Hephaestus

Hephaestus is the Greek god of the forge: the smith of the gods, who made their houses, their weapons and many of their marvels. Homer calls him lame and famous for his craft in the same breath, and the epic tradition makes him the husband of Aphrodite. His Roman counterpart is Vulcan, whose name is tied to fire and volcanoes.

Hephaestus’ Role

Hephaestus' Name

The Greek texts do not explain the name Hephaestus (Hephaistos), and the ancient authors give no meaning for it. The Romans identified him with their fire god Vulcan (Virgil, Aeneid 8).

Hephaestus' Portrayal and Symbolism

In Homer, Hephaestus is lame and walks on thin, weak legs (Iliad 18.410–411), and the other gods laugh when they see him bustling through the hall pouring nectar (Iliad 1.597–600). The poet nevertheless gives him the honours of a great craftsman, and the Homeric Hymn to Hephaestus says that he and bright-eyed Athena taught men glorious crafts, so that people who once lived in caves like wild beasts now live easily through the year (Homeric Hymn 20.1–7).

Hephaestus' Epithets

Homer’s regular names for him are unflattering and admiring at once: “famed craftsman” (klutotechnes, Iliad 1.571), “crook-foot” (kyllopodion, Iliad 18.371) and “the renowned lame god” (periklytos amphigyeeis, Iliad 18.383). His forge is placed in the heavens in the Iliad, where Thetis finds his bronze house on Olympus (Iliad 18.369–371). Virgil later puts his workshop on an island between Sicily and the Lipari islands, where the Cyclopes work the iron for him under the name of Vulcan’s land (Aeneid 8.416–425).

Hephaestus’ Family and Difficult Childhood

Son of Zeus and Hera

In Homer, Hephaestus is the son of Hera and Zeus, and he speaks of Zeus as the stronger god who threw him from heaven. Homer gives two reasons for his fall. In the first book of the Iliad, Hephaestus tells his mother that once before, when he tried to defend her, Zeus seized him by the foot and flung him from the threshold of heaven; he fell all day and landed on Lemnos, hardly alive, where the Sintians took him in (Iliad 1.586–594). In the eighteenth book, Hephaestus tells Thetis that his mother wanted to hide him because he was lame, and that he fell a long way until Eurynome and Thetis took him in (Iliad 18.395–399). Lemnos remains the island he loves best (Odyssey 8.283–284). Apollodorus combines the stories: Hera bore Hephaestus without a father, but Zeus threw him out of heaven because he came to help Hera when she was hung in bonds; he fell on Lemnos, was lamed in his legs, and Thetis saved him (Apollodorus 1.3.5).

Hephaestus Hated by His Mother

Hesiod says that Hera bore Hephaestus without union with Zeus, in anger and rivalry with her husband, who had given birth to Athena from his own head (Hesiod, Theogony 924–929). In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Hera herself says that she bore her son Hephaestus alone, that he was weak and crooked-footed, and that she took him in her hands and threw him into the wide sea, where Thetis, daughter of Nereus, received him (Homeric Hymn 3.316–320). The Iliad adds that Thetis and Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus, sheltered him for nine years in a hollow cave around which the stream of Oceanus flowed, and that he made brooches, spiral armbands, rosettes and necklaces for them there (Iliad 18.395–405).

Hephaestus’ Revenge on Hera

Pausanias reports the Greek story that Hephaestus, thrown down by Hera at birth, sent her a golden chair with invisible fetters as a gift. When she sat down she was held fast, and Hephaestus would not listen to any god until Dionysus made him drunk and brought him back to heaven; Pausanias saw this scene painted in a sanctuary at Athens, and a Spartan temple showed Hephaestus releasing his mother (Pausanias 1.20.3, 3.17.3).

Hephaestus as a Craftsman

The poets call his works wonders, and gods and mortals alike depend on them.

Hephaestus' Architectural Wonders

Homer says Hephaestus built the house of each god on Olympus (Iliad 1.606–608) and the bronze house of his own where Thetis found him. He also made the chamber of Hera, with strong doors closed by a secret bolt that no other god could open (Iliad 14.166–168).

Hephaestus' Automata

The Iliad describes machines that move by themselves. Hephaestus made twenty tripods on golden wheels, so that they could run on their own to the assembly of the gods and return home, a marvel to see (Iliad 18.373–377). Thetis finds him attended by golden maidservants that look like living girls, with minds, voices and strength, and who have learned skills from the immortal gods (Iliad 18.417–420). In the Odyssey he made the gold and silver dogs that guard the palace of Alcinous, immortal and ageless (Odyssey 7.91–94). Apollodorus says that, according to some, Hephaestus gave Minos the bronze man Talos, who guarded Crete (Apollodorus 1.9.26). At the command of Zeus he moulded the first woman out of earth and water, Pandora, whom Athena dressed and adorned (Hesiod, Theogony 570–573; Works and Days 60–64).

Hephaestus' Arms and Armor

At the request of Thetis, Hephaestus made new armour for Achilles. The shield has five layers, and he decorated it with many scenes of the earth, the sky, the sea, two cities, ploughing, harvest and dancing (Iliad 18.478–608). Agamemnon’s staff was also his work, passed from Hephaestus to Zeus, then to Hermes, Pelops, Atreus and Thyestes (Iliad 2.101–108). Hesiod says that the knife of Peleus, which Acastus hid on Mount Pelion, was made by the famous lame god (Hesiod, Catalogue of Women fragment), and that Heracles received a golden breastplate from him (Apollodorus 2.4.11). He also gave the bronze-footed fire-breathing bulls to Aeetes (Apollodorus 1.9.23). In the war with the Giants, Hephaestus killed Mimas with missiles of red-hot metal (Apollodorus 1.6.2), and by order of Zeus he fastened Prometheus to the Caucasus (Apollodorus 1.7.1).

Hephaestus’ Women and Children

Hephaestus and Aphrodite

In the Odyssey, the singer Demodocus tells how Aphrodite, Hephaestus’ wife, slept with Ares in Hephaestus’ own house. Helios saw them and told Hephaestus (Odyssey 8.266–271). Hephaestus forged fine bonds, like a spider’s web, and spread them around the bed, then pretended to leave for Lemnos. When the lovers lay down they were held fast, and Hephaestus called the gods to see (Odyssey 8.266–366). The gods laughed, but Poseidon pleaded for Ares and promised to pay the debt himself if Ares escaped without paying, and Hephaestus released them (Odyssey 8.343–358). Apollodorus says that Aphrodite later left him (Apollodorus 3.14.6). Ares and Aphrodite’s daughter Harmonia married Cadmus, who gave her a necklace made by Hephaestus (Apollodorus 3.4.2); in the later tradition this necklace brings disaster on those who own it.

Hephaestus and Aglaea

Other poets give him a different wife. In the Iliad he is married to Charis, who greets Thetis at his door (Iliad 18.382–383), and Hesiod says that he made Aglaea, the youngest of the Graces, his wife (Hesiod, Theogony 945–946).

Hephaestus and Athena

Apollodorus tells that Athena came to Hephaestus to have arms made. Aphrodite had left him, and he fell in love with Athena and pursued her. When he caught up with her, she, a chaste virgin, would not yield, and his seed fell on her leg. She wiped it off with wool and threw it on the ground, and from the earth Erichthonius was born (Apollodorus 3.14.6). Apollodorus also notes that some call Erichthonius the son of Hephaestus and Atthis, daughter of Cranaus. Erichthonius became an early king of Athens (Apollodorus 3.14.6).

Other Children

Herodotus says that the images of the Cabeiri at Memphis were like those of Hephaestus and that they were said to be his sons (Herodotus 3.37). Periphetes, the club-bearer killed by Theseus at Epidaurus, is also his son (Apollodorus 3.16.1), and Apollodorus lists Palaemon among the Argonauts as a son of Hephaestus or of Aetolus (Apollodorus 1.9.16).

Hephaestus and the Birth of Athena

Apollodorus says that when it was time for Athena to be born from Zeus’ head, Prometheus or, as others say, Hephaestus split the head with an axe, and Athena leapt out fully armed (Apollodorus 1.3.6).

Hephaestus: Myths and Hidden Truths

Hephaestus is sometimes imagined as a figure of fun, but Homer shows both sides. The gods laugh at him as he bustles through the hall in the first book of the Iliad (Iliad 1.599–600), yet he is also the god Thetis, Hera and Zeus all turn to for a masterwork, and the poet calls him by respectful titles throughout. He also cools a quarrel on Olympus: in the Iliad he takes his mother’s side but urges her to endure Zeus’ anger and offers her a cup (Iliad 1.571–596).

Hephaestus Sources

Homer, Iliad 1.571–608, 2.101–108, 14.166–168, 18.368–420, 18.478–608; Odyssey 7.91–94, 8.266–366; Hesiod, Theogony 570–573, 924–929, 945–946; Works and Days 60–64; Homeric Hymn 20 to Hephaestus; Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo 316–320; Apollodorus, Library 1.3.5–6, 1.6.2, 1.7.1, 1.9.16, 1.9.23, 1.9.26, 2.4.11, 3.4.2, 3.14.6, 3.16.1; Pausanias 1.20.3, 3.17.3; Herodotus 3.37; Hesiod, Catalogue of Women fragment on Peleus; Virgil, Aeneid 8.416–425.

See Also: Hera, Zeus, Aphrodite, Ares, Athena, Erichthonius, Thetis, Dionysus, Pandora, Harmonia