EFESTO (Ἡφαστος). – Greek god, son of Zeus and Hera. His nature and origin are debated: he may have been either Zeus’s lightning, transformed into a god, and a chthonic deity, or the god of subterranean fire, regarded as the manifestation of an earth demon.
As regards his origin, some consider him a Greek god belonging to the common Indo-Germanic stratum, while others regard him as a foreigner, who came from Lycia or from the islands off the Asian coast, perhaps Lemnos. In Homer his figure is already fully developed: he is the god of terrestrial fire, the skilful smith who fashions weapons and precious objects for the gods and heroes; he dwells on Olympus and works alone. In a later period E.’s forge was located on volcanic islands, and companions were associated with him: the Cabiri on Lemnos, the Cyclopes in the Lipari Islands. E. was lame, either because Zeus had hurled him from Olympus for having defended Hera, or because Hera herself, ashamed of her son, lame from birth, had thrown him into the sea, where he was taken in by the Oceanids Eurynome and Thetis. His wife was Charis or Aglaia; only later was he made the husband of Abrodita. In Greece he was worshipped only at Athens, where he had an altar in the Erechtheum and a temple in the so-called Theseion, and was celebrated at the Hephaestia with sacrifices, processions, torch races, and musical contests involving men and boys. Other centres of worship were Lemnos and Phaselis in Lycia. The Romans identified him with Vulcan.