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Hephaestus was best known (and is most well-represented in the mythic corpus) as the crafter of much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, to the extent that almost any finely-wrought, magical metalwork that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus: [[Hermes]]'s winged helmet and sandals, the [[Aegis]] [[breastplate]] (worn by Zeus or Athena), [[Aphrodite]]'s famed girdle, [[Agamemnon]]'s staff of office,<ref>See, the ''Iliad'' II for a detailed description of its provenance.</ref> [[Achilles]]' armor, [[Heracles]]' bronze clappers (used in his battle with the Stymphalian Birds), [[Helios]]'s chariot, the shoulder of [[Pelops]], [[Eros (mythology)|Eros]]'s bow and arrows. In constructing these marvels, Hephaestus worked with the help of the [[chthonic]] [[Cyclopes]], his assistants in the forge. More impressive still, he also built metal automata to work for him, constructed Pandora from earth (on the urging of Zeus), and assembled Talos (the robotic defender of Crete). | Hephaestus was best known (and is most well-represented in the mythic corpus) as the crafter of much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, to the extent that almost any finely-wrought, magical metalwork that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus: [[Hermes]]'s winged helmet and sandals, the [[Aegis]] [[breastplate]] (worn by Zeus or Athena), [[Aphrodite]]'s famed girdle, [[Agamemnon]]'s staff of office,<ref>See, the ''Iliad'' II for a detailed description of its provenance.</ref> [[Achilles]]' armor, [[Heracles]]' bronze clappers (used in his battle with the Stymphalian Birds), [[Helios]]'s chariot, the shoulder of [[Pelops]], [[Eros (mythology)|Eros]]'s bow and arrows. In constructing these marvels, Hephaestus worked with the help of the [[chthonic]] [[Cyclopes]], his assistants in the forge. More impressive still, he also built metal automata to work for him, constructed Pandora from earth (on the urging of Zeus), and assembled Talos (the robotic defender of Crete). | ||
| − | === | + | ===Hephaestus and the Olympians=== |
| − | Hephaestus | + | In the mythic tales, Hephaestus was only reluctantly accepted as a member of the pantheon (a fact that may highlight the conflict between artisans and aristocrats in Hellenic society).<ref>Powell, 186.</ref> In one case, the blacksmith god, to avenge his terrible treatment at the hands of Hera, decided to hold the goddess hostage until he was given the recognition that he felt he deserved. To achieve this, he constructed a golden throne for her and presented it to as a gift. Little did his mother know that, once she sat in it, the magical seat would adhere to her body and prevent her from rising. |
| − | + | Springing to his mother's aid, Ares offered to force the smith god to release her, but was driven away from Hephaestus's home by the clever god's flaming arrows. Hera remained a prisoner until [[Dionysus]] got the divine blacksmith drunk and took him back to Olympus. Even inebriated, Hephaestus drove a hard bargain for his mother's release - arguing that he should be admited to the pantheon and that (at least in some accounts) he should be given Aphrodite, the goddess of love, as his wife.<ref>The various sources of this tale are summarized in Gantz, 75.</ref> | |
| − | In | + | In those sources that describe Hephaestus and Aphrodite as a couple, the union is not seen as a harmonious one. More specifically, the goddess of beauty, 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 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 [[adultery|adulterer's fine]]. Given the cuckolding of the unfortunate smith, it is understandable that some accounts describe the couple as being divorced, as suggested by Hephaestus's statement in Homer that he would return Aphrodite to her father and demand back his bride price. |
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| + | In an unrelated tradition, Hephaestus is thought to be married to Charis, the youngest of the [[Graces]].<ref>Homer's ''Iliad'' XVIII. Conversely, [[Hesiod]] states that "Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, his buxom wife." ''[[Theogony]]'' 945.</ref> | ||
| + | Regardless of which goddess was seen as his wife, Hephaestus did not have any children that played a large role in the mythic corpus.<ref>Some of these children include the Cabeiri (two metalworking gods fathered by Cabeiro (a nymph), and two Sicilian gysers (the Palici).</ref> | ||
===Hephaestus and Athena=== | ===Hephaestus and Athena=== | ||
| − | + | In Greek thought, the fates of the goddess of wisdom and war ([[Athena]]) and the god of the forge (who crafted the weapons of war) were linked. In a general sense, Hephaestus was credited with creating much of Athena's weaponry, and the two gods were sometimes worshipped together ([[#Cult of Hephaestus|see below]]). More specifically, the blacksmith god played a decisive part in two important myths centered on the wise Goddess. In the first, Hephaestus is sometimes credited for providing the ''coup de grace'' to [[Zeus]]'s skull that allowed Athena to emerge into the world. In the second, the sexually-repressed god is described attempting to rape the beautiful goddess, though he only succeeded in ejaculating on her leg. When his seed fell to the ground, it miraculously produced Erichthonius (one of the founding heroes of Athens). | |
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| − | + | These accounts help cement the complex relationship between these two deities. | |
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==Cult of Hephaestus== | ==Cult of Hephaestus== | ||
[[Image:ac_hephaestus2.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The [[Doric order|Doric]] [[Temple of Hephaestus|temple]] of '''''Hephaestus''''', [[Acropolis of Athens|acropolis]] of Athens – western face]] | [[Image:ac_hephaestus2.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The [[Doric order|Doric]] [[Temple of Hephaestus|temple]] of '''''Hephaestus''''', [[Acropolis of Athens|acropolis]] of Athens – western face]] | ||
| + | Hephaestus is somewhat notable among the Greek gods for his definitively non-Hellenic origins, as his association with the indigenous fire cults of Lemnos is well attested by both mythic accounts and archaeological records.<ref>Farnell (Vol. 5), 375; Powell, 185-186.</ref> Despite this extra-Hellenic provenance, worship of the blacksmith god came to be incorporated into the | ||
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In [[Attica]], Hephaestus and Athena Ergane (Athena as patroness of craftsmen and artisans), were honored at a festival called [[Chalceia]] on the 30th day of [[Pyanepsion]]. | In [[Attica]], Hephaestus and Athena Ergane (Athena as patroness of craftsmen and artisans), were honored at a festival called [[Chalceia]] on the 30th day of [[Pyanepsion]]. | ||
Revision as of 06:53, 20 May 2007
Hephaestus (IPA pronunciation: [hɪfiːstəs] or [hɪfεstəs]; Greek Ἥφαιστος Hêphaistos) was the Greek god of fire, metals and metallurgy, and technology including, specifically blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, and sculptors. As a result, he was worshiped in all the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, especially Athens.
Though his forge traditionally lay in the heart of Lemnos, Hephaestus was quickly identified by Greek colonists in southern Italy with the volcano gods Adranus of Mount Etna and Vulcanus of the Lipara islands, and his forge moved here by the poets. This early identification led to the the creation of the syncretistic Roman deity, Vulcan. 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" (Life of Apollonius of Tyana, book v.16).
Mythological Accounts
Birth and physical characteristics
Of all the second generation Olympians (Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Athena, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Hermes), only two, Ares and Hephaestus, are children of the Hera. Further, while Ares was indubitably the issue of the divine ruling couple, the mythical sources that describe the origins of the smith-god are somewhat more conflictual. In some, it simply seems that, like his brother, Hephaestus was the son of Hera and Zeus.[1] More interesting, however, are the accounts that describe Hephaestus as the product of asexual reproducion on his mother's part — specifically, that Hera became jealous when Zeus produced Athena without her help and spitefully decided to make herself pregnant by force of will.
- But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Tritogeneia [Athena], the awful, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles. But Hera without union with Zeus — for she was very angry and quarrelled with her mate — bare famous Hephaestus, who is skilled in crafts more than all the sons of Heaven.[2]
These incompatible accounts lead to a second inconsistency, this time with respect to the smith god's physical appearance. In all cases, Hephaestus is described as malformed, crippled, or lame (or some combination of the three traits). When the misfortunate god is depicted as the son of Hera alone, he is understood as having been born with these various aesthetic and functional imperfections.[3] Appalled at the sight of her grotesque offspring, Hera promptly threw him from Mount Olympus. He fell many days and nights and landed in the ocean, where he was brought up by the Oceanids, Thetis (mother of Achilles) and Eurynome.[4] Conversely, when the divine blacksmith was seen as the son of Hera and Zeus, he was born in full health. However, after angering Zeus (by saving Hera from a painful physical punishment inflicted by the High God), he was unceremoniously flung from the Heavens. In this version, the god's lameness is explained by the violence of his abrupt landing on the rocky shores of Lemnos. Thus, the discrepancies between these two related episodes are reconciled in their shared explanation of the god's crippled limbs.[5]
Modern studies have made some interesting progress in exploring the nature of the god's physical deformities. In one case, Hephaestus’s physical appearance is seen to indicate arsenicosis, low levels of arsenic poisoning, which results in lameness and skin cancers. Such a diagnosis is appropriate, as most smiths of the Bronze Age would have suffered from chronic workplace poisoning due to the fact that arsenic was added to bronze to harden it.[6] In another case, the god's craftiness in response to physical adversity is discussed. By way of background, some myths (and artistic representations based upon them) feature Hephaestus building himself a "wheeled chair" with which to move around, thus helping him overcome his lameness while simultaneously showing the other gods his skill as a craftsperson.[7] Dr. William Ebenstein sees in the physical depiction of the god a potent symbol for re-formulating the modern understanding of the disabled and disability:
- Hephaestus is the only god that works. He is the most physically vivid of all the Olympians. In the Iliad he is depicted as a robust smith, middle-aged, with a bearded face, a powerful thick neck, hairy chest, sweaty brow and heavily muscled arms, wearing a sleeveless tunic. ... His poetic workshop is specifically designed to accommodate his disability. Of particular interest to the field of disability studies is his work in the area of assistive technology, accommodations in the workplace, and his creation of mechanical objects that function as robots or automata. In his workshop he has built 20 self-animated tripods with golden wheels that can move back and forth at the gods' assemblies and perform the work of robot servants. He also utilizes voice-activated bellows.... In a vase painting Hephaestus is also depicted riding in a magnificent winged wheelchair-like chariot."[8]
Hephaestus's craft
Hephaestus was best known (and is most well-represented in the mythic corpus) as the crafter of much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, to the extent that almost any finely-wrought, magical metalwork that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus: Hermes's winged helmet and sandals, the Aegis breastplate (worn by Zeus or Athena), Aphrodite's famed girdle, Agamemnon's staff of office,[9] Achilles' armor, Heracles' bronze clappers (used in his battle with the Stymphalian Birds), Helios's chariot, the shoulder of Pelops, Eros's bow and arrows. In constructing these marvels, Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes, his assistants in the forge. More impressive still, he also built metal automata to work for him, constructed Pandora from earth (on the urging of Zeus), and assembled Talos (the robotic defender of Crete).
Hephaestus and the Olympians
In the mythic tales, Hephaestus was only reluctantly accepted as a member of the pantheon (a fact that may highlight the conflict between artisans and aristocrats in Hellenic society).[10] In one case, the blacksmith god, to avenge his terrible treatment at the hands of Hera, decided to hold the goddess hostage until he was given the recognition that he felt he deserved. To achieve this, he constructed a golden throne for her and presented it to as a gift. Little did his mother know that, once she sat in it, the magical seat would adhere to her body and prevent her from rising.
Springing to his mother's aid, Ares offered to force the smith god to release her, but was driven away from Hephaestus's home by the clever god's flaming arrows. Hera remained a prisoner until Dionysus got the divine blacksmith drunk and took him back to Olympus. Even inebriated, Hephaestus drove a hard bargain for his mother's release - arguing that he should be admited to the pantheon and that (at least in some accounts) he should be given Aphrodite, the goddess of love, as his wife.[11]
In those sources that describe Hephaestus and Aphrodite as a couple, the union is not seen as a harmonious one. More specifically, the goddess of beauty, 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 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. Given the cuckolding of the unfortunate smith, it is understandable that some accounts describe the couple as being divorced, as suggested by Hephaestus's statement in Homer that he would return Aphrodite to her father and demand back his bride price.
In an unrelated tradition, Hephaestus is thought to be married to Charis, the youngest of the Graces.[12]
Regardless of which goddess was seen as his wife, Hephaestus did not have any children that played a large role in the mythic corpus.[13]
Hephaestus and Athena
In Greek thought, the fates of the goddess of wisdom and war (Athena) and the god of the forge (who crafted the weapons of war) were linked. In a general sense, Hephaestus was credited with creating much of Athena's weaponry, and the two gods were sometimes worshipped together (see below). More specifically, the blacksmith god played a decisive part in two important myths centered on the wise Goddess. In the first, Hephaestus is sometimes credited for providing the coup de grace to Zeus's skull that allowed Athena to emerge into the world. In the second, the sexually-repressed god is described attempting to rape the beautiful goddess, though he only succeeded in ejaculating on her leg. When his seed fell to the ground, it miraculously produced Erichthonius (one of the founding heroes of Athens).
These accounts help cement the complex relationship between these two deities.
Cult of Hephaestus
Hephaestus is somewhat notable among the Greek gods for his definitively non-Hellenic origins, as his association with the indigenous fire cults of Lemnos is well attested by both mythic accounts and archaeological records.[14] Despite this extra-Hellenic provenance, worship of the blacksmith god came to be incorporated into the
In Attica, Hephaestus and Athena Ergane (Athena as patroness of craftsmen and artisans), were honored at a festival called Chalceia on the 30th day of Pyanepsion.
At any rate, there is a Temple of Hephaestus (Hephaesteum or the so-called "Theseum") located near the Athens agora, or marketplace. (pictured below).
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. He had a follower who named himself Hephacules after him.
Notes
- ↑ Gantz provides a listing of the various mythic passages supporting both views: 74-75.
- ↑ Hesiod, Theogony (924-929). Retrieved online at: sacred-texts.com.
- ↑ Hurwit notes the innately patriarchal assumption in this tale, in "the fact that Zeus gave birth to a perfect daughter, while Hera, by herself, could only engender the crippled Hephaestus, [which] again argues for the superior role of the male" (180).
- ↑ Iliad XVIII: "[Thetis] it was that took care of me when I was suffering from the heavy fall which I had through my cruel mother's anger- for she would have got rid of me because I was lame. It would have gone hardly with me had not Eurynome, daughter of the ever-encircling waters of Oceanus, and Thetis, taken me to their bosom. Nine years did I stay with them, and many beautiful works in bronze, brooches, spiral armlets, cups, and chains, did I make for them in their cave, with the roaring waters of Oceanus foaming as they rushed ever past it; and no one knew, neither of gods nor men, save only Thetis and Eurynome who took care of me."
- ↑ Gantz, 74-75. Conversely, Powell circumvents the contradiction by claiming that Hephaestus was thrown from heaven twice! (186).
- ↑ Kurt Aterman, "From Horus the child to Hephaestus who limps: A romp through history," American Journal of Medical Genetics Volume 83, Issue 1 (1999), 53-63.
- ↑ Jay Dolmage, "'Breathe Upon Us an Even Flame': Hephaestus, History, and the Body of Rhetoric," Rhetoric Review Vol. 25, No. 2 (2006), 119-140. 120.
- ↑ See also William Ebenstein, "Toward an Archetypal Psychology of Disability Based on the Hephaestus Myth," Disability Studies Quarterly Volume 26, No. 4 (Fall 2006). Retrieved May 19, 2007.
- ↑ See, the Iliad II for a detailed description of its provenance.
- ↑ Powell, 186.
- ↑ The various sources of this tale are summarized in Gantz, 75.
- ↑ Homer's Iliad XVIII. Conversely, Hesiod states that "Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, his buxom wife." Theogony 945.
- ↑ Some of these children include the Cabeiri (two metalworking gods fathered by Cabeiro (a nymph), and two Sicilian gysers (the Palici).
- ↑ Farnell (Vol. 5), 375; Powell, 185-186.
Bibliography
- Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical. Translated by John Raffan. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985. ISBN 0631112413.
- Dillon, Matthew. Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece. London; New York: Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0415127750.
- Farnell, Lewis Richard. The Cults of the Greek States (in Five Volumes). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.
- Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. ISBN 080184410X.
- Mikalson, Jon D. Ancient Greek Religion. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. ISBN 0631232222.
- Parke, H. W. Festivals of the Athenians. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977. ISBN 0-8014-1054-1.
- Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth (Second Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. ISBN 0-13-716714-8.
- Rose, H. J. A Handbook of Greek Mythology. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1959. ISBN 0-525-47041-7.
- Ventris, Michael & Chadwick, John. Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Second Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973. ISBN 0521085586.
External links
- Theoi Project, Hephaestus in classical literature and art - retrieved May 19, 2007
- Greek Mythology Link, Hephaestus summary of the myths of Hephaestus - retrieved May 19, 2007
See also
- Vulcan
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