HEPHAISTOS was the great Olympian god of fire, metalworking, building and the fin e arts. He had a short list of lovers in myth, although most of these appear only in the ancient genealogies with no accompanying story The two most famous of the Hephaistos "love" stories were the winning of Aphrodi te and her subsequent adulterous affair, and his attempted rape of the goddess A thene, which seeded the earth and produced a boy named Erikhthonios. DIVINE LOVES AGLAIA The Goddess of Glory and one of the three Kharites. She married Hephaisto s after his divorce from Aphrodite and bore him several divine daughters: Euklei a, Eutheme, Euthenia, and Philophrosyne. APHRODITE The Goddess of Love and Beauty was the first wife of Hephaistos. He di vorced her following an adulterous love-affair with his brother Ares, to whom sh e had borne several children. ATHENA The Goddess of War and Wisdom fought off an attempted rape by the god Hep haistos, shortly after his divorce from Aphrodite. She wiped his fluids form her leg and threw them upon the earth (Gaia) which conceived and bore a son Erikhth onios. Athena felt a certain responsibility for this child and raised it as her own in the temple of the Akropolis. GAIA The Goddess of the Earth was accidentally impregnated by the seed of Hephai stos, when Athena cast the god's semen upon the ground after his attempted rape. PERSEPHONE The gods Hephaistos, Ares, Hermes, and Apollon all wooed Persephone b efore her marriage to Haides. Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daugh ter away from the company of the gods. SEMI-DIVINE LOVES (NYMPHAI) AITNA A Nymphe or Goddess of Mount Aitna in Sikelia (Sicily, Southern Italia) lo ved by the god Hephaistos. She bore him a daughter Thaleia. [see Family] KABEIRO A Nymphe Einalia (of the Sea) loved by Hephaistos who bore him several s ons and daughters called the Kabeiroi and the Nymphai Kabeirides. [see Family] (3) MORTAL LOVES (WOMEN) ANTIKLEIA A woman of Epidauros in the Argolis (Southern Greece) who bore Hephais tos a son - the bandit Periphetes. [see Family] ATTHIS A Princess of Attika (in Southern Greece) who, according to some, was lov ed by the god Hephaistos and bore him a son Erikhthonios (however, according to most accounts, the child was a son of Hephaistos and Gaia the Earth). [see Famil y] OKRESIA A Princess of Latium ( Rome) (in Central Italia) who bore Hephaistos (Vo lcanos) a son Servius Tullius. [see Family] Seneca, Phaedra 185 (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) : "This winged god [Eros] rules ruthlessly throughout the earth and inflames Jove [Zeus] himself, wounded with unquenched fires. Gradivus [Ares], the warrior god, has felt those flames; that god [Hephaistos] has felt them who fashions the thr ee-forked thunderbolts, yea, he who tends the hot furnaces ever raging ‘neath Aetn a’s peaks is inflamed by so mall a fire as this." HEPHAISTOS LOVES: APHRODITE LOCALE: Mt Olympos (Home of the Gods) I) HEPHAISTOS WINS APHRODITE The story of the Marriage of Hephaistos and Aphrodite can be reconstructed from text fragments and ancient Greek vase paintings, such as the Francois Vase:- Hephaistos was cast from heaven by his mother Hera at birth, for she was ashamed to bear a crippled son. He was rescued by the goddesses Thetis and Eurynome who cared for him in a cave on the shores of the River Okeanos where he grew up to become a skilled smith. Angry at his mother s treatment, Hephaistos sent gifts t o to the gods of Olympos including a Golden Throne for Hera. When the goddess sa t upon this cursed seat she was bound fast. Zeus petitioned the gods to help free Hera from her predicament, offering the go ddess Aphrodite in marriage to whomsoever could bring Hephaistos to Olympos. Aph rodite agreed to this arrangment in the belief that her beloved Ares, the god of war, would prevail. Ares attempted to storm the forge of Hephaistos, bearing arms, but was driven ba ck by the Divine Smith with a shower of flaming metal (Libanius Narration 7, not currently quoted here). Dionysos was the next to approach Hephaistos, but instead of force, he suggested that Hephaistos might himself lay claim to Aphrodite if he were to return volan tarily to Olympus and release Hera. The godwas pleased with the plan and ascende d to Heaven with Dionysos, released his mother and wed the reluctant Goddess of Love. Homer, Odyssey 8. 267 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) : "The betrothal gifts I [Hephaistos] bestowed on him [Zeus] for his wanton daught er [Aphrodite]." Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 2. 180 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) : "A chalice deep and wide . a huge golden cup . this the cunning God-smit h [Hephaistos] brought to Zeus, his masterpiece, what time the Mighty in Power t o Hephaistos gave for bride the Kyprian Queen [Aphrodite]." Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 20. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : "There are paintings here [in the temple of Dionysos at Athens] - Dionysos bring ing Hephaistos up to heaven. One of the Greek legends is that Hephaistos, when h e was born, was thrown down by Hera. In revenge he sent as a gift a golden chair with invisible fetters. When Hera sat down she was held fast, and Hephaistos re fused to listen to any other of the gods [including Ares] save Dionysos - in him he reposed the fullest trust - and after making him drunk Dionysos brought him to heaven." Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 166 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "When Father Liber [Dionysos] had brought him [Hephaistos] back drunk to the cou ncil of the gods, he could not refuse this filial duty [and free Hera from the m agical throne he had trapped her in]. Then he obtained freedom of choice from Jo ve [Zeus], to gain whatever he sought from them. Therefore Neptunus [Poseidon], because he was hostile to Minerva [Athene], urged Volcanus [Hephaistos] to ask f or Minerva in marriage." [N.B. Aphrodite rather than Athena was probably the bride requested as his rewar d in the original version of this story.] Suidas s.v. Deimos (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) : "Deimos (Fear): [Deimos (Fear)] and Phobos (Fright) and Kydoimos (Din of War), a ttendants of Ares, the sons of war; they too experienced what Ares did, after He phaistos had not been frightened by them." [N.B. When Ares tried to fetch Hephaistos to Olympos to release Hera from the th rone, the prize for this labour being the hand of Aphrodite in marriage - which Hephaistos then claimed for himself.] On the Francois vase (Athenian black figure vaseC6th B.C.) Hera is depicted trap ped on the throne with her hands raised helplessly, as Ares, who has failed, sit s in a humble pose with Athena looking scornfully at him. Meanwhile Dionysos, en ters, leading the mule on which Hephaistos is seated, to Aphrodite who stands wa iting as the prize of marriage. II) APHRODITE AS WIFE OF HEPHAISTOS Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3. 36 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) : "The palace of Aphrodite, which her lame consort Hephaistos had built for her wh en he took her as his bride from the hands of Zeus. They [Hera and Athene] enter ed the courtyard and paused below the veranda of the room where the goddess slep t with her lord and master." Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 850 ff : "Kypris [Aphrodite], the goddess of desire, had done her sweet work in their hea rts [and mated the visiting Argonauts with the widowed women of Lemnos]. She wis hed to please Hephaistos, the great Artificer, and save his isle of Lemnos from ever lacking men again . The whole city [of Lemnos] was alive with dance and banquet. The scent of burnt-offerings filled the air; and of all the immortals, it was Hera s glorious son Hephaistos and Kypris [Aphrodite] herself whom their songs and sacrifices were designed to please." Virgil, Aeneid 8. 372 ff (trans. Day-Lewis) (Roman epic C1st B.C.) : "Venus [Aphrodite] . spoke to her husband, Volcanos [Hephaistos], as they la y in their golden bed-chamber, breathing into the words all her divine alluremen t [persuading him to forge armour for her son Aeneas in Latium] . Since Volc anos [Hephaistos] complied not at once, the goddess softly embraced him in snowd rift arms, caressing him here and there. Of a sudden he caught the familiar spar k and felt the old warmth darting into his marrow, coursing right though his bod y, melting him; just as it often happens a thunderclap starts a flaming rent whi ch ladders the dark cloud, a quivering streak of fire. Pleased with her wiles an d aware of her beauty, Venus [Aphrodite] could feel them taking effect. Volcanus [Hephaistos], in love’s undying thrall [conceded to her requests] . Thus sayi ng, he gave his wife the love he was aching to give her; then he sank into sooth ing sleep, relaxed upon her breast." III) APHRODITE BARES CHILDREN TO HER PARAMOUR ARES Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 88 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "Aphrodite wishing to delight Ares in the deep shrewdness of her mind, clasped a golden necklace showing place about the girl’s blushing neck [a gift to their dau ghter Harmonia at her marriage to Kadmos], a clever work of Hephaistos set with sparkling gems in masterly refinement. This he had made for his Kyprian bride, a gift for his first glimpse of Archer Eros (Love) [born to Aphrodite, as the wif e of Hephaistos, but fathered by her paramor Ares].