HEPHAISTOS LOVES

HEPHAISTOS was the Olympian god of fire, smiths, craftsmen, metalworking and stonemasonry.

This page describes the god's liaisons. Some of these appear only in the ancient genealogies with no accompanying story. The two most famous of his "loves" were the goddesses Aphrodite and Athena. The first was his unfaithful wife who had an affair with the god Ares. The second repulsed his sexual assault resulting in the accidental impregnation of Earth (Gaia).

(1) DIVINE LOVES (GODDESSES)

AGLAIA (Aglaea) The goddess of glory and one of the three Kharites. She married Hephaistos after his divorce from Aphrodite and bore him several divine daughters: Eukleia, Eutheme, Euthenia, and Philophrosyne.

APHRODITE The goddess of love and beauty was the first wife of Hephaistos. He divorced her following an adulterous love-affair with his brother Ares, to whom she had borne several children.

ATHENA The goddess of war and wisdom fought off an attempted rape by the god Hephaistos, shortly after his divorce from Aphrodite. She wiped his fluids form her leg and threw them upon the earth (Gaia) which conceived and bore a son Erikhthonios. Athena felt a certain responsibility for this child and raised it as her own in the temple of the Akropolis.

GAIA (Gaea) The goddess of the earth was accidentally impregnated by the seed of Hephaistos, when Athena cast the god's semen upon the ground after his attempted rape.

PERSEPHONE The gods Hephaistos, Ares, Hermes, and Apollon all wooed Persephone before her marriage to Haides. Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the gods.

(2) SEMI-DIVINE LOVES (NYMPHS)

AITNA (Aetna) The goddess-nymph of Mount Aitna (Etna) in Sicily (southern Italy) loved by the god Hephaistos. She bore him a daughter Thaleia. [see Family]

KABEIRO (Cabeiro) A sea-nymph of the island of Lemnos (Greek Aegean) loved by Hephaistos who bore him several sons and daughters called the Kabeiroi and the Kabeirides nymphs. [see Family]

(3) MORTAL LOVES (WOMEN)

ANTIKLEIA (Anticleia) A woman of Epidauros in Argolis (southern Greece) who bore Hephaistos a son--the bandit Periphetes. [see Family]

ATTHIS A princess of Attika (southern Greece) who, according to some, was loved by the god Hephaistos and bore him a son Erikhthonios (however, according to most accounts, the child was a son of Hephaistos and Gaia the Earth). [see Family]

OKRESIA (Ocresia) A princess of Rome and Latium (central Italy) who bore Hephaistos (Volcanos) a son Servius Tullius. [see Family]

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Seneca, Phaedra 185 (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :
"This winged god [Eros] rules ruthlessly throughout the earth and inflames Jove [Zeus] himself, wounded with unquenched fires. Gradivus [Ares], the warrior god, has felt those flames; that god [Hephaistos] has felt them who fashions the three-forked thunderbolts, yea, he who tends the hot furnaces ever raging 'neath Aetna's peaks is inflamed by so mall a fire as this."

HEPHAESTUS LOVES : APHRODITE

LOCALE : Mount Olympos (Home of the Gods)

I. HEPHAISTOS WINS APHRODITE

The story of the Marriage of Hephaistos and Aphrodite can be reconstructed from text fragments and ancient Greek vase paintings, such as the Francois Vase:--

Hephaistos was cast from heaven by his mother Hera at birth, for she was ashamed to bear a crippled son. He was rescued by the goddesses Thetis and Eurynome who cared for him in a cave on the shores of the River Okeanos where he grew up to become a skilled smith. Angry at his mother's treatment, Hephaistos sent gifts to to the gods of Olympos including a Golden Throne for Hera. When the goddess sat upon this cursed seat she was bound fast.
Zeus petitioned the gods to help free Hera from her predicament, offering the goddess Aphrodite in marriage to whomsoever could bring Hephaistos to Olympos. Aphrodite agreed to this arrangment in the belief that her beloved Ares, the god of war, would prevail.
Ares attempted to storm the forge of Hephaistos, bearing arms, but was driven back by the Divine Smith with a shower of flaming metal (Libanius Narration 7, not currently quoted here).
Dionysos was the next to approach Hephaistos, but instead of force, he suggested that Hephaistos might himself lay claim to Aphrodite if he were to return volantarily to Olympus and release Hera. The godwas pleased with the plan and ascended to Heaven with Dionysos, released his mother and wed the reluctant Goddess of Love.

Homer, Odyssey 8. 267 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"The betrothal gifts I [Hephaistos] bestowed on him [Zeus] for his wanton daughter [Aphrodite]."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 2. 180 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"A chalice deep and wide . . . a huge golden cup . . . this the cunning God-smith [Hephaistos] brought to Zeus, his masterpiece, what time the Mighty in Power to Hephaistos gave for bride the Kyprian Queen [Aphrodite]."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 20. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"There are paintings here [in the temple of Dionysos at Athens] - Dionysos bringing Hephaistos up to heaven. One of the Greek legends is that Hephaistos, when he was born, was thrown down by Hera. In revenge he sent as a gift a golden chair with invisible fetters. When Hera sat down she was held fast, and Hephaistos refused to listen to any other of the gods [including Ares] save Dionysos - in him he reposed the fullest trust - and after making him drunk Dionysos brought him to heaven."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 166 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"When Father Liber [Dionysos] had brought him [Hephaistos] back drunk to the council of the gods, he could not refuse this filial duty [and free Hera from the magical throne he had trapped her in]. Then he obtained freedom of choice from Jove [Zeus], to gain whatever he sought from them. Therefore Neptunus [Poseidon], because he was hostile to Minerva [Athene], urged Volcanus [Hephaistos] to ask for Minerva in marriage."
[N.B. Aphrodite rather than Athena was probably the bride requested as his reward in the original version of this story.]

Suidas s.v. Deimos (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Deimos (Fear) : [Deimos] and Phobos (Fright) and Kydoimos (Din of War), attendants of Ares, the sons of war; they too experienced what Ares did, after Hephaistos had not been frightened by them."
[N.B. When Ares tried to fetch Hephaistos to Olympos to release Hera from the throne, the prize for this labour being the hand of Aphrodite in marriage - which Hephaistos then claimed for himself.]

On the Francois vase (Athenian black figure vaseC6th B.C.) Hera is depicted trapped on the throne with her hands raised helplessly, as Ares, who has failed, sits in a humble pose with Athena looking scornfully at him. Meanwhile Dionysos, enters, leading the mule on which Hephaistos is seated, to Aphrodite who stands waiting as the prize of marriage.

II. APHRODITE AS WIFE OF HEPHAISTOS

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 36 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
"The palace of Aphrodite, which her lame consort Hephaistos had built for her when he took her as his bride from the hands of Zeus. They [Hera and Athene] entered the courtyard and paused below the veranda of the room where the goddess slept with her lord and master."

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 850 ff :
"Kypris [Aphrodite], the goddess of desire, had done her sweet work in their hearts [and mated the visiting Argonauts with the widowed women of Lemnos]. She wished to please Hephaistos, the great Artificer, and save his isle of Lemnos from ever lacking men again . . . The whole city [of Lemnos] was alive with dance and banquet. The scent of burnt-offerings filled the air; and of all the immortals, it was Hera's glorious son Hephaistos and Kypris [Aphrodite] herself whom their songs and sacrifices were designed to please."

Virgil, Aeneid 8. 372 ff (trans. Day-Lewis) (Roman epic C1st B.C.) :
"Venus [Aphrodite] . . . spoke to her husband, Volcanos [Hephaistos], as they lay in their golden bed-chamber, breathing into the words all her divine allurement [persuading him to forge armour for her son Aeneas in Latium] . . . Since Volcanos [Hephaistos] complied not at once, the goddess softly embraced him in snowdrift arms, caressing him here and there. Of a sudden he caught the familiar spark and felt the old warmth darting into his marrow, coursing right though his body, melting him; just as it often happens a thunderclap starts a flaming rent which ladders the dark cloud, a quivering streak of fire. Pleased with her wiles and aware of her beauty, Venus [Aphrodite] could feel them taking effect. Volcanus [Hephaistos], in love's undying thrall [conceded to her requests] . . . Thus saying, he gave his wife the love he was aching to give her; then he sank into soothing sleep, relaxed upon her breast."

III. APHRODITE BARES CHILDREN TO HER PARAMOUR ARES

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 88 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Aphrodite wishing to delight Ares in the deep shrewdness of her mind, clasped a golden necklace showing place about the girl's blushing neck [a gift to their daughter Harmonia at her marriage to Kadmos], a clever work of Hephaistos set with sparkling gems in masterly refinement. This he had made for his Kyprian bride, a gift for his first glimpse of Archer Eros (Love) [born to Aphrodite, as the wife of Hephaistos, but fathered by her paramor Ares]. For the heavyknee bridegroom always expected that Kythereia would bear him a hobbling son, having the image of his father in his feet. But his though was mistaken; and when he beheld a whole-footed son [Eros] brilliant with wings like Maia's son Hermes, he made this magnificent [but cursed] necklace."

IV. ARES & APHRODITE CAUGHT IN THE TRAP OF HEPHAISTOS

Homer, Odyssey 8. 267 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Demodokos [the Phaiakian bard] struck his lyre and began a beguiling song about the loves of Ares and Aphrodite, how first the lay together secretly in the dwelling of Hephaistos. Ares had offered many gifts to the garlanded divinity and covered with shame the marriage bed of Lord Hephaistos. But Helios (the sun-god) had seen them in their dalliance and hastened away to tell Hephaistos; to him the news was bitter as gall, and he made his way towards his smithy, brooding revenge. He laid the great anvil on its base and set himself to forge chains that could not be broken or torn asunder, being fashioned to bind lovers fast. Such was the device that he made in his indignation against Ares, and having made it he went to the room where his bed lay; all round the bed-posts he dropped the chains, while others in plenty hung from the roof-beams, gossamer-light and invisible to the blessed gods themselves, so cunning had been the workmanship. When the snare round the bed was complete, he made as if to depart to Lemnos, the pleasant-sited town, which he loved more than any place on earth. Ares, god of the golden reins, was no blind watcher. Once he had seen Hephaistos go, he himself approached the great craftman's dwelling, pining for love of Kytherea [Aphrodtie]. As for her, she had just returned from the palace of mighty Zeus her father, and was sitting down in the house as Ares entered it. He took her hand and spoke thus to her : ‘Come, my darling; let us go to bed and take our delight together. Hephaistos is no longer here; by now, I think, he has made his way to Lemnos, to visit the uncouth-spoken Sintians.’
So he spoke, and sleep with him was a welcome thought to her. So they went to the bed and there lay down, but the cunning chains of Polyphron (crafty) Hephaistos enveloped them, and they could neither raise their limbs nor shift them at all; so they saw the truth when there was no escaping. Meanwhile the lame craftsman god (periklytos Amphigueeis) approached; he had turned back short of the land of Lemnos, since watching Helios (the sun-god) had told him everything. Cut to the heart, he neared his house and halted inside the porch; savage anger had hold of him, and he roared out hideously, crying to all the gods : ‘Come, Father Zeus; come, all you blessed immortals with him; see what has happened here--no matter for laughter nor yet forbearance. Aphrodite had Zeus for father; because I am lame she never ceased to do me outrage and give her love to destructive Ares, since he is handsome and sound-footed and I am a cripple from my birth; yet for that my two parents are to blame, no one else at all, and I wish they had never begotten me. You will see the pair of lovers now as they lie embracing in my bed; the sight of them makes me sick at heart. Yet I doubt their desire to rest there longer, fond as they are. They will soon unwish their posture there; but my cunning chains shall hold them both fast till her father Zeus has given me back all the betrothal gifts I bestowed on him for his wanton daughter; beauty she has, but no sense of shame.’
Thus he spoke, and the gods came thronging there in front of the house with its brazen floor. Poseidon the Earth-Sustainer came, and Hermes the Mighty Runner, and Lord Apollon who shoots from afar; but the goddesses, every one of them, kept within doors for very shame. Thus then the bounteous gods stood at the entrance. Laughter they could not quench rose on the lips of these happy beings as they fixed their eyes on the stratagem of Hephaistos, and glancing each at his neighbour said some such words as these : ‘Ill deeds never prosper; swift after all is outrun by slow; here is Hephaistos the slow and crippled, yet by his cunning he has defeated the swiftest of all the Olympian gods, and Ares must pay an adulterer's penalty.’ . . .
For Poseidon there was no laughing; he kept imploring the master smith Hephaistos in hopes that he would let Ares go. He spoke in words of urgent utterance : ‘Let him go; I promise that he shall pay in full such rightful penalty as you ask for--pay in the presence of all the gods.’
But the great lame craftsman answered him : ‘Poseidon, Sustainer of the Earth, do not ask this of me. Pledges for trustless folk are trustless pledges. If Ares should go his way, free of his chains and his debt alike, what then? Could I fetter yourself in the presence of all the gods.’
Poseidon who shakes the earth replies : ‘Hephaistos, if Ares indeed denies his debt and escapes elsewhere, I myself will pay what you ask.’
Then the great lame craftsman (periklytos Amphigueeis) answered him : ‘I must no and cannot refuse you now,’ and with that he undid the chains, powerful though they had proved. Unshackled thus, the lovers were up and off at once; Ares went on his way to Thrake, and Aphrodite the laughter-lover to Paphos in Kypros."

Plato, Republic 390b (trans. Shorey) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
"[From Plato's critique of the portrayal of the gods in Homer :] Nor will it profit them to hear of Hephaistos' fettering Ares and Aphrodite for a like motive [i.e. for passion]."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 14. 40 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"With cheek shame-crimsoned, like the Queen of Love, what time the Heaven-abiders saw her clasped in Ares' arms, shaming in sight of all the marriage-bed, trapped in the myriad-meshed toils of Hephaistos : tangled there she lay in agony of shame, while thronged around the Blessed, and there stood Hephaistos' self: for fearful it is for wives to be beheld by husbands' eyes doing the deed of shame."

Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 7. 26 (trans. Conybeare) (Greek biography C1st to 2nd A.D.) :
"[Poets] recite your rhapsodies . . . and tell them how . . . Ares, the most warlike of the gods, was first enchained in heaven by Hephaistos."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 148 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"When Volcanus [Hephaistos] knew that Venus [Aphrodite] was secretly lying with Mars [Ares], and that he could not oppose his strength, he made a chain of adamant and put it around the bed to catch Mars by cleverness. When Mars came to the rendezvous, the together with Venus fell into the snare so that he could not extricate himself. When Sol (the Sun) [Helios] reported this to Volcanus, he saw them lying there naked, and summoned all the gods who saw. As a result, shame frightened Mars so that he did not do this. From their embrace Harmonia was born, and to her Minerva [Athene] and Volcanus [Hephaistos] gave a robe ‘dipped in crimes’ as a gift. Because of this, their descendants are clearly marked as ill-fated."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 170 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Sol (the Sun) [Helios] is thought to have been the first to see Venus' [Aphrodite's] adultery with Mars [Ares]: Sol is the first to see all things. Shocked at the sight he told the goddess' husband, Junonigena [Hephaistos], how he was cuckolded where. Then Volcanus' [Hephaistos'] heart fell, and from his deft blacksmith's hands fell too the work he held. At once he forged a net, a mesh of thinnest links of bronze, too fine for eye to see, a triumph not surpassed by finest threads of silk or by the web the spider hands below the rafters' beam. He fashioned it to respond to the least touch or slightest movement; then with subtle skill arranged it round the bed. So when his wife lay down together with her paramour, her husband's mesh, so cleverly contrived, secured them both ensnared as they embraced. Straightway Lemnius [Hephaistos] flung wide the ivory doors and ushered in the gods. The two lay there, snarled in their shame. The gods were not displeased; one of them prayed for shame like that. They laughed and laughed; the joyful episode was long the choicest tale to go the rounds of heaven."

Virgil, Georgics 4. 345 ff (trans. Fairclough) (Roman bucolic C1st B.C.) :
"Among these [the nymphs] Clymene was telling of of Vulcanus' [Hephaistos'] baffled care, of the wiles and stolen joys of Mars [Ares]."

Statius, Silvae 1. 2. 51 (trans. Mozley) (Roman poetry C1st A.D.) :
"Once on a time, where the milky region is set in a tranquil heaven, lay kindly Venus [Aphrodite] in her bower, whence night had but lately fled, faint in the rough embrace of her Getic lord [Ares] . . . Weary she lies upon her cushions, where once the Lemnian chains [of Hephaistos] crept over the bed and held it fast, learning its guilty secret."

Suidas s.v. Moixagria (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Moixagria (Adultery fine) : The fine for adultery, paid by the man caught [acting as] an adulterer." [N.B. the word occurs in Homer, Odyssey 8.332, of the adultery between Ares and Aphrodite.]

Suidas s.v. Helios :
"[The following is a rationalisation of the myth by some late classical author :]
Helios : After the death of Hephaistos [Ptah], the king of Egypt, Helios [Ra] his son took the rule . . . Helios, then, maintained the laws of his father, and denounced his wife when he discovered she had been debauched. Homer changed this to make it poetic, saying that the sun (helios) exposed the fact that Aphrodite had lain with Ares, calling her desire ‘Aphrodite’ and the soldier who was caught with her ‘Ares.’"

V. HEPHAISTOS DIVORCES APHRODITE

Homer, Odyssey 8. 267 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Cut to the heart, he [Hephaistos] neared his house and halted inside the porch [and saw his wife Aphrodite trapped in the embrace of Ares]; savage anger had hold of him, and he roared out hideously, crying to all the gods : ‘Come, Father Zeus; come, all you blessed immortals with him; see what has happened here . . . You will see the pair of lovers now as they lie embracing in my bed; the sight of them makes me sick at heart. Yet I doubt their desire to rest there longer, fond as they are. They will soon unwish their posture there; but my cunning chains shall hold them both fast till her father Zeus has given me back all the betrothal gifts I bestowed on him for his wanton daughter; beauty she has, but no sense of shame.’" [N.B. Homer seems to suggest that the couple were afterwards divorced. In the Iliad Aglaia is Hephaistos' wife and Aphrodite consorts freely with Ares.]

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 187 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Athene went to Hephaistos because she wanted to make some weapons. But he, deserted by Aphrodite, let himself become aroused by Athene, and started chasing her as she ran from him."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 562 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Lemnian Hephaistos [seeking the hand of the maiden Persephone in marriage] held out a curious necklace of many colours, new made and breathing still of the furnace, poor hobbler! For he had already, though unwilling, rejected his former bride Aphrodite, when he spied her rioting with Ares."

VI. HEPHAISTOS AVENGES HIMSELF ON APHRODITE'S DAUGHTER HARMONIA

Statius, Thebaid 2. 265 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :
"The Lemnian [Hephaistos], so they of old believed, long time distressed at Mars' [Ares'] deceit and seeing that no punishment gave hindrance to the disclosed armour, and the avenging chains removed not the offence [of his affair with Hephaistos' then wife Aphrodite], wrought this for Harmonia [the child born from the affair] on her bridal day to be the glory of her dower."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 88 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Aphrodite wishing to delight Ares in the deep shrewdness of her mind, clasped a golden necklace showing place about the girl's blushing neck [a gift to their daughter Harmonia at her marriage to Kadmos], a clever work of Hephaistos set with sparkling gems in masterly refinement. This he had made for his Kyprian bride, a gift for his first glimpse of Archer Eros (Love) [born to Aphrodite the wife of Hephaistos but fathered by her lover Ares]. For the heavyknee bridegroom always expected that Kythereia would bear him a hobbling son, having the image of his father in his feet. But his though was mistaken; and when he beheld a whole-footed son [Eros] brilliant with wings like Maia's son Hermes, he made this magnificent necklace."

For the MYTH of Hephaistos' curse on Harmonia see Hephaestus Wrath: Harmonia
For MORE information on this goddess see APHRODITE

HEPHAESTUS LOVES : ATHENA & GAEA

LOCALE : Athens, Attika (Southern Greece)

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 187 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Erikhthonios [king of Athens], according to some, was the son of Hephaistos and Kranaus' daughter Atthis, while others say his parents were Hephaistos and Athene, in the following manner. Athene went to Hephaistos because she wanted to make some weapons. But he, deserted by Aphrodite, let himself become aroused by Athene, and started chasing her as she ran from him. When he caught up with her with much effort (for he was lame), he tried to enter her, but she, being the model of virginal self-control, would not let him; so as he ejaculated, his semen fell on her leg. In revulsion Athene wiped it off with some wool, which she threw on the ground. And as she was fleeing and the semen fell to the earth, Erikhthonios came into being."

Callimachus, Hecale Fragment 1. 2 (from Papyri) (trans. Trypanis) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
"Pallas [Athena] laid him [Erikhthonios], the ancient seed of Hephaistos within the chest, until she set a rock in Akte (attika) for the sons of Kekrops; a birth mysterious and secret, whose lineage I neither knew nor learnt, but they themselves [the daughters of Kekrops] declared, according to report among the primeval birds, that Gaia (earth) bare him to Hephaistos."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 2. 6 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Men say that Erikhthonios had no human father, but that his parents were Hephaistos and Ge (Earth)."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 14. 6 :
"Above the Kerameikos [in Athens] . . . is a temple of Hephaistos. I was not surprised that by it stands a statue of Athena, be cause I knew the story about Erikhthonios."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 18. 13 :
"There are also represented [on the throne of the Amyklaian at Amyklai in Lakedaimon] . . . Athena running away from Hephaistos, who chases her."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 166 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"When Father Liber [Dionysos] had brought him [Hephaistos] back drunk to the council of the gods, he could not refuse this filial duty [and free Hera from the magical throne he had trapped her in]. Then he obtained freedom of choice from Jove [Zeus], to gain whatever he sought from them. Therefore Neptunus [Poseidon], because he was hostile to Minerva [Athene], urged Volcanus [Hephaistos] to ask for Minerva in marriage. This was granted, but Minerva, when he entered her chamber, defended her virginity with arms. As they struggled, some of his seed fell to earth, and from it a boy was born, the lower part of whose body was snake-formed. They named him Erichthonius, because eris in Greek means ‘strife’ and khthon means ‘earth.’ When Minerva [Athena] was secretly caring for him, she gave him in a chest to Aglaurus, Pandrosus, and Herse, daughters of Cecrops, to guard."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 13 :
"Euripides gives the following account of his [Erikhthonios'] birth. Volcanus [Hephaistos], inflamed by Minerva's [Athene's] beauty, begged her to marry him, but was refused. She hid herself in the place called Hephaestius [sanctuary in Athens?], on account of the love of Volcanus. They say that Volcanus [Hephaistos], following her there, tried to force her, and when, full of passion he tried to embrace her, he was repulsed, and some of his seed fell to the ground. Minverva [Athene], overcome by shame, with her foot spread dust over it. From this the snake Erichthonius was born, who derives his name from the earth and their struggle. Minerva is said to have hidden him, like a cult-object, in a chest. She brought the chest to the daughters of Erechtheus and gave it to them to guard, forbidding them to open it."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 759 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"The infant boy [Erikhthonios], great Volcanus' [Hephaistos'] child, the babe no mother bore."

Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 22 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :
"Volcanos [Hephaistos] . . . was reputedly the father by Minerva [Athene] of the Apollo [Erikhthonios] said by the ancient historians to be the tutelary deity of Athens."

For MORE information on this goddess see GAIA

HEPHAESTUS LOVES : AGLAEA

LOCALE : Mount Olympos (Home of the Gods)

Hesiod, Theogony 945 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :
"And Hephaistos, the famous Lame One (agaklytos Amphigueeis), made Aglaia, youngest of the Kharites, his buxom wife."

Homer, Iliad 18. 136 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Kharis of the shining veil saw her [Thetis] as she came forward [entering the house of Hephaistos], she, the lovely goddess the renowned strong-armed one had married. She came, and caught her hand and called her by name and spoke to her : ‘Why is it, Thetis of the light robes, you have come to our house now? We honour you and love you; but you have not come much before this. But come in with me so I may put entertainment before you.’
She spoke, and, shining among divinities, led the way forward and made Thetis sit down in a chair that was wrought elaborately and splendid with silver nails, and under it was a footstool."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 35. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Homer, he too refers to the Kharites (Graces), makes one the wife of Hephaistos, giving her the name of Kharis."

For MORE information on this goddess see AGLAIA

HEPHAESTUS LOVES : PERSEPHONE

LOCALE : Mt Olympos (Home of the Gods)

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 562 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"All that dwelt in Olympos were bewitched by this one girl [Persephone], rivals in love for the marriageable maid, and offered their dowers for an unsmirched bridal. Hermes . . . offered his rod as gift to adorn her chamber. Apollon produced his melodious harp as a marriage-gift. Ares brought spear and cuirass for the wedding, and shield as bride-gift. Lemnian Hephaistos held out a curious necklace of many colours, new made and breathing still of the furnace, poor hobbler! For he had already, though unwilling, rejected his former bride Aphrodite, when he spied her rioting with Ares . . . [but all the suitors were turned away by her mother Demeter]."

For MORE information on this goddess see PERSEPHONE

SOURCES

GREEK

• Homer, The Iliad - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
• Homer, The Odyssey - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
• Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th - 7th B.C.
• Plato, Republic - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
• Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.
• Callimachus, Fragments - Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
• Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana - Greek Biography C2nd A.D.
• Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy - Greek Epic C4th A.D.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.

ROMAN

• Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Hyginus, Astronomica - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Virgil, Aeneid - Latin Epic C1st B.C.
• Virgil, Georgics - Latin Bucolic C1st B.C.
• Cicero, De Natura Deorum - Latin Rhetoric C1st B.C.
• Seneca, Phaedra - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Statius, Thebaid - Latin Epic C1st A.D.
• Statius, Silvae - Latin Poetry C1st A.D.

BYZANTINE

• Suidas, The Suda - Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.