Table of Contents
Hephaestus, the Greek smith god of fire and metalworking, keeps turning up in my research where myth touches craft: in volcanoes, in Egyptian temples and in the golden objects that pass from hand to hand through the old genealogies. These are the pages where I wrote about him.
The forge under the mountain
On Mines I list the mines of Hephaestus: the divine blacksmith was believed to keep his forge under Mount Etna, and Homer’s Iliad, Book 18, has him working beneath the earth. On Mount Etna I go further into the myth of the mountain as the forge of Hephaestus, Vulcan to the Romans, where he crafted weapons and armour for the gods.
Hephaestus in Egypt
The Greeks matched Hephaestus with the Egyptian creator god Ptah, as I note on Ptah. That is why Herodotus calls Sethos a priest of Hephaestus who rose to become king of Egypt, on Account of Sethos. On Ancient Egypt – 11,800 BCE I quote Herodotus counting 341 generations from Menes to this priest of Hephaestus, and on Account of Menes Menes is credited with building the temple of Hephaestus, that is Ptah, at Memphis. On The semi-mythical aspect of Manetho’s king list Ptah, equated with Hephaestus, stands first among the god kings, with a span of 9,000 years.
The golden basket
On Who Was Telephassa? I follow Moschus, who traces Europa’s golden basket back to the smith god:
Now Europa’s basket was of gold, an admirable thing, a great marvel and a great work of Hephaestus, given of him unto Libya the day the Earth-Shaker took her to his bed, and given of Libya unto the fair beauteous Telephassa because she was one of her own blood; and so the virgin Europa came to possess the renownèd gift, being Telephassa was her mother.
Moschus, Europa, translated by Edmonds
Other craftsmen gods
On Colonization I compare the artisans among the Anunnaki with Kothar-wa-Khasis, a Canaanite god of craftsmanship who resembles Hephaestus.
Related pages
- Mines
- Mount Etna
- Ptah
- Account of Sethos
- Ancient Egypt – 11,800 BCE
- Account of Menes
- Who Was Telephassa?
- Colonization
For every page I tagged with Hephaestus, see the Hephaestus tag archive.
