by Joan Inong

Created on: September 19, 2008

Hephaestus is the son of Zeus and Hera. Hephaestus's birth is quite strange, perhaps just because of the reason why he was conceived. First of all, Hera conceived Hephaestus by herself because she felt she had to get even with Zeus when he gave birth to Athena by himself (through his head). Hera also wanted a son who would be so much better than Zeus in every other way. So, she gave birth to Hephaestus from her thigh. However and ironically, the son to which she gave birth was deformed: he was born backwards with clubbed feet. Thus, he was lame. Other stories recount him as being born normal, but ugly. When Hera sees him she is so disgusted and mortified that she flings him to the sea where he breaks his legs, thus making him lame. According to Homer, however, Hephaestus was conceived by the participation of both Hera and Zeus, but his lameness occurred when Zeus and Hera were having a fight. Zeus was really angry and perhaps he was prone to throwing things, because that is what he did to Hephaestus. He fell for one day until he landed on an island and broke his legs.

Hephaestus is the god of fire and the forge and the patron god of both smiths and weavers. This fact supports the two latter myths of his birth above, since it is said that he began crafting jewelry at a very young age. If those two birth myths are true, then Hephaestus landed on an island in which he spent some time with some goddesses who taught or encouraged his art. Hera then saw the beautiful jewelry which, to her at first, were created by an unknown craftsman. When she found out it was the very son of which she disposed, she felt sorry and asked Hephaestus (and Zeus) if he would like to go to Mount Olympus. However, Hephaestus was still angry and stayed on the island.

Many myths exist as to how and why Hephaestus was able to get Aphrodite as his wife, but the simplest one is that Zeus gave Aphrodite to him. However, other myths indicate that even though Hephaestus appeared to be quite fond of Aphrodite (as shown by his reaction when he found out Aphrodite was cheating on him with Ares), Hephaestus had a deep passion for Athena. It is said that he fell in love with her the moment that she came out of Zeus's head, and even assisted in the birth. He even created the spear which she proudly holds.

Hephaestus is often depicted as a very nice guy. He helps out heroes when they need weapons to be made, and he didn't want to chain Prometheus to a mountain. But, he has his side of evil just like the other gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus. He asked Zeus to create Pandora, the most beautiful woman, to lure mankind into opening a box which would release more evils into the world.

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