（*(/Hfaistos), the god of fire, was, according to the
Homeric account, the son of Zeus and Hera. (Il. 1.578,
14.338, 18.396, 21.332, Od. 8.312.) Later traditions state
that he had no father, and that Hera gave birth to him
independent of Zeus, as she was jealous of Zeus having given
birth to Athena independent of her. (Apollod. 1.3.5; Hygin.
Fab. Praef.) This, however, is opposed to the common stor,
that Hephaestus split the head of Zeus, and thus assisted
him in giving birth to Athena, for Hephaestus is there
represented as older than Athena. A further development of
the later tradition is, that Hephaestus sprang from the
thigh of Hera, and, being for a long time kept in ignorance
of his parentage, he at length had recourse to a stratagem,
for the purpose of finding it out. He constructed a chair,
to which those who sat upon it were fastened, and having
thus entrapped Hera, he refused allowing her to rise until
she had told him who his parents were. (Serv. ad Aen. 8.454,
Eclog. 4.62.) For other accounts respecting his origin, see
Cicero (de Nat. Deor. 3.22), Pausanias (8.53.2). and
Eustathius (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 987).
Hephaestus is the god of fire, especially in so far as it
manifests itself as a power of physical nature in volcanic
districts, and in so far as it is the indispensable means in
arts and manufactures, whence fire is called the breath of
Hephaestus, and the name of the god is used both by Greek
and Roman poets as synonymous with fire. As a flame arises
out of a little spark, so the god of fire was delicate and
weakly from his birth, for which reason he was so much
disliked by his mother, that she wished to get rid of him,
and dropped him from Olympus. But the marine divinities,
Thetis and Eurynome, received him, and he dwelt with them
for nine years in a grotto, surrounded by Oceanus, making
for them a variety of ornaments. (Hom. Il. 18.394, &c.) It
was, according to some accounts, during this period that he
made the golden chair by which he punished his mother for
her want of affection, and from which he would not release
her, till he was prevailed upon by Dionysus. (Paus. 1.20.2;
Hyg. Fab. 166.) Although Hephaestus afterwards remembered
the cruelty of his mother, yet he was always kind and
obedient towards her, nay once, while she was quarrelling
with Zeus, he took her part, and thereby offended his father
so much, that he seized him by the leg, and hulled him down
from Olympus. Hephaestus was a whole day falling, but in the
evening he came down in the island of Lemnos, where he was
kindly received by the Sintians. (Hom. Il. 1.590, &c. V. Fl.
2.8.5; Apollod. 1.3.5, who, however, confounds the two
occasions on which Hephaestus was thrown from Olympus.)
Later writers describe his lameness as the consequence of
his second fall, while Homer makes him lame and weak from
his birth. After his second fall he returned to Olympus, and
subsequently acted the part of mediator between his parents.
(Il 1.585.) On that occasion he offered a cup of nectar to
his mother and the other gods, who burst out into immoderate
laughter on seeing him busily hobbling through Olympus from
one god to another, for he was ugly and slow, and, owing to
the weakness of his legs, he was held up, when he walked, by
artificial supports, skilfully made of gold. (Il. 18.410,
&c., Od. 8.311, 330.) Iis neck and chest, however, were
strong and muscular. (Il. 18.415, 20.36.)
In Olympus, Hephaestus had his own palace, imperishable and
shining like stars: it contained his workshop, with the
anvil, and twenty bellows, which worked spontaneously at his
bidding. (Il. 18.370, &c.) It was there that he made all his
beautiful and marvellous works, utensils, and arms, both for
gods and men. The ancient poets and mythographers abound in
passages describing works of exquisite workmanship which had
been manufactured by Hephaestus. In later accounts, the
Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, Pyracmon, and others, are his
workmen and servants, and his workshop is no longer
represented as in Olympus, but in the interior of some
volcanic isle. (Verg. A. 8.416, &c.) The wife of Hephaestus
also lived in his palace: in the Iliad she is called a
Charis, in the Odyssey Aphrodite (Il. 18.382, Od. 8.270),
and in Hesiod's Theogony (945) she is named Aglaia. the
youngest of the Charites. The story of Aphrodite's
faithlessness to her husband, and of the manner in which he
surprised her, is exquisitely described in Od. 8.266-358.
The Homeric poems do not mention any descendants of
Hephaestus, but in later writers the number of his children
is considerable. In the Trojan war he was on the side of the
Greeks, but he was also worshipped by the Trojans, and on
one occasion he saved a Trojan from being killed by
Diomedes. (Il. 5.9, &c.)
His favourite place on earth was the island of Lemnos, where
he liked to dwell among the Sintians (Od. 8.283, &c., Il.
1.593; Ov Fast. 8.82); but other volcanic islands also, such
as Lipara, Hiera, Imbros. and Sicily, are called his abodes
or workshops. (Apollon. Rhod 3.41; Callim. Hymn. in Dian.
47; Serv. ad Aen. 8.416; Strab. p. 275; Plin. Nat. 3.9; Val.
Flace. 2.96.)
Hephaestus is among the male what Athena is among the female
deities, for, like her, he give skill to mortal artists,
and, conjointly with her, he was believed to have taught men
the arts which embellish and adorn life. (Od. 6.233, 23.160.
Hymn. in Vaulc. 2. &c.) But he was. nevertheless, conceived
as far inferior to the sublime character of Athena. At
Athens they had temples and festivals in common. (See Dict
of Ant. s. v. Ἡφαιστεῖα, Χαλκεῖα.) Both also were believed
to have great healing powers, and Lemnian earth (terra
Lemnia) from the spot on which Hephaestus had falleen was
believed to cure madness, the bites of snakes, and
haemorrhage, and the priests of the god knew how to cure
wounds inflicted by snakes. (Philostr. Heroic. 5.2; Eustath.
ad Hom. p. 330; Dict. Cret. 2.14.) The epithets and surnames
by which Hephaestus is designated by the poets generally
allude to his skill in the plastic arts or to his figure and
his lameness. He was represented in the temple of Athena
Chalcioecus at Sparta, in the act of delivering his mother
(Paus. 3.17.3); on the chest of Cypselus, giving to Thetis
the armour for Achilles (5.19.2); and at Athens there was
the famous statue of Hephaestus by Alcamenes, in which his
lameness was slightly indicated. (Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1.30;
V. Max. 8.11.3.) The Greeks frequently placed small dwarf-
like statues of the god near the hearth, and these dwarfish
figures seem to have been the most ancient. (Hdt. 3.37;
Aristoph. Birds 436; Callim. Hymnn. in Dian. 60.) During the
best period of Grecian art, he was represented as a vigorous
man with a beard, and is characterised by his hammer or some
other instrument, his oval cap, and the chiton, which leaves
the right shoulder and arm uncovered. (Hirt, Mythol.
Bilderb. 1.42, &c.) The Romans, when speaking of the Greek
Hephaestus, call him Vulcanus, although Vulcanus was an
original Italian divinity. [VULCANUS.] - A Dictionary of
Greek and Roman biography and mythology, William Smith, Ed.
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