Hephaestus赫淮斯托斯

Origins

Son of Hera — by some accounts conceived without Zeus, in revenge for his producing Athena alone. He was born lame, and his mother threw him off Olympus in disgust. He fell into the sea, was taken in by the sea-nymph Thetis, and in an underwater cave became the finest craftsman in the world.

Sacred symbols

HammerAnvilTongs

Myths

The golden throne

He sent Hera a magnificent golden throne, and the moment she sat down invisible chains held her fast. The gods begged him to come back and release her; he refused them all, until Dionysus got him drunk and brought him home slung over a donkey.

The workshop of the gods

The shield of Achilles, the chariot of the Sun and the winged sandals of Hermes are all his work. He also built golden handmaids that could walk and talk, and tripods that rolled themselves to the feast — robots, imagined three thousand years ago.

Pandora

On Zeus's orders he shaped Pandora, the first woman, from earth and water, to be sent among men as payment for Prometheus's theft of fire. It was Hephaestus, too, who nailed Prometheus to the cliff in the Caucasus.

Relationships with the other gods

• KinZeus

  One blow owed, one fall suffered

  It was Hephaestus who split Zeus's aching head so Athena could be born. But in another tale he took his mother's side in a quarrel, and Zeus seized him by the foot and flung him out of heaven; he fell for a whole day before landing on the island of Lemnos.

• FeudHera

  The son thrown from the mountain

  Disgusted that her newborn was lame, Hera threw him from Olympus. Years later a golden throne arrived as a gift; she sat down and could not move. Only when he was brought back drunk was the quarrel mended — and part of the price, they say, was Aphrodite's hand in marriage.

• DesireAthena

  Desire refused

  He split Zeus's head for her birth, and later fell in love and pursued her; the maiden goddess pushed him away. In the struggle his seed fell on the earth, which bore the child Erichthonius. Athena raised the boy and made him king of Athens. The city's craftsmen honoured the two of them together as their patrons.

• DesireAphrodite

  The worst-matched marriage

  The most beautiful goddess was married to the ugliest god. When the Sun told him about Ares, he forged a golden net too fine to see, caught the pair in bed, and threw the doors open for the gods to look. The gods all came to enjoy it; the goddesses stayed home out of modesty.

• FeudAres

  Brothers and rivals

  Both sons of Hera — one tall and warlike, one lame and ugly. On the day of the golden net the gods roared with laughter: "The slow has caught the swift; the cripple has caught the fastest god of all." Hephaestus would not open the net until Poseidon stood surety for the fine.

• AllianceDionysus

  A homecoming bought with wine

  With Hera locked in the golden throne, Ares tried to drag Hephaestus back by force and was driven off with firebrands. Dionysus tried another way — no weapons, just wine — and led the drunken smith back to Olympus on a donkey, singing all the way.