Hephaestus

Hephaestus pursued Athena when she visited him to request new armour. Hephaestus fell in love with her and hobbled after her. When Athena fell, he tried to embrace her, but she fought him off. His semen fell onto her thigh, a little above the knee. Athena wiped it away with a piece of wool and threw the wool aside in disgust. It fell to the ground near Athens, where it fertilised Gaia, or Mother Earth.

Gaia produced a child from the earth. She refused responsibility for raising him, since Hephaestus had tried to father him on Athena. Athena agreed to care for the infant herself. She took charge of him when he was born and named him Erichthonius. She then hid him in a sacred basket, because she did not want Poseidon to laugh at the success of his practical joke.

Athena gave the basket to Aglauros, the eldest daughter of Cecrops, the Athenian king, and ordered her to guard it carefully. Cecrops was said to be a son of Mother Earth and, like Erichthonius, part man and part serpent. Some accounts also suppose that Cecrops was Erichthonius’s father. Erichthonius was therefore earthborn, yet he retained a close connection with Athena, who protected him after his birth.

Ares and Aphrodite remained together in bed at Ares’s palace in Thrace after the appointed time. As the sun rose, Helios saw them and reported the affair to Hephaestus. The smith was enraged. He withdrew to his forge and made a bronze net, fine as a spider’s web but impossible to break. He fixed it secretly to the posts and sides of his marriage bed.

When Aphrodite returned from Thrace, Hephaestus told her that he had been away on business at Corinth and was taking a short holiday on Lemnos, his favourite island. Aphrodite did not ask to go with him. As soon as he was out of sight, she sent for Ares. He came quickly, and they went to bed together. At dawn, the net fell over them. They were naked, bound together, and unable to escape.

Hephaestus turned back from his journey and found them caught in his bed. He summoned all the gods to witness the disgrace. He called on Zeus and the other deathless gods to come and see Aphrodite, Zeus’s daughter, with Ares. He complained that Aphrodite mocked him for being lame and preferred Ares because he was handsome and strong. He blamed his parents for his deformity and declared that the lovers would remain trapped until Aphrodite’s father repaid the bride price he had given for her, since she was beautiful but unfaithful.

The gods gathered at Hephaestus’s house. Poseidon came, along with Hermes and Apollo. The goddesses remained at home. The gods laughed at the sight and spoke of how the slow Hephaestus had caught the swift Ares by cunning. Apollo then asked Hermes whether he would wish to share a bed with golden Aphrodite, even under such powerful bonds. The account ends with Hermes beginning his reply.

Hera sat upon the golden throne that Hephaestus had made for her. Secret springs closed around her, and she could not rise or move. The gods tried to free her, but none could undo the device. Hephaestus had sent the throne as revenge against his mother for the cruelty she had shown him because of his ugly and ungainly appearance.

Hephaestus did not return to Olympus when the gods called for him. Hermes failed to bring him back. Dionysus then made him drunk and persuaded him to return. Hephaestus came to Olympus and released Hera from the throne. He was reconciled with his parents, and the gods accepted him again.

After this, Hephaestus built a splendid palace for himself on Olympus from shining gold. He also made magnificent dwellings for the other gods. His skill as a craftsman brought him honour among them, despite his physical weakness and lameness. In another account of his life, Hera had cast him from Olympus at birth because she was ashamed of his appearance. He survived after falling into the sea, where Thetis and Eurynome rescued him. They kept him in an underwater grotto, where he established his first smithy. After nine years, Hera discovered a jewel he had made and brought him back to Olympus. This account places the throne after his exile and return.

Hera sat on a golden throne and found that she could not rise. Hephaestus had made the throne with secret springs and presented it to her as his first work. Once she took her seat, the device held her fast. The gods tried to free her, but none of them could release her. Hephaestus had made the throne to punish his mother for the cruelty she had shown him because of his lack of comeliness and grace.

Dionysus then devised a way to bring Hephaestus back to Olympus. He made Hephaestus drunk and persuaded him to return with him. When Hephaestus arrived, he released Hera from the throne and ended her humiliating confinement. He then became reconciled to his parents.

After returning to Olympus, Hephaestus built a palace for himself. It was made of shining gold. He also constructed magnificent buildings for the other deities, who used them as their homes. Two female statues made entirely of gold assisted him in this work. Hephaestus had made the statues himself, and they possessed the power of movement. The account presents his return to Olympus through the release of Hera, followed by the construction of his own palace and the homes of the other deities.

Mimas hurled boulders and burning trees at the Olympian gods during the Gigantomachy, the war between the Giants and the gods. The battle was fought on the plain of Phlegra. The Giants attacked the Olympians, while the gods answered with their own weapons. Zeus led the gods towards victory, and Heracles was present to kill Giants whom the gods had first wounded.

Hephaestus confronted Mimas and struck him with red-hot metal. One account says that he scalded the Giant with a ladle of glowing metal. Another describes him hurling great shards of heated metal at the marauding Mimas. The attack wounded or disabled him, but it did not complete the killing. As with other Giants wounded by the gods, Heracles had to deliver the death blow.

Heracles then finished Mimas, and the Giant died in the battle. This followed the pattern recorded for the wider conflict. Dionysus felled Eurytus with his thyrsus, Hecate burned Clytius with her torches, and Athena crushed Pallas with a stone, but Heracles dealt each wounded Giant the final blow. The Olympians eventually defeated the Giants. Some accounts instead say that Zeus killed Mimas by setting him ablaze with thunderbolts.