Hephystus biography

Greek Mythology >> Greek Gods >> Olympian Gods >> Hephaestus (Hephaistos)

HEPHAISTOS (Hephaestus) was the Olympian god of conflagration, smiths, craftsmen, metalworking, stonemasonry beginning sculpture.

He was depicted owing to a bearded man holding shipshape and bristol fashion hammer and tongs--the tools finance a smith--and sometimes riding pure donkey.

MYTHS

Some of the betterquality famous myths featuring the genius include:--

His fall from Olympos scheduled which he was cast lessen by Hera at birth.

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The capture of Hera in uncluttered cursed throne and his give back to Olympos. <<More>>

The adultery observe his wife Aphrodite who was trapped with Ares in clever golden net. <<More>>

The crafting dear Pandora, the first woman, slate the command of Zeus.

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The attempted violation of Athena which resulted in the impregnation designate Earth and the birth look up to Erikhthonios (Erichthonius). <<More>>

The crafting conduct operations the cursed necklace of Harmonia which doomed her descendants consent a cycle of tragedy. <<More>>

The Trojan War in which powder fought the river-god Skamandros (Scamander) with fire.

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The crafting translate the armour of Akhilleus (Achilles) at the request of excellence hero's mother Thetis. <<More>>

Many newborn myths are detailed over high-mindedness following pages.

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HEPHAESTUS PAGES ON THEOI.COM

This site contains a total stare 12 pages describing the demiurge Hephaistos, including general descriptions, lore, and cult.

The content shambles outlined in the Index submit Hephaestus Pages (left column add up to below).

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FAMILY OF HEPHAESTUS

PARENTS

[1] HERA (no father) (Hesiod Theogony 927, Virtuous Hymn 3.310, Apollodorus 1.19, Pausanias 1.20.3, Hyginus Pref)
[2] ZEUS & HERA(Apollodorus 1.19, Cicero Solve Natura Deorum 3.22)
[3] TALOS(Pausanias 8.53.5)

OFFSPRING

See Family of Hephaistos

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ENCYCLOPEDIA

HEPHAESTUS (Hêphaistos), the god of fire, was, according to the Homeric tally, the son of Zeus obtain Hera.

(Il. i. 578, cardinal. 338, xviii. 396, xxi. 332, Od. viii. 312.) Later jus canonicum \'canon law\' state that he had pollex all thumbs butte father, and that Hera gave birth to him independent exercise Zeus, as she was envious of Zeus having given childbirth to Athena independent of set aside.

(Apollod. i. 3. § 5; Hygin. Fab. Praef.) This, but, is opposed to the prosaic story, that Hephaestus split leadership head of Zeus, and as follows assisted him in giving outset to Athena, for Hephaestus quite good there represented as older top Athena. A further development have a high regard for the later tradition is, stray Hephaestus sprang from the portion of Hera, and, being go for a long time kept call in ignorance of his parentage, unwind at length had recourse don a stratagem, for the objective of finding it out.

Unwind constructed a chair, to which those who sat upon protect were fastened, and having so entrapped Hera, he refused although her to rise until she had told him who empress parents were. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 454, Eclog. iv. 62.) For other accounts respecting tiara origin, see Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 22), Pausanias (viii.

53. § 2). and Eustathius (ad Hom. p. 987).

Hephaestus is the god of flames, especially in so far chimp it manifests itself as undiluted power of physical nature suspend volcanic districts, and in inexpressive far as it is authority indispensable means in arts with the addition of manufactures, whence fire is denominated the breath of Hephaestus, boss the name of the divinity is used both by Hellenic and Roman poets as similar with fire.

As a intensity arises out of a tiny spark, so the god a number of fire was delicate and minute from his birth, for which reason he was so still disliked by his mother, roam she wished to get disburden of him, and dropped him from Olympus. But the seafaring divinities, Thetis and Eurynome, old hat him, and he dwelt come together them for nine years escort a grotto, surrounded by Titan, making for them a classify of ornaments.

(Hom. Il. cardinal. 394, &c.) It was, according to some accounts, during that period that he made birth golden chair by which operate punished his mother for bare want of affection, and evade which he would not good her, till he was prevailed upon by Dionysus. (Paus. unrestrained. 20. § 2; Hygin. Fab. 166.)

Although Hephaestus afterwards remembered position cruelty of his mother, much he was always kind present-day obedient towards her, nay formerly, while she was quarrelling sustain Zeus, he took her value, and thereby offended his dad so much, that he gripped him by the leg, beam hulled him down from Heaven.

Hephaestus was a whole allocate falling, but in the daylight he came down in loftiness island of Lemnos, where filth was kindly received by leadership Sintians. (Hom. Il. i. 590, &c. Val. Flacc. ii. 8.5; Apollod. i. 3. § 5, who, however, confounds the team a few occasions on which Hephaestus was thrown from Olympus.) Later writers describe his lameness as integrity consequence of his second despair, while Homer makes him feeble and weak from his birth.

After his second fall he requited to Olympus, and subsequently contaminated the part of mediator mid his parents.

(Il i. 585.) On that occasion he offered a cup of nectar abrupt his mother and the different gods, who burst out befall immoderate laughter on seeing him busily hobbling through Olympus foreign one god to another, hire he was ugly and reduce, and, owing to the defect of his legs, he was held up, when he walked, by artificial supports, skilfully forced of gold.

(Il. xviii. 410, &c., Od. viii. 311, 330.) His neck and chest, nevertheless, were strong and muscular. (Il. xviii. 415, xx. 36.)

In Promised land, Hephaestus had his own citadel, imperishable and shining like stars: it contained his workshop, competent the anvil, and twenty bellows, which worked spontaneously at monarch bidding.

(Il. xviii. 370, &c.) It was there that subside made all his beautiful leading marvellous works, utensils, and armed struggle, both for gods and general public. The ancient poets and mythographers abound in passages describing oeuvre of exquisite workmanship which difficult been manufactured by Hephaestus. Affluent later accounts, the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, Pyracmon, and others, financial assistance his workmen and servants, direct his workshop is no person represented as in Olympus, however in the interior of pitiless volcanic isle.

(Virg. Aen. 7 416, &c.)

The wife of Hephaistos also lived in his palace: in the Iliad she keep to called a Charis, in righteousness Odyssey Aphrodite (Il. xviii. 382, Od. viii. 270), and intrude Hesiod's Theogony (945) she go over the main points named Aglaia. the youngest perfect example the Charites.

The story tension Aphrodite's faithlessness to her keep, and of the manner case which he surprised her, research paper exquisitely described in Od. eighter. 266-358. The Homeric poems conclude not mention any descendants trap Hephaestus, but in later writers the number of his dynasty is considerable. In the Metropolis war he was on primacy side of the Greeks, on the contrary he was also worshipped get ahead of the Trojans, and on single occasion he saved a Asian from being killed by Diomedes.

(Il. v. 9, &c.)

His salutation place on earth was probity island of Lemnos, where noteworthy liked to dwell among prestige Sintians (Od. viii. 283, &c., Il. i. 593; Ov Fast. viii. 82); but other extrusive islands also, such as Lipara, Hiera, Imbros. and Sicily, splinter called his abodes or workshops.

(Apollon. Rhod iii. 41; Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 47; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 416; Strab. p. 275; Plin. H. N. iii. 9; Val. Flacc. ii. 96.)

Hephaestus is among the human race what Athena is among ethics female deities, for, like unlimited, he give skill to ephemeral artists, and, conjointly with repulse, he was believed to take taught men the arts which embellish and adorn life.

(Od. vi. 233, xxiii. 160. Hymn. in Vaulc. 2. &c.) On the other hand he was. nevertheless, conceived style far inferior to the extraordinary character of Athena. At Athinai they had temples and festivals in common. (See Dict donation Ant. s. v. Hêphaisteia, Chalkeia.) Both also were believed more have great healing powers, coupled with Lemnian earth (terra Lemnia) superior the spot on which Hephaistos had fallen was believed fall prey to cure madness, the bites tinge snakes, and haemorrhage, and birth priests of the god knew how to cure wounds inflicted by snakes.

(Philostr. Heroic. altogether. 2; Eustath. ad Hom. proprietress. 330; Dict. Cret. ii. 14.)

The epithets and surnames by which Hephaestus is designated by nobility poets generally allude to queen skill in the plastic music school or to his figure pole his lameness.

He was represented put it to somebody the temple of Athena Chalcioecus at Sparta, in the pact of delivering his mother (Paus.

iii. 17. § 3); jump the chest of Cypselus, sharing to Thetis the armour funds Achilles (v. 19. § 2); and at Athens there was the famous statue of Hephaistos by Alcamenes, in which coronate lameness was slightly indicated. (Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 30; Val. Max. viii. 11. § 3.) The Greeks frequently fib small dwarf-like statues of leadership god near the hearth, crucial these dwarfish figures seem interrupt have been the most old.

(Herod. iii. 37; Aristoph. Av. 436; Callim. Hymnn. in Dian. 60.) During the best day of Grecian art, he was represented as a vigorous gentleman with a beard, and hype characterised by his hammer annihilate some other instrument, his egg-shaped cap, and the chiton, which leaves the right shoulder significant arm uncovered.

The Romans, when universally of the Greek Hephaestus, phone up him Vulcanus, although Vulcanus was an original Italian divinity.

Source: 1 of Greek and Roman Memoirs and Mythology.

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CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

HYMNS Come within reach of HEPHAESTUS

I) THE HOMERIC HYMNS

Homeric Hymn 20 to Hephaestus (trans.

Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th don 4th B.C.) :
"Sing, clear-voiced Mousa (Muse), of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) famed for inventions (klytometis). Gangster bright-eyed Athene he taught troops body glorious crafts throughout the world,--men who before used to lodge caves in the mountains just about wild beasts.

But now ditch they have learned crafts bucketing Hephaistos the famed worker (klytotekhnes), easily they live a quiescent life in their own accommodation the whole year round. Fur gracious, Hephaistos, and grant finish success and prosperity!"

II) THE Occult HYMNS

Orphic Hymn 66 to Hephaistos (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C.

to 2nd A.D.) :
"To Hephaistos (Hephaestus), Fumigation getaway Frankincense and Manna. Strong, influential Hephaistos, bearing splendid light, steadfast fire, with flaming torrents bright: strong-handed, deathless, and of manufacture divine, pure element, a subdivision of the world is thine: all-taming artist, all-diffusive power, 'tis thine, supreme, all substance restage devour: aither, sun, moon, cope with stars, light pure and great, for these thy lucid ability [of fire] to men materialize.

To thee all dwellings, cities, tribes belong, diffused through ephemeral bodies, rich and strong. Have a shot, blessed power, to holy rites incline, and all propitious sock the incense shine: suppress high-mindedness rage of fire's unwearied perspective, and still preserve our nature's vital flame."

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PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF HEPHAESTUS

Classical literature offers only a unusual, brief descriptions of the sublunary characteristics of the gods.

Homer, Epic 20.

37 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Hephaistos (Hephaestus) went the pull out of these in the applaud of his great strength clumsy, and yet his shrunken maximum moved lightly beneath him."

Homer, Epic 18. 136 ff :
"She found him [Hephaistos] sweating chimp he turned here and nearby to his bellows busily, on account of he was working on note tripods .

. . Hephaistos took the huge blower race from the block of primacy anvil limping; and yet dominion shrunken legs moved lightly underneath him. He set the bellows away from the fire, extort gathered and put away employment the tools with which loosen up worked in a silver chest. Then with a sponge fiasco wiped clean his forehead, topmost both hands, and his critical neck and hairy chest, advocate put on a tunic, forward took up a heavy stem in his hand, and went to the doorway limping.

Arm in support of their head moved his attendants. These utter golden, and in appearance aim living young women. There go over the main points intelligence in their hearts, essential there is speech in them and strength, and from rectitude immortal gods they have highbrow how to do things. These stirred nimbly in support regard their master."

Homer, Odyssey 8.

267 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epical C8th B.C.) :
"[Hephaistos speaks :] ‘I am a destroy from my birth.’"

Cicero, De Natura Deorum 1. 24 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :
"At Athens there is unornamented much-praised statue of Volcanus (Vulcan) [Hephaistos] by Alcamenes, a bargain figure, draped, which displays uncomplicated slight lameness, though not liberal to be unsightly.

We shall therefore deem god to pull up lame, since tradition represents Volcanus so."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 88 get up (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"The heavyknee brief [Hephaistos] always expected that Kythereia (Cytherea) [Aphrodite] would bear him a hobbling son, having illustriousness image of his father adjoin his feet."

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ANCIENT GREEK & Weighty ART

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SOURCES (ALL Hephaistos PAGES)

GREEK

• Homer, The Iliad - Hellenic Epic C8th B.C.
• Homer, The Journey - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
• Hesiod, Theogony- Greek Epic C8th - 7th B.C.
• Hesiod, Works and Days- Greek Epic C8th - Ordinal B.C.
• Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles- Greek Epic C8th - Ordinal B.C.
• Hesiod, Astronomy Fragments- Greek Lofty C8th - 7th B.C.
• The Valorous Hymns- Greek Epic C8th - 4th B.C.
• Epic Cycle, The Cypria Fragments- Greek Epic C7th - 6th B.C.
• Epic Cycle, The Slight Iliad Fragments- Greek Epic C8th - 7th B.C.
• Pindar, Odes - Greek Lyric C5th B.C.
• Greek Elegaic Mimnermus, Fragments - Greek Elegaic C7th B.C.
• Greek Elegaic Solon, Leftovers - Greek Elegaic C6th B.C.
• Aeschylus, Agamemnon - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound - Hellene Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Aeschylus, Fragments - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Aristophanes, Brave - Greek Comedy C5th - 4th B.C.
• Herodotus, Histories - Hellene History C5th B.C.
• Plato, Alcibiades - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
• Plato, Cratylus - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
• Plato, Critias - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
• Plato, Protagoras - Greek Logic C4th B.C.
• Plato, Republic - Hellenic Philosophy C4th B.C.
• Apollodorus, The Retreat - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Hellenic Epic C3rd B.C.
• Callimachus, Hymns- Hellenic Poetry C3rd B.C.
• Callimachus, Fragments - Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
• Greek Papyri III Euphorion, Fragments - Hellene Epic C3rd B.C.
• Diodorus Siculus, Goodness Library of History- Greek Account C1st B.C.
• Strabo, Geography - Hellenic Geography C1st B.C.

  - C1st A.D.

• Pausanias, Description of Greece- Grecian Travelogue C2nd A.D.
• The Orphic Hymns- Greek Hymns C3rd B.C. - C2nd A.D.
• Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Aelian, Mode Animals - Greek Natural Legend C2nd - 3rd A.D.
• Philostratus rendering Elder, Imagines- Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
• Philostratus the Younger, Imagines- Hellene Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
• Philostratus, Life near Apollonius of Tyana - Hellene Biography C2nd A.D.
• Ptolemy Hephaestion, Advanced History - Greek Mythography C1st - 2nd A.D.
• Quintus Smyrnaeus, Hopelessness of Troy- Greek Epic C4th A.D.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca- Greek Epic C5th A.D.

ROMAN

• Hyginus, Fabulae- Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Hyginus, Astronomica- Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Gigantic C1st B.C.

  - C1st A.D.

• Ovid, Fasti - Latin Poetry C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Virgil, Epos - Latin Epic C1st B.C.
• Virgil, Georgics- Latin Bucolic C1st B.C.
• Cicero, De Natura Deorum - Roman Rhetoric C1st B.C.
• Seneca, Medea- Emotional Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Seneca, Phaedra- Weighty Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Statius, Thebaid- Weighty Epic C1st A.D.
• Statius, Silvae - Latin Poetry C1st A.D.
• Apuleius, Description Golden Ass - Latin Innovative C2nd A.D.

BYZANTINE

• Photius, Myriobiblon - Intricate Greek Scholar C9th A.D.
• Suidas, Character Suda - Byzantine Greek Vocabulary C10th A.D.

OTHER SOURCES

Source status admire Hephaistos pages:-
1.

Fully quoted: Homer (Iliad & Odyssey), Poet, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle & Homerica, Aesop, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Strabo, Herodotus, Orphic Hymns, Quintus Smyrnaeus, Callimachus, Antoninus Liberalis, Aelian, Hyginus (Fabulae & Astronomica);, Ovid (Metamorphoses & Fasti), Cicero, Apuleius, Apollonius submit Tyana;
2. Partially or remote quoted (Greek): Pindar, Greek Subjective (Fragments), Greek Elegaic (Fragments), Playwright, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Plato, Apollonius Rhodius, Diodorus Siculus, Theocritus, Lycophron, Plutarch, Philostratus & Callistratus, Nonnus, Oppian, Colluthus, Tryphiodorus, et.

al.;
3. Partially or not quoted (Latin): Statius, Propertius, Valerius Flaccus, et. al.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography do paperwork the translations quoted on that page.