Hephaestuss Story

Retold By: Konstantinos Vogiatzis No one ever celebrated by birth at first. My mother Hera has awaited me with great eagerness. Hoping for a child that would look so beautiful, so gifted, that it would make Zeus forget his heroic swarm of children from lesser consorts. But when I was born my mother was appalled to see that I was shriveled and ugly. With an irritating bleeding wail, she did not wait for Zeus to see me. But snatched me up and hurled me off Mt. Olympus. For a day and a night I fell, and hit the ground at the edge of the sea with such force that both of my legs broke. I lay there on the beach, mewing piteously, unable to crawl, racked with pain. I was unable to die though because I was a mortal. Finally the tide came up, a huge wave hurled me under its arm, and carried me off to sea. And there I sank like a stone, and was caught by the playful Thetis, a naiad1, who thought I was a tadpole. When Thetis understood that I was an infant, she made a pet of me, and kept me in her grotto2. She was amazed at the way that a crippled child like me worked shells and pebbles into bright, sterling jewelry. One day Thetis appeared at a great festival of the gods wearing a necklace I had made. Hera noticed the ornament and praised it, and asked her how she had come by it. Thetis told her of the strange, twisted child, whom someone had dropped into the ocean and who lived now in her cave making wonderful jewelry. Hera divined it was her own son and demanded me back. I returned to Olympus, there my mother presented me with a broken mountain nearby, where he could set up forges. She gave me the brawny Cyclops to be my helpers and promised me Aphrodite as my bride, if I would labor in the mountain and make her fine ornaments. I agreed because I loved her and excused her cruelty to me. I knew that I was ugly mother, I explained, but the fates would have it so, and I would make you gems so beautiful for your tampering ons, and white throats and black hair, but you will eventually forget my ugliness and rejoice that you have taken me back from the sea. I eventually became the smith god, the great artificer, lord of mechanics, and the mountain shall always rumble with my toil.

1. 2.

Naiad: A water nymph said to inhabit a river, spring, or waterfall. Grotto: a cave