Hephaestus : Greek God of fire, art and craft | Greek mythology

Greek Mythology : Hephaestus, Greek God 

Born small, born sickly, born different.An outcast, the rejected one, the deformed. Abhorred by my mother, rejected by my father. Thrown down from Olympus, and lamed thereafter.

 Though they called me ugly, I thrived in thearts of metal-work. god of fire and crafts, My objects were so beautiful, my skills are unmatched.

A cripple, yet, for myself I fashioned, strong legs of the finest metals, and a chariot of gold. And for others, silver hands, legs, swords and spears, So they can create their own paths, So they can fight their own demons, So they too, can stand up for themselves. The ancient Greek god, Hephaestus, is thegod of arts and crafts, blacksmiths and fire.

He is  Called “the celestial artificer, ”the lame one, the halting, the cripple. And his Roman alias is Vulcan. Proclaimed ugly at birth, he was hated by his own mother Hera, and hurled down from mount Olympus by his own father Zeus. He hit his legs on a hard rock, and became crippled after.

A slightly different version of the myth, stated that Hephaestus was solely Hera’s child, and that she gave birth to him while trying to imitate her husband who had solely birthed Athena from his head. In this story version, after bringing him to the world, Hera was so disgusted with Hephaestus’ looks and ashamed of his deformity that she threw him down from Olympus by her own hand.

 Little Hephaestus was severely hurt from the fall, but was rescued by Thetis and Eurynome, who sheltered him in a cave under the Ocean for nine whole years. Hephaestus was the most peculiar member ofthe Olympian Pantheon. He was large, bearded, extremely muscular and sturdy. He is sometimes depicted with an oval cap and almost always with a hammer and an anvil.

Although he was not gifted with the beauty and the physical flawlessness ofthe other gods, his metal-work skills were extraordinary, spectacular and unrivaled. And that was how he regained his permanent place on Olympus. The fiery god Hephaestus exerted his revenge on his mother later on.

He made a golden throne, so beautiful that Hera accepted it right away.But as soon as she sat on it, she was  tied up by the numerous invisible cords fashioned by Hephaestus an only him could see.  All the other gods pleaded on Hera' s behalf and tried to persuade Hephaestus to free her, with Zeus even promising him a place on Olympus in return.

However, the fiery god was unmoved. He was unremorseful, it was payback for all the ill treatment  towards him. It was only when Dionysus got him drunk,that he released his mother.

 Now, Hera's golden throne was not the only wondrous work of Hephaestus. It is said that it was him who built the beautiful, indestructible bronze mansions where all the other Olympians lived.

For Hera, the crafty god added secure doors to Hera’s chamber, which no other god but her could open. As a favor to Thetis, he created the shield of Achilles. He was also the one who made the scepter of Agamemnon, the breast-plate of Diomedes, and the sword of Peleus.

 In addition, the “Iliad,” tells us that Hephaestus crafted for himself handmaidens of gold, who were able to understand him, speak to him and assist him. He also sculpted golden dogs to guard the palace of Alcinous and Talos, a giant bronze man to protect Crete. Some go ahead to say that, at the request of Zeus, he also sculpted the first mortal woman, Pandora.

 Hephaestus married Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty herself. However, she wasn’t faithful to him, she was sleeping with the war god, Ares, behind his back. On a fateful day, Hephaestus had caught the two lovers and trapped them ina fine-woven chain-net, after which he called upon the other gods to laugh at their shame.

 Although the sea god, Poseidon successfully persuaded him to free the adulterous couple, Hephaestus was not done punishing them. In the near future, when Ares and Aphrodite’s daughter, Harmonia, would marry Cadmus, hephaestus would gift her a magical necklace which would bring misfortune to her and everyone who wields it afterward.