Thrown from Olympus, he fell a whole day and landed on Lemnos, lame ever after
Hurled by Zeus for taking Hera's side, or by Hera for his deformity; the Sintians of Lemnos nursed him.
Myth · Greek
Hephaestus
Greek mythology — Olympian, god of fire, metalworking and craftsmen
Hephaestus is the smith of the gods and the god of fire, forges and craftsmen — the only Olympian who works, and the only one who is lame. Thrown from Olympus in infancy, he made his way back by craft rather than force, and his workshop produces the great objects of Greek myth: the shield of Achilles, the thrones of the gods, the chains that hold Prometheus, and Pandora herself. His temple above the Athenian agora, the Hephaisteion, is the best-preserved Greek temple anywhere.
How to spot them
- ▸Hammer, anvil and tongs; a workman's cap (pilos) and a lame or twisted foot
- ▸The only Olympian at work, and the only one physically imperfect
- ▸Associated with Lemnos, and with the volcanic forges under Etna
- ▸Husband of Aphrodite, and the cuckold of Olympus
Stories & episodes
Made a golden throne that gripped his mother fast, and only wine brought him back to free her
Dionysus got him drunk and led him up to Olympus on a mule — a favourite scene on Greek vases.
Swung the axe that let a fully-armed goddess out of Zeus's head
The birth of Athena, with whom he shares the patronage of craftsmen.
Forged the shield of Achilles, described over 130 lines of the Iliad
The shield shows a city at peace and a city at war — the archetype of ekphrasis.
Moulded the first woman out of clay at Zeus's order
Pandora, made as a punishment for the theft of fire, in Hesiod's Works and Days.
Snared his wife and the war-god in an unbreakable net over his own bed
Sung by Demodocus in Odyssey 8; the gods came to laugh.
Built golden handmaidens who could think and speak, and self-moving tripods
Described in Iliad 18 — the oldest robots in literature.
Made the bronze giant who circled Crete three times a day
Talos, who hurled rocks at ships until Medea drained the ichor from his ankle.
Quick-fire facts
- •Roman equivalent: Vulcan, from whom 'volcano' and 'vulcanise' derive
- •Son of Hera — in Hesiod's Theogony, produced by her alone in answer to the birth of Athena; Homer gives him Zeus as father
- •His forge is placed on Lemnos, on Olympus, or beneath Mount Etna with the Cyclopes as his workmen
- •Married to Aphrodite in the Odyssey, and to Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, in the Theogony
- •The Hephaisteion (c. 449 BC) above the Athenian agora is the best-preserved of all Doric temples
- •He shared the Athenian festival of the Chalkeia with Athena, and the Hephaisteia included a torch race
- •The Vulcanalia was celebrated at Rome on 23 August
- •In Virgil's Aeneid 8, Vulcan forges the shield of Aeneas, answering Homer's shield of Achilles
- •Milton's Paradise Lost has Mulciber — a Roman title of Vulcan — as the architect of Pandemonium, falling 'from morn to noon'
- •The hypothetical planet Vulcan, proposed to explain Mercury's orbit, was made unnecessary by general relativity
Drill it — 10 cards
1 / 10new card
Sources
- Aaron J. Atsma, the Theoi Project — Hephaistos
- Homer — Iliad Book 18, the forging of the shield of Achilles and his golden handmaidens