Greetings fans of Greek and Roman mythology! After having recently written about Aphrodite, Persephone, and Hades, I shall now move on to one of the more troubled gods, Hephaestus (Vulcan in Roman, also known as Mulciber). Hephaestus was one of only three children of Zeus and Hera (the other two being Ares and Hebe), and his troubles began at birth. You might ask immediately why it would be such a bad thing to be born an immortal god (ah! an oxymoron! all gods are immortal! whoops! except for Pan, the god of the satyrs, who was reported to have died in the 1500s ... but let's move on), but sadly enough for Hephaestus, it was (well, kind of). When Hera gave birth to him, he was weak with a pitiful appearance, so his mother, highly displeased, simply tossed him off of Mt. Olympus! That would make a great modern-day American short story! Hera, fortunately, had quite the arm, so he did not fall upon the hard land, but fell into the sea, quite the distance from Mt. Olympus.
Having landed, thankfully unscathed, into the sea, he was found by the goddess Thetis. One of the innate talents of Hephaestus was to make beautiful jewelry, and so he, in gratitude, began to bedeck Thetis with gorgeous necklaces and splendid, shining diamond rings. This he did for a full nine years. One day, however, Hera discovered that Thetis had better jewelry to wear than she did, in fact, Thetis had better jewelry than any of the Olympians (more on this fact later), so Hera asked Thetis where she had gotten it. Finally she wrested the fact that her very son Hephaestus was making those pretty, priceless baubles for her, and the trick was up. Soon enough, Hephaestus was reentered into the good graces of his mother, and was "allowed" to return to Mt. Olympus so he could make things now, in "gratitude," for his mother (one might think for a moment about what Hephaestus thought about all of that!).
Things went "swimmingly" for a while up on Mt. Olympus until one day Hephaestus and his father Zeus got into a bit of a tiff, and Zeus promptly threw him off the other side of Mt. Olympus! This time Hephaestus didn't fare so well ... he landed, splat!, upon the hard earth, and broke every bone in his body. His legs were especially affected by the fall, as was his back--he would be kyphotic, or hunch-backed, ever after, and he would have trouble walking. One might imagine the appearance of Quasimodo from Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame when one thinks of Hephaestus. Later on, he was once again "pardoned," and allowed to return, albeit in much rougher shape than the first time he returned!
Because Hephaestus was now so ugly and deformed, limping along and bent over because of his horribly disfigured back, he decided to dwell within the depths of Mt. Olympus, and there established a forge where he made made items with his great skill as a blacksmith. He made himself golden leg supports to help him walk. He made golden mechanical women that came to life to help him in his smithy. He also fashioned 20 three-legged tables with golden wheels that would move by themselves to transport items around his stygian, or gloomy, smithy. The Cyclopes, or one-eyed giants, also helped out in his forge. With all this assistance, he was able to forge some of the greatest weapons of the gods and heroes, including the winged shoes and helmet of Hermes, the shield of Achilles, the aegis (the shield of Athena that bore the head of Medusa), the golden chariot of Helios, and the bow and arrows of Eros, the god of love (Roman Cupid), to name a few.
Hephaestus, despite the fact that he was the ugliest of the Olympians, did manage to marry Aphrodite, the most beautiful of the goddesses. Can you guess why? Consider the fact that Aphrodite loved to gaze at herself in her hand mirror ... ah, now you have it. The gorgeous, shining, beauty-enhancing jewelry! Yep, that's right, this was not a marriage for love (marriages for love were unknown for the most part in the ancient world; that concept really did not have its origin until the troubadours in the Middle Ages). Aphrodite's interest in Hephaestus was purely in the sense of being a trophy wife ... he made her beautiful, beautiful items, which she accepted with evident and rapacious glee. In fact, he made her the cestus, a girdle that made her simply even more irresistible to men. Why he did that we'll probably never know! He probably wasn't the jealous type, I guess.
Hephaestus, besides being the god of blacksmiths, was also the god of fire, volcanoes, sculptors, metal, metallurgy, and technology. From the depths of Olympus to Dell. Isn't life interesting?
Mythology Book Corner: This book corner suggests great mythology reads. Probably one of the best books on Greek mythology ever written was by Edith Hamilton, a book simply called Mythology. It's been around forever ... you know that because I read it as a kid. It's fabulous!
*Interesting Fact* A sailor reported that Pan had indeed died. No one knows the name of that sailor. But he was really sure about that.
*Interesting Fact* The word "volcano" and "vulcanize" come from the Roman name for Hephaestus, Vulcan.
*Interesting Fact* The thunderbolts of Zeus were fashioned by the Cyclopes, not Hephaestus.
Thank you, this is really cool.
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