Hêphaistos

Hêphaistos (Hephaestus) was the Olympian god of fire, smiths, craftsmen, metalworking, stonemasonry and sculpture. He was depicted as a bearded man holding a hammer and tongs--the tools of a smith--and sometimes riding a donkey.

Hera gave birth to him independent of Zeus, as she was jealous of Zeus having given birth to Athena independent of her. It is said that he sprang from the thigh of Hera. Hephaestus also is said to have split the head of Zeus, and thus assisted him in giving birth to Athena.

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.

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. xviii. 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. (Virg. Aen. viii. 416, &c.)

His favourite place on earth was the island of Lemnos, where he liked to dwell among the Sintians; but other volcanic islands also, such as Lipara, Hiera, Imbros. and Sicily, are called his abodes or workshops.