythology, from Apollo) or from Hephaestus's forge. In others (notably Plato's Protagoras), Prometheus stole the arts of Hephaestus and Athena, also taking fire because without it they were useless. He thus obtained the man the means with which to earn a living.

To appease Zeus' fury, Prometheus told humans to burn offerings to the gods, but then tricked him again by giving him the sacrificial bones and sinew instead of meat. To get revenge, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to make a woman out of clay, whom he named Pandora. Zeus infused it with life and sent it to Prometheus, along with the amphora that contained all the misfortunes with which he wanted to punish humanity. Prometheus was suspicious and wanted nothing to do with Pandora, so she was sent to Epimetheus, who married her. Pandora would end up opening the box despite her husband's warnings.

Zeus was enraged to see how Prometheus got rid of Pandora, and had him taken to Mount Caucasus, where he was chained by Hephaestus with the help of Bia and Cratos. He then sent an eagle to eat the liver of Prometheus. Being immortal, the liver regenerated every day, and the eagle ate it again every night.

This punishment was to last forever, but Heracles passed Prometheus's place of captivity on his way to the Garden of the Hesperides and freed him by shooting an arrow at the eagle. Prometheus was thus freed, although he had to carry with him a ring attached to a piece of the rock to which he was chained.

The Forge of Hephaestus

Vulcan's umbrellaVelázquez. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

According to the Iliad, the forge of Hephaestus was on Mount Olympus. But it was usually located in the volcanic heart of the Aegean island of Lemnos. Hephaestus was identified by the Greeks with the southern Italian volcano-gods Hadranos and Vulcano. Later classical writers followed this idea by describing a forge of the god on the volcanic islands of Lipari near Sicily. The Greek colonizers of this island would end up associating the Hephaestus forge with Etna.

Hephaestus made many of the accessories worn by the gods, and is credited with forging nearly all of the finely crafted metal objects with powers that appear in Greek mythology: the winged helmet and sandals of Hermes, the aegis of Zeus, the famous belt of Aphrodite, the armor of Achilles, the bronze castanets of Heracles, the chariot of Helios, the shoulder of Pelops, the bow and arrows of Eros, the necklace that he gave to Harmonia and the scepter of Agamemnon.

Creatures

Hephaestus also created various creatures:

• According to some sources, Talos, the bronze giant Zeus gave to Europe to be the guardian of Crete. Curiously, others claimed that Hefestus was the son of Talos, that this was the son of Cres (or the last of a generation of men of bronze, who came from the brawns). But, as Pausanias pointed out, "the legends of Greece tend to have different forms, which is particularly true in genealogy."
• The Kourai Khryseai (Κουραι γρυσεαι, 'doncellas doradas') were two gold automatons with the appearance of young living women. It was said that they possessed intelligence, strength and the gift of speech. They attended Hefesto at his Olympus palace.

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.

• The first woman that ever existed, Pandora.

Helpers

Hephaestus worked helped by:

• Cedalion was apprentice in the forging of the island of Lemnos. There came the giant Orion after being blinded by Enopion as punishment for raping one of his daughters. Hefesto took pity on him and gave Cedalion to serve him a lazarillo sitting on his shoulder.
• Two Cabiros: Alcon and Eurimedonte, twin sons of Hefesto, helped their father in the forge of Lemnos. Similarly, the Palicos, also their twin children, helped him in the forge of Sicily.
• The three immortal Cyclops and their sons worked in the Hefesto fragua on Vulcan Island (near Sicily).

Consorts and offspring

Despite being married to Aphrodite, Hephaestus had no issue with her, unless Virgil was serious when he claimed that Eros was his son.

Aglaya

In the Iliad, Hephaestus's consort is called Charis. Hesiod claimed that she was the youngest of the three Charites: Aglaya, 'the glorious'. According to Orphic tradition, they were parents of:

• Eukleia (ÿκλεια), goddess of good reputation and glory.
• Eupheme (Ευφημη), goddess of the correct discourse.
• Euthenia (Ευθια), goddess of prosperity and fullness.
• Philophrosyne (Poundιλοφροσυνη), goddess of kindness and welcome.

Athena and Ericthonius

Hefest Temple in Athens (Greece)

According to Apollodorus, Hephaestus tried to rape Athena but failed. His semen fell to the ground, and so Gaia fathered Ericthonius, one of the kings of Athens. Athena then raised the baby as a foster mother. Alternatively, the semen fell on Athena's leg, and she cleaned it with a piece of wool that she threw on the ground, then Ericthonio emerged from the earth and the wool. Another version says that Hephaestus wanted Athena to marry him, but that she disappeared in the wedding bed, and Hephaestus ended up ejaculating on the floor.

Hyginus proposed an etymology, according to which Erictonio comes from the 'conflict' (Eri-) between Athena and Hephaestus, and 'from the Earth' ( -chthonium). Some authors suggest that an older and less virginal Athena lies behind this twisted reworking of the myth.

In any case, there is a Temple of Hephaestus (called “Hephaestus” or also “Theseus”) located at the foot of the Acropolis, near the agora of the city.

Erichtonius was said to have created the chariots to hide the deformity of Hephaestus's legs. Lycanus Son of Hephaestus with Athena according to a late myth.^{[citation required]}

Other descendants

Immortals

Hephaestus was sometimes considered the father with Etna of the Palicos, the chthonic daemons of the geysers and hot springs of the Palacia region of Sicily.

Hephaestus was somehow connected to the archaic Phrygian and Thracian mystery religion of the Cabirs, who were called the Hephaistoi ('men of Hephaestus') on Lemnos. These, sons of Hephaestus with the nymph Cabiro, were daimones who lived on the island of Samothrace (Aegean Sea) together with their sisters, the nymphs Cabírides.

Also counted among his offspring is Thalia, the Sicilian nymph loved by Zeus.

Deadly

Hephaestus was also the father of the following mortals:

• Ardalos, an inventor of the flute.
• Caco, a giant latium barbarian killed by Heracles.
• Cacca, sister of Caco and home goddess in the principles.
• Cécrope, king of Athens, according to a minority version.
• Cerción, a bandit from Eleusis who used to fight and kill the travelers, whom Teseo killed.
• Filamon, musician and king of the Fócide (Greece).
• Oil, a king of the Greek city of the same name.
• Palemon, inhabitant of Olenio and one of the Argonauts.
• Perifetes (also called Corinetes, with Anticlea), an Epidauro bandit that used to sprinkle with its claw the travelers until Teseo killed him.
• Pilio, a man from the island of Lemnos who cured Filoctetes, a hero of the Trojan War from his snake bite.
• Servio Tulio (with Ochresia), king of Lazio (in Roman mythology).

Hyginus also names Philotus (Philottus) and Spinter (Spinther) among the sons of Hephaestus, without giving more details.