Hephaestus is a Greek god of fire and blacksmiths, son of Zeus and Hera. He created many incredible items, including the first woman, Pandora. In Roman mythology, he is known as Vulcan.
In Greek mythology, Hephaestus is one of the Olympian gods, usually numbering twelve, and like many of the Olympians – Athena, Ares, Apollo, Hermes, and Artemis – Hephaestus is a son of Zeus. One of Hera’s sons, Hephaestus is the god of blacksmiths and other craftsmen and of fire. His counterpart in Roman mythology is Vulcan. The volcanoes served as fires for his workshop, and were manned, as it were, by the Cyclopes.
Hesiod and Homer give different accounts of Hephaestus. Hesiod says that Hephaestus is the son of Hera alone, born by will after a quarrel between Hera and Zeus. He was lame at birth, as well as ugly, and had the misfortune of being thrown out of Olympus for displeasing a parent. In Book I of the Iliad, the parent is Zeus, but in Book XVIII it is Hera. In any case, he survives the ordeal and ends up on the island of Lemnos. In the second version, Hephaestus seeks revenge by capturing Hera with a throne that ensnares her. To bring Hephaestus back to Olympus to free Hera, Dionysus gets him drunk.
Hephaestus is reported by Homer as being married to Charis, one of the Graces, in the Iliad, but to the goddess Aphrodite in the Odyssey. Aphrodite was more interested in Ares, with whom she had three children, and when Helios told her about it, Hephaestus was not happy. He made an invisible bronze net and placed it over her bed before telling Aphrodite that he was taking a trip to Lemnos. Soon Ares arrived to take advantage of Hephaestus’ absence, and Hephaestus, who was actually hiding nearby, entered, dropped the net on them, and then called the other gods to testify. Finally he let them go.
Hephaestus is credited with making many incredible items, as well as the invisible net. He was the creator of lightning for Zeus and the aegis of Athena. He was the creator of the famous armor of Achilles, as well as the necklace given as a wedding present to Armonia. Perhaps most amazingly, he created the first woman, Pandora out of clay. In Greek mythology, the creation of woman was a punishment for mortals for whom Prometheus stole fire.
In 1850, a planet called Vulcan was proposed as an explanation for the behavior of the planet Mercury. When Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity satisfactorily explained the behavior of Mercury, the idea of Vulcan was discarded. In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Vulcan is a planet and Mr. Spock is one of the extraterrestrials that come from there.
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