A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

384 HEPHAESTUS. HEPHAESTUS.
xxi. 332,' Od. viii. 312.) Later traditions state his workshop, with the anvil, and twenty bellows,:
that he had no father, and that Hera gave birth to which worked spontaneously at his bidding. (II.
him independent of Zeus, as she was jealous of xviii. 370, &c.) It was there that he made all his
Zeus having given birth to Athena independent beautiful and marvellous works, utensils, and arms,
of her. (Apollod. i. 3. ~ 5; Hygin. Fab. Praef.) both for gods and men. The ancient poets and
This, however, is opposed to the common story, mythographers abound in passages describing works
that Hephaestus split the head of Zeus, and thus of exquisite workmanship which had been manuassisted him in giving birth to Athena, for He- factured by Hephaestus. In later accounts, the
phaestus is there represented as older than Athena. Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, Pyracmon, and others,
A further development of the later tradition is, are his workmen and servants, and his workshop
that Hephaestus sprang from the thigh of Hera, is no longer represented as in Olympus, but in the
and, being for a long time kept in ignorance of his interior of some volcanic isle. (Virg. Aen. viii.
parentage, he at length had recourse to a stratagem, 416, &c.) The wife of Hephaestus also lived in
for the purpose of finding it out. He constructed a his palace: in the Iliad she is called a Charis, in
chair, to which those who sat upon it were fastened, the Odyssey Aphrodite (II. xviii. 382, Od. viii.
and having thus entrapped Hera, he refused allow- 270), and in Hesiod's Theogony (945) she is named
ing her to rise until she had told him who his Aglaia, the youngest of the Charites. The story of
parents were. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 454, Eclog. iv. Aphrodite's faithlessness to her husband, and of the
62.) For other accounts respecting his origin, see manner in which he surprised her, is exquisitely
Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 22), Pausanias (viii. 53. described in Od. viii. 266-358. The Homeric
~ 2), and Eustathius (ad Homrn. p. 987). poems do not mention any descendants of HeHephaestus is the god of fire, especially in so far phaestus, but in later writers the number of his
as it manifests itself as a power of physical nature children is considerable. In the Trojan war he
in volcanic districts, and in so far as it is the indis- was on the side of the Greeks, but he was also
pensable means in arts and manufactures, whence worshipped by the Trojans, and on one occasion
fire is called the breath of Hephaestus, and the he saved a Trojan from being killed by Diomedes.
name of the god is used both by Greek and Roman (II. v. 9, &c.)
poets as synonymous with fire. As a flame arises His favourite place on earth was the island of
out of a little spark, so the god of fire was delicate Lemnos, where he liked to dwell among the Sinand weakly from his birth, for which reason he was tians (Od. viii. 283, &c., II. i. 593; Ov. Fast. viii.
so much disliked by his mother, that she wished to 82); but other volcanic islands also, such as Liparn,
get rid of him, and dropped him from Olympus. Hiera, Imbros, and Sicily, are called his abodes or
But the marine divinities, Thetis and Eurynome, workshops. (Apollon. Rhod. iii. 41; Callim. Hymn.
received him, and he dwelt with them for nine in Dian. 47; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 416; Strab. p. 275;
years in a grotto, surrounded by Oceanus, making Plin. H. N. iii. 9; Val. Flacc. ii. 96.)
for them a variety of ornaments. (Hom. Il. xviii. Hephaestus is among the male what Athena is
394, &c.) It was, according to some accounts, among the female deities, for, like her, he gave
during this period that he made the golden chair skill to mortal artists, and, conjointly with her, he
by which he punished his mother for her want of was believed to have taught men the arts which
affection, and from which he would not release her, embellish and adorn life. (Od. vi. 233, xxiii. 160,
till he was prevailed upon by Dionysus. (Paus. Hymn. in Vule. 2, &c.) But he was, nevertheless,
i. 20. g 2; Hygin. Fab. 166.) Although Hephaes- conceived as far inferior to the sublime character of
tus afterwards remembered the cruelty of his mo- Athena. At Athens they had temples and festivals
ther, yet he was always kind and obedient towards in common. (See Diet. of Ant. s. v.'HqpalffTZa,
her, nay once, while she was quarrelling with XaAKeTa.) Both also were believed to have great
Zeus, he took her part, and thereby offended his healing powers, and Lemnian earth (terra Lemnia)
father so much, that he seized him by the leg,, and from the spot on which Hephaestus had fallen was
hurled him down from Olympus. Hephaestus was a believed to cure madness, the bites of snakes, and
whole day falling, but in the evening he came down haemorrhage, and the priests of the god knew how
in the island of Lemnos, where he was kindly re- to cure wounds inflicted by snakes. (Philostr.
ceived by the Sintians. (Hom. 1n. i. 590, &c.; Heroic. v. 2; Eustath. ad Honm. p. 330; Diet. Cret.
Val. Flacc. ii. 85; Apollod. i. 3. ~ 5, who, how- ii. 14.) The epithets and surnames by which Heever, confounds the two occasions on which"He- phaestus is designated by the poets generally allude
phaestus was thrown from Olympus.) Later writers to his skill in the plastic arts or to his figure and
describe his lameness as the consequence of his his lameness. He was represented in the temple of
second fall, while Homer makes him lame and Athena Chalcioecus at Sparta, in the act of deliverweak from his birth. After his second fall he re- ing his mother (Paus. iii. 17. ~ 3);on the chest of
turned to Olympus, and subsequently acted the part Cypselus, giving to Thetis the armour for Achilles
of mediator between his parents. (II. i. 585.) On (v. 19. ~ 2); and at Athens there was the famous
that occasion he offered a cup of nectar to his statue of Hephaestus by Alcamenes, in which his
mother and the other gods, who burst out into lameness was slightly indicated. (Cic. de Nat.
immoderate laughter on seeing him busily hobbling Deor; i. 30; Val. Max. viii. 11. ~ 3.) The Greeks
through Olympus from one god to another, for he frequently placed small dwarf-like statues of the
was ugly and slow, and, owing to the weakness of god near the hearth, and these dwarfish figures
his legs, he was held up, when he walked, by seem to have been the most ancient. (Herod. iii.
artificial supports, skilfully made of gold. (II. 37; Aristoph. Av. 436; Callim. Hymn. in Dian.
xviii. 410,&c., Od. viii. 311, 330.) His neck and 60.) During the best period of Grecian art, he
chest, however, were strong and muscular. (II. was represented as a vigorous man with a beard,
xviii. 415, xx. 36.) and is characterised by his hammer or some other
In Olympus, Hephaestus had his own palace, instrument, his oval cap, and the chiton, which
imperishable and shining like stars: it contained leaves the right shoulder and arm uncovered.