Hephaistos: The Obscure Greek God

1038 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Greek mythology

Hephaistos: The Obscure Greek God

Greeks are known for many things. We know them for their poetry, for their philosophy, their politics--and also we have come to know them for their childish, petty, lustful, little gods. These gods, vengeful in the extreme, have been a source of much literature. However, not all the gods have the same publicity agent, and have suffered in obscurity for much too long. One of these gods, one of the Twelve Olympians, has been obscure in the least. He is different in most ways from the other gods, and I am here to illuminate him further to you. His name? Hephaistos.

This god will surprise you. He actually seems to have a crude sense of humor. He doesn’t seem to be vindictive, or very interested in the lives of mortals. He was simple, and he was ugly. It was as basic as that. Well, he has some interesting heritage, lets find out.

Firstly, there is an interesting set of facts about the first moments of life for Hephaistos.

One day, Zeus made Hera a bit jealous (as brothers and sisters in Kentucky can be) when Zeus was sleeping around with this and that female as various wild animals. Well, Hera was enraged so much, that she spontaneously conceived a child. I would LOVE to see something like that. She conceived and when Zeus noticed that Hera was pregnant, he was very angry himself. Moments later, she gave birth to Hephaistos. However, he was so very ugly and had a bad leg, that Hera tossed him to earth and disavowed his birth.

It must be noted that there does seem to be a discrepancy. Some texts imply that Zeus tossed him to earth instead of Hera. He landed on the island of Lemnos (Seltman 99). That is why the people of Lemnos were his favorites and that was why he always headed there to relax and recuperate.

Well, after being tossed into the ocean, Thetis picked him up and took care of him. Thetis is the same goddess who was mother of Achilles. Anyway, she took care of him, and he started making nice jewelry for her to wear.

One day, she headed to court with the other gods, and all the women noticed the pretty baubles that were adorning Thetis. After they found out that it was long-lost Hephaistos, Hera went and asked him to come to Olympus.

Show More
Related

  • Tensions In Hesiod's Theogony

    355 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Hesiod’s Theogony, the tensions within a family seem to be an intensified version of issues that are relatable to people. The results of these tensions are also dramatic and have a tendency to have a fulfillment of the fears that were causing the tensions as a result. This implies that there is a natural cycle of destruction between father and son. Tension seems to arise with the implication of the woman’s creative nature juxtaposed to the destructive nature of her husband.

    Read More

  • Comparing Prometheus Bound and Hesiod's Prometheus

    3393 Words  | 7 Pages

    We don't have any exact dates for Hesiod, but it seems that his poetic activity dates from around the last third of the 8th century BC. We find his versions of the Prometheus myth in two of his works: the Theogony at lines 521-616, and the Works and Days, at lines 42-89. The Theogony in general discusses the origin and genealogies of the gods and the events that led to the establishment of Zeus as their king. The Works and Days is quite varied in content but overall could be described as giving advice for living a life of honest industry. In the Theogony the story of Prometheus comes as a narrative interlude and aims at explaining the origins of certain institutions ...

    Read More

  • Succession in Myth

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    Branscome, David, comp. "Greek Hesiod, Theogony, Lines 1-210 "invocation to the Muses and Creation" [Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Tr. Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.]." Ancient Mythology East and West. Print.

    Read More

  • Aphrodite: Love and Choas

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    The most popular myth about her conceptions is that she was born from the foam of Uranus’ genitals. Uranus was in a fight with son, Cronus, who severed his sex organs and threw them into the ocean. Foam started forming near the island of Cythera and Aphrodite arose from the water. She was carried to Cyprus on a shell with the help of Zephyrus, the west winds. Cyprus is known as her actual hometown. From there the Horae, the goddesses of the hours of the day, dressed Aphrodite, and took her to Mount Olympus. There is also a more traditional story about her birth. It is believed that she might be the daughter of Zeus by his aunt Dione. Aphrodite has many children, both immortal and mortal. “As the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite is often seen naked or provocatively draped with her sacred bird, the dove, in her hand” (National Geographic 142). Even though she is the goddess of beauty, Hera is considered to be the most beautiful immortal. But during the Trojan War, Paris deems Aphrodite as the most beautiful deity.

    Read More

  • The Bacchae by Euripides

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    Euripides’s The Bacchae tells the story of Dionysus, son of the Greek god Zeus and the mortal Shemele. Conceived through an illustrious affair between the two, things got complicated when Zeus’s second wife Hera found out. Hera set out to make her husband suffer; she came up with a devious plan, tricking Shemele into convincing Zeus into revealing his true form to her. Thus after initially saying no, Zeus is persuaded and eventually appears to Shemele in the form of a lighting bolt thus causing her to die seemingly instantaneously from his presence. Thankfully for Dionysus, at the very moment of her death, Zeus other son Hermes, whom he had conceived with the goddess Maia, saved his brother’s life by placing and sewing his sibling within his father thigh to protect him from the wrath of Hera until he was fully grown and ready to be born into the world. Unfortunately for Dionysus, his mother’s mortal family, whom he was returned to after his birth, did not believe in his true parentage. Believing “That Semele having slept with some man/ proceed...

    Read More

  • John Rawls´ A Theory of Justice

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Rawls’ theory of justice is one of the most interesting philosophies to have emerged in modern times. It was introduced in the 1970s when A Theory of Justice was published. It was revised several times, with the most recent done in the year 1999. Essentially, the Rawlsian philosophy approaches justice according to the idea of fairness. The idea is that justice is a complex concept, and it could differ according to individual circumstance. Rawls contended that all of us are ignorant about ourselves and about others and, hence, we are not in a place - in such condition - to determine or apply the principles of justice. These positions allowed Rawls to address two contemporary issues that are equally important, but also tend oppose each other’s views: freedom and equality.

    Read More

  • The Fairest Of Them All By John Rawls Analysis

    663 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Rawls is considered one of the most important political philosophers of the 20th century. His most famous work is on his theory of justice, which was later made into the book Justice as Fairness edited by Erin Kelly. In his work, Rawls sets out to discover what set of principles would best govern a just society. Rawls looks at the idea of a social contract, a concept first developed by philosophers John Locke and Kean Jacques Rousseau. Rawls, however, sets out to revive the social contract to create a realistic utopia that embodies the fair principles of justice. This approach holds that the society is in some sense an agreement among all those within the society on what constitutes a just society. Rawls believes that the fairest society would agree on his two principles of justice. Through his work, Rawls illustrates how and why a fair society would come to agree on these fair principles of justice, and at exactly what restrictions and presuppositions.

    Read More

  • Aphrodite

    2164 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ares, the god of war, making love at Ares' home. Hephaestus went back to his home very

    Read More

  • Rawls Theory Of Justice

    3346 Words  | 7 Pages

    John Rawls most famous work, A Theory of Justice deals with a complex system of rules and principles. It introduces principles of justice to the world, principles which Rawls argues, are meant to create and strengthen equality while remove the inequality which exists within society. These principles are both meant as standalone laws and regulations but they can be joined as well. The main function of the first principle is to ensure the liberty of every individual while the second principle is meant to be the force for the removal of inequality through what Rawls calls distributive justice.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Femininity Analysis

    1423 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the 1920’s women were fervently depicted as inferior to men and incapable of the success. In the novel The Great Gatsby female characters are subject to gender based stereotypes and blindly follow culturally accepted norms which dictate their place and position within society. The expectations placed upon the female characters to comply with the norms of society limit their potential to become successful in comparison to the male characters, who are successful in the 1920’s. Within The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates the female characters as socially and economically limited and dependant, due to the strong implementation of patriarchal roles of men in society. Women are confined

    Read More

  • Zeus

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    her to give him the baby so he could swallow it. She hid Zeus in a

    Read More

  • A Theory of Justice Presented by John Rawls

    1569 Words  | 4 Pages

    In A Theory of Justice John Rawls presents his argument for justice and inequality. Rawls theorizes that in the original position, a hypothetical state where people reason without bias, they would agree to live in a society based on two principles of justice (Rawls 1971, 4). These two principles of justice are named the first and second principles. The first is the equal rights and liberties principle. The second is a combination of the difference principle and the fair equality of opportunity principle, or FEOP (Rawls 1971, 53). Rawls argues that inequality will always be inevitable in any society (Rawls 1971, 7). For example, there will always be a varied distribution of social and economic advantages. Some people will be wealthier than others and some will hold places of greater importance in society. Rawls’s argument is that to ensure the stability of society the two principles of justice are needed to govern the assignment of rights and regulate the inequality (Rawls 1971, 53). Any infringement of an individuals rights or inequality outside the parameters of the principles of justice are unjust.

    Read More

  • Greek Hospitality in The Odyssey

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...o all guests saved Odysseus and helped him return home to his wife, son, and kingdom. Even though people from many different kingdoms and islands took Odysseus in their home and showed him great kindness on his return home, the individual who helped him most was the goddess Athena. In many occasions Athena assisted Odysseus. One such example is when Odysseus was fighting of the suitors and they threw spears at him. "Re-forming, the suitors threw again with all their strength, but Athena turned their shots, or all but two (p 566)." Another instance which Athena aided Odysseus was when she disguised him as a beggar on his arrival to his homeland. "Would even you have guessed that I am Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, I that am always with you in times of trial, a shield to you in battle (p 444)." "Your goddess-guardian to the end in all your trials (p 539)."

    Read More

  • Rawls And The Principles Of Justice

    2175 Words  | 5 Pages

    I. As one of the interpretations of the second principle of justice as fairness, Rawls argues that “democratic equality” is the best avenue for citizens to realize their life projects, as meeting of the difference principle with fair equality of opportunity. The second principle states that “social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage, and (b) attached to positions and offices open to all” (Rawls, 53). With an unequal distribution of situations, the purpose of society “is not to establish and secure the more attractive prospects of those better off unless doing so is to the advantage of those less fortunate” (Rawls, 65). The principles of justice are in place to ensure that the “assignment of rights and duties” through the basic structure of society justly distribute both the “benefits and burdens” of social and economic advantages (Rawls, 47).

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Women Essay

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women are seen from a biased point of view in pop culture as they are often criticized and portrayed in degrading ways. The Great Gatsby takes place in the early part of the 20th century which is also known as the Roaring 20's. In regards to feminism, the women in The Great Gatsby are mainly depicted as second class to men. The story gives readers an insight of the roles that gender played in past World War I America. In The Great Gatsby, the author Scott Fitzgerald shines a light on the submissiveness of females toward males during the Roaring Twenties by giving the women in the novel an unfair representation as they are often identified as passive or negative “objects”.

    Read More

More about Hephaistos: The Obscure Greek God

Open Document