Hephaistos: The Obscure Greek God

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Hephaistos: The Obscure Greek God

Greeks are known for many things. We know them for their poetry, for their philosophy, their politics--and also we have come to know them for their childish, petty, lustful, little gods. These gods, vengeful in the extreme, have been a source of much literature. However, not all the gods have the same publicity agent, and have suffered in obscurity for much too long. One of these gods, one of the Twelve Olympians, has been obscure in the least. He is different in most ways from the other gods, and I am here to illuminate him further to you. His name? Hephaistos.

This god will surprise you. He actually seems to have a crude sense of humor. He doesn’t seem to be vindictive, or very interested in the lives of mortals. He was simple, and he was ugly. It was as basic as that. Well, he has some interesting heritage, lets find out.

Firstly, there is an interesting set of facts about the first moments of life for Hephaistos.

One day, Zeus made Hera a bit jealous (as brothers and sisters in Kentucky can be) when Zeus was sleeping around with this and that female as various wild animals. Well, Hera was enraged so much, that she spontaneously conceived a child. I would LOVE to see something like that. She conceived and when Zeus noticed that Hera was pregnant, he was very angry himself. Moments later, she gave birth to Hephaistos. However, he was so very ugly and had a bad leg, that Hera tossed him to earth and disavowed his birth.

It must be noted that there does seem to be a discrepancy. Some texts imply that Zeus tossed him to earth instead of Hera. He landed on the island of Lemnos (Seltman 99). That is why the people of Lemnos were his favorites and that was why he always headed there to relax and recuperate.

Well, after being tossed into the ocean, Thetis picked him up and took care of him. Thetis is the same goddess who was mother of Achilles. Anyway, she took care of him, and he started making nice jewelry for her to wear.

One day, she headed to court with the other gods, and all the women noticed the pretty baubles that were adorning Thetis. After they found out that it was long-lost Hephaistos, Hera went and asked him to come to Olympus.

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