HEPHAESTUS (he-FEE-stus or
he-FESS-tus; Roman name Vulcan)
was the lame god of fire and crafts or
the two together, hence of
blacksmiths. Hephaestus was the son
of Zeus and Hera or, in some
accounts, of Hera alone. He limped
because he was born lame, which
caused his mother to throw him off
Mount Olympus. Or in other
accounts he interceded in a fight
between Zeus and Hera, and Zeus
took him by the foot and threw him
from Olympus to the earth far below.
Hephaestus accomplished numerous
prodigies of craftsmanship, such as
the marvelous palaces that he built
for the gods atop Mount Olympus,
or the armor that he made for
Achilles during the siege of Troy (the
description of which occupies a great
many lines of Homer's epic of the
Trojan War).
Hephaestus also created the first
woman, Pandora, at the command of
Zeus, in retaliation for the various
tricks by which the Titan Prometheus
had benefited mortal men at the
expense of the gods. Pandora was
given to the Titan's brother,
Epimetheus, as his wife. For her
dowry she brought a jar filled with
evils from which she removed the lid,
thereby afflicting men for the first
time with hard work and sickness.
Only hope remained inside the jar.
