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Hephaestus was one of the 12 Olympian gods, he was the god of fire and divine smith. With Athena, he was the patron of handicrafts. He was the creator of all beautiful and mechanically wonderful in Olympus, especially arms and armor for the gods. In general, he was a beneficent god. He was much loved by mortals and gods alike for his kindness and his skill in peaceful arts. Some say that Hepheastus was the son of Hera alone, that he had no father.
They say that Hera produced him alone after Athena was born from the head of Zeus to show that she too could have a child without anyones help. But they also say that Zeus was his father. When he was born he was ugly, he alone of the ideally beautiful gods. Hera, in disgust, flung him out of the heavens. He fell into the sea and was rescued by Thetis and Eurynome. The Nereids treated him kindly and kept him with them in a cavern beneath the sea for nine years.
It was because of her kindness that Hepheastus, in the Trojan war, made new armor for Achilles, son of Thetis. While living under the sea Hepheastus, Equally skilled in both hands, made a golden throne to which he attached golden mesh fetters, so fine they were invisible. This he sent to Hera, to punish her for hurling him down from the heavens. When she sat on the throne she was immediately held fast by the invisible fetters. The gods of heaven tried to get Hepheastus to come back to Olympus and free her. He refused.
Ares threatened him with force. Hepheastus compelled him to withdraw by menacing him with molten missiles. Dionysus came to try his persuasions. Hephaestus trusted him and received him.
Dionysus got him drunk and led him to Olympus where he agreed to free Hera from the throne. From then on he took his place with the gods and was greatly loved by them and he built great bronze palaces for them. But Zeus was angry at Hera for causing Hercacles to be shipwrecked on the isle of Cos. She was punished by being hung out of heaven with anvils attached to each of her feet. Hephaestus begged him to let her go to try and protect his mother. Angry at his interference, Zeus flung him again out of heaven.
One whole day he fell and landed at last on the island of Lemnos. Half-dead he was rescued and cared for by the Lesbians, for which reason Lemnos became one of his favorite haunts. Some say that both his legs were broken from the fall and that he was ever after lame. But some say that he was born lame. He made himself golden maidens that could move by themselves and these helped him to walk and assisted him in his forge. And in his forge he made golden tripods on wheels, that went of themselves to the gatherings of the gods.
He never again interfered with the quarrels of Zeus and Hera. On the contrary, he tried to persuade his mother to yield to the will of her husband in the future. Some say that before he freed Hera from the throne to which she was bound to by invisible chains, he won from her a promise that Aphrodite would be given to him for a wife. He paid rich marriage gifts to Zeus for her and she was married to him. But she was an unwilling wife. She preferred straight and handsome Ares and frequently entertained him when Hephaestus wasnt there.
Helps, who sees everything in his passage through the skies, saw Aphrodite with Ares and reported it to Hepheastus. Hephaestus determined to expose the guilty pair. He fashioned a net so fine that it was invisible and so strong as it was fine and placed it over his marriage bed. Then he told his golden wife that he was going on a journey to Lemnos. As soon as he was gone Ares came joyfully to his house and embraced Aphrodite on the marriage bed. Instantly the lovers were caught in the golden mesh and could not escape.
Hephaestus returned and called all the gods to witness his dishonor. The gods came and laughed at Aphrodite and Ares, but the goddesses stayed at home, out of modesty, Hermes was frankly envious of Ares as he viewed the glorious body of aphrodite and confessed that he would gladly change places with him. Finally hephaestus let the two lovers go and Aphrodite went back to her island, Cyprus and was purified by her nymphs. Ares went back to his island, Thrace. But in a short time all was as before.
Hephaestus loved Aphrodite so passionately that he gladly took her back under her terms. Aphrodite bore no children to hephaestus, but he was the father to palaemonius the argonaut, who was lame like his father. He was also the father of erichthonius. Some say that poseidon played a joke on hephaestus. He said that athena would welcome his advances. When she came to his forge for new weapons he attempted to embrace her.
She repulsed him and his seed fell on her leg. Athena brushed it off with a piece of wool, which she then cast from her. It fell on mother earth and with this accidental union Erichthonius was born. This encounter did not seem to mar the friendly relations between athena and hephaestus, for they were often associated in various exploits. In the ranks of the major Olympian gods, Hephaestus was master of the element of fire. He was a powerful god, who used his flame as a weapon in the Trojan war.
During the giants revolt he had slain the giant Clytius by smiting him with a mass of red-hot iron. He was also the god of metals and metallurgy. He ruled over volcanoes, which were his workshops, where he worked with his assistants, the Cyclopes (this at least was the version in the later legends). Thetis turned to him when he wanted arms forged for Achilles. Bibliography:
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