Hephaestus (ἩΦΑΣΤΟΣ)

HEPHAESTUS (ἩΦΑΣΤΟΣ). - Greek god, son of Zeus and Hera. His nature and origin are debated: he would be either the thunderbolt of Zeus become a god, and a chthonic deity, or the god of subterranean fire considered a manifestation of an earth demon.

As for his origin, for some he is a Greek god, belonging to the common Indo-European stratum; for others he is a foreigner, come from Lycia or from the islands near the Asian coast, perhaps from Lemnos. In Homer his figure is already fully developed: he is the god of terrestrial fire, the skilled smith who prepares weapons and precious objects for the gods and for heroes, he dwells on Olympus and works alone. In a later age the forge of H. was localized on volcanic islands and companions were associated with him: the Cabiri on Lemnos, the Cyclopes on the Lipari islands. H. was lame, either because Zeus had hurled him down from Olympus for having defended Hera, or because Hera herself, ashamed of her son lame from birth, had cast him into the sea, where he had been taken up by the Oceanids Eurynome and Thetis. His wife was Charis or Aglaia; only later was he made the husband of Aphrodite. In Greece he had a cult only at Athens, where he had an altar in the Erechtheum and a temple in the so-called Theseum, and was celebrated in the Hephaestia with sacrifices, processions, lampadedromies and musical contests of men and boys. Other centers of cult were Lemnos and Phaselis, in Lycia. The Romans identified him with Vulcan.

Luisa Banci