Hephaestus

Summary:

Hephaestus was the god of fire. Some say that he was the son of Zeus and Hera, and some say of Hera alone, who had him to protest Zeus having Athena. Unlike all other perfectly sculpted and beautiful gods, he was the only ugly and lame god. He was cast out of heaven ontoLemnos, the Aegean isle. The Iliad says that his shameless mother Hera cast him out of heaven when she saw that he was deformed and another story says Zeus did this for defending Hera. These events were said to have happened far in the past, because in Homer, he is the highly honored Olympus workman, armorer, and blacksmith who makes almost everything in Olympus. He had golden forged handmaidens who aided him in his work. Some stories say that his forge was under volcanoes and that his wife was Aglaia, one of the three graces. Most stories say that his forge was inOlympus and his wife was Aphrodite. Both Hephaestus (guardian of the blacksmiths and workers) and Aphrodite (guardian of the weavers) were very important to city life as they were patrons of the arts. Hephaestus was the official god of the ceremony in which children were formally inducted to society.

Modern Day Connections:


 * The Working Class Society-The working class society is a good connection to Hephaestus because all of these people are very centered on working hard to earn money to allow their families to do well
 * Maya Angelou-She is much like Hephaestus in some ways she was at one point an outcast and worked as hard as she could to be part of society and be treated more fairly and she also a very kind peaceful person
 * Betty White-She also is like Hephaestus because she is a typically nice person and is quite famous though is not the best looking person



Analysis: Being that Hephaestus was considered part of what we know as the 13 Olympians it show that the Greeks were very hardworking people. Even in some ways they were perfectionists especially when it came to the gods they worshipped. For instance Hephaestus was casted of for reasons like he was deformed and the way he was born had angered Zeus the god who was considered his father had just cast him off to basically no longer be a god. He was though eventually brought back to Olympus and even before he returned he was represented as a symbol of hard work for the people and the main reason he is not mentioned in many myths is because he was out casted for so long. So it basically proved that with the Greeks they didn’t see a reason to solve problems like this they just push them away or cast them away. Also some Greeks might have needed the water for many parts of there daily life so they had much work ahead of them because they did have to build boats which took much work so with the god Hephaestus watching and in ways helping them (mainly mentally) they got all that done to then sail into Hephaestus’ uncle’s element.

__Sources:__ "200px-Vulcan_Coustou_Louvre_MR1814.jpg." Photograph.//Vulcan_Coustou_Louvre//. First Last. Web. 9 Nov 2011. .

"hepha01.gif." Photograph.//Hephaestus//. First Last. Web. 9 Nov 2011.  "hephaestus.jpg." Photograph.//Hephaestus//. First Last. Web. 9 Nov 2011. 

//Myth Man's Hephaestus Homework Help//. Digital image. //Thanasi's Greek Restaurant//. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. .   //Myth Man's Hephaestus Homework Help//. Digital image. //Thanasi's Greek Restaurant//. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. .