Hephaestus Research Paper

The word God, descendant to the Middle English root word gheu, is defined as a supreme being with supernatural powers known as perfect, omnipotent, omniscient or an originator. Major Deities in the Greek pantheon, they gained their superior titles after the War of Gods. Worshipped by all, soon the Cult of Twelve established by Hercules, was the most prominent group of followers within Greece. To the Greeks all 12 Olympians were Gods, all except one, perfect. Hephaestus, God of blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy, fire, forge and volcanoes, held the title disrupting the perception of the Gods, both lame and ugly Hephaestus sat amongst the 12 Olympians. As the son of Hera and Zeus, Hephaestus was first seen as an abomination unfit for a role …show more content…
In one instance he was born prior to the legal union of Hera and Zeus and was therefore a bastard. Sometime after this union Hera and Zeus began to argue over Zeus’s inability to stay faithful, his recent interest Alcmene and the son she bore with him, Heracles. Zeus furious by Hera’s jealousy strung her by a gold chain connecting Earth to the Heavens. As her son Hephaestus felt pity towards her and released her from said chains, Zeus now angry at his son threw him down from Mount Olympus into the sea resulting in the crippling of his leg. In a much simpler variation, Hephaestus was born through his mothers head after Hera grew angry at Zeus for not procreating with her first. When she saw the ugly baby Hera became embarrassed and enraged. Not only had she produced a child out of jealousy she had produced an ugly one, consequently she flung him into the sea, and he became crippled. Both accounts claim that Hephaestus landed near Lemnos Island, where Thetis (mother of Achilles) and Eurynome (mother of the 3 graces) hid and raised him in their underwater caves. For nine years He lived with the Nereids (Sea Nymphs), developing his gifts by making jewelry in appreciation for his surrogate mothers. With time Hephaestus became a great artisan eventually creating golden robots to help him move

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Hephaestus Research Paper