#hesiod — Public Fediverse posts

Hephaestus

Author’s Note: This post has mentions of (g)rape. If this is triggering, please go on to 1 of our other posts.

He’s the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture, & volcanoes.

In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Hera, either on her own or her husband/brother, Zeus. He was cast off Mount Olympus by his mom, Hera, because of his lameness, the result of a congenital impairment. Or, in another account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his advances.

As a smithing god, Hephaestus created all the weapons of the gods on Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods & was worshipped in the manufacturing & industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus’ symbols are a smith’s hammer, anvil, & a pair of tongs. In Rome, he was equated with Vulcan.

In Hesiod’s Theogony, Hera gives birth to Hephaestus on her own, out of revenge for Zeus having, without her, fathered Athena (the daughter of Zeus & Metis). Apollodorus similarly states that Hera gives birth to Hephaestus alone. Though according to Homer, Hephaestus is 1 of the kids of Zeus & Hera.

Some sources state that the origin myth of Hephaestus was that of a “daemon of fire coming up from the Earth,” that he was also associated with gas “which takes fire & burns & is considered by many people to be divine” & that only later was a volcano considered Hephaestus’ smithy.

He was associated by Greek colonists in southern Italy with the volcano gods Adranus (of Mount Etna) & Vulcanus of the Lipari islands.

The 1st-century sage, Apollonius of Tyana, is said to have observed, “there are many other mountains all over the earth that are on fire, & yet we should never be done with it if we assigned to them giants & gods like Hephaestus.” Nevertheless, Hephaestus’ domain over fire goes back to Homer’s Iliad, where he uses flames to dry the waters of the Scamander River in order to force its eponymous deity, who was attacking Achilles, to retreat.

His favorite place in our mere mortal world was the island of Lemnos. He liked to live among the Sintians. But he also repeatedly went to other volcanic islands like Lipari, Imbros, & Sicily, which were called his abodes/workshops. In 1 version of events, Hera rejects, then ejects Hephaestus from Olympus/the heavens because of his congenital impairment. (It’s implied that his congenital disability is because of Zeus & Hera’s familial relationship, i.e. brother & sister.)

Because of Hera’s actions, he fell into the ocean & of Hera’s actions, he fell into the ocean & was raised by Thetis (Achilles’ mom & 1 of the 50 Nereids) & Eurynome, the Oceanid. In another version, Hephaestus, attempting to rescue his mom from Zeus’ advances, was cast down to earth by Zeus, not Hera!

He (Hephaestus) was cast down for 1 whole day & landed on the island of Lemnos. On Lemnos, he was cared for & taught to be a master craftsman by the Sintians. Later writers describe his physical disability as a result of his 2nd fall. While Homer makes him disabled from birth.

Hephaestus was 1 of the Olympians who came back to Olympus after being exiled. In an archaic story, Hephaestus wanted revenge against Hera for rejecting him by forging her a magical golden throne, which, when she sat on it, didn’t let her stand up again.

The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go. But he refused, saying, “I’ve no mom.” It was Ares who undertook the task of fetching Hephaestus at 1st. But he was threatened by the fire god with torches. At last, Dionysus (the wine god) fetched him, got him drunk on wine, & took the subdued smith back to Olympus on the back of a mule, accompanied by revelers.

According to Hyginus, Zeus promised anything to Hephaestus to free Hera. Hephaestus asked for Athena’s hand in marriage (urged by Poseidon, who was hostile toward Athena), leading to his attempted (g)raping of the goddess, who rejected his advances.

In another version, he demanded to be married to Aphrodite to release Hera, & his mom fulfilled the request. Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with an anvil(s) & 20 bellows that worked at his bidding.

He crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, & almost any finely wrought metalwork imbued with powers that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus. He designed all the thrones in the Olympian palace, the Aegis breastplate, Hermes’ (not the fashion house) winged helmet & sandals, Aphrodite’s famous girdle, Eros’ bow & arrows, Helios’ chariot, Heracles’ bronze clappers, & the shoulder of Pelops.

Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to mankind: the 1st woman, Pandora, & her pithos (a large jar)/box. In some versions, Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestus’ forge. Hephaestus gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide. In later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the Cyclopes Brontes, Steropes, & Arges, who were highly skilled blacksmiths in their own right & forged Zeus’ thunderbolts, Poseidon’s trident, & Hades’ helmet of darkness/invisibility.

According to Homer, Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him or others. This includes tripods with golden wheels, able to move at his wish in & out of the assembly hall of the celestials; & “handmaidens wrought of gold in the semblance of living maids,” who had “understanding in their hearts, & speech & strength,” as a gift of the gods.

They moved to support Hephaestus while walking. Hephaestus also put golden & silver lions & dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders. These guard dogs didn’t age or perish. (So does this mean that they could possibly still be around, hidden somewhere? Like the Nag Hammadi library.)

A similar golden dog was set by Rhea to guard the infant Zeus & his nurse (the goat Amaltheia) on the island of Krete/Crete. Later, Tantalus was said to have stolen the automaton when it guarded Zeus’ temple, or to have persuaded Pandareos to steal it for him.

Later texts attempt to replace the automaton with the idea that the golden dog was actually Rhea, transformed by Hephaestus. Hephaestus fought against the giants & killed Mimas by throwing molten iron at him. He also fought another giant, Aristaeus, but he fled.

During the battle, Hephaestus fell down exhausted & was picked up by Helios in his chariot. As a gift of gratitude, Hephaestus forged 4 ever-flowing fountains & fire-breathing bulls for Helios’ son Aeetus. At the marriage of Peleus & Thetis, Hephaestus gave a knife as a wedding present.

When the Trojan War began, Hephaestus sided with the Greeks & forged the armor of Achilles, the cuirass of Diomedes, & Agamemnon’s staff of office. But Hephaestus was also worshipped by the Trojans & saved 1 of their men from being killed by Diomedes.

Though she was married to Hephaestus, Aphrodite had an affair with Ares, the god of war. Eventually, Hephaestus discovered Aphrodite’s affair through Helios, the all-seeing sun (We’re gonna circle back to this. Keep this in mind.), & planned a trap during 1 of their trysts.

While the lovers lay together in bed, Hephaestus ensnared them in an unbreakable chain-link net so small as to be invisible & dragged them to Mount Olympus to shame them in front of the other gods for retribution. The gods had a good laugh at the sight of these unclothed adulterers. Poseidon persuaded Hephaestus to free them in return for a guarantee that Ares would pay the adulterers’ fine, or Poseidon would pay it himself.

In The Odyssey, Hephaestus says he would give Aphrodite back to Zeus & demand back his bride price. Some versions of the myth state that Zeus didn’t return the dowry. In fact, Aphrodite “simply charmed her way back again into her husband’s good graces.”

In The Iliad, Hephaestus is described as being married to the Grace named Charis during the events depicted in the Trojan War. While in Theogeny, he’s married to the Grace named Aglaea, with no indication of having ever been married to Aphrodite.

In Dionysiaca by Nonnus explicitly stated that, though Hephaestus & Aphrodite were once married (she’s referred to as his “ancient wife”). They’ve since separated & Hephaestus is now married to Charis.

Here’s the keep-in-mind part: In a later detail, Ares put the young soldier, Alectryon, by their door to warn them of Helios’ arrival, as he suspected that Helios would tell Hephaestus of Aphrodite’s infidelity if the 2 were discovered. But Alectryon fell asleep on guard duty. Helios finds the 2 & alerts Hephaestus. Ares, in a rage, turned Alectryon into a rooster, which always crows at dawn when the sun is about to rise.

The Thebans said that the spicy time union of Ares & Aphrodite produced Harmonia. But that of the union of Hephaestus with Aphrodite, there’s usually no issue. Because Harmonia was conceived during Aphrodite’s marriage to Hephaestus, for revenge, on Harmonia’s wedding day to Cadmus, Hephaestus gifted her with a finely worked but cursed necklace that brought immense suffering to her descendants, culminating in Oedipus. (Check out our post on Oedipus.)

An Athenian founding myth tells the city’s patron goddess, Athena, refused a union (spicy time) with Hephaestus. Pseudo-Apollodorus records an archaic legend, which claims that Hephaestus once tried to (g)rape Athena. But she pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh.

Athena wiped the happy time juice off using a tuft of wool. She tossed it into the dust. This impregnated Gaia (his own great-grandma). This caused her to give birth to King Erichthonius, whom Athena adopted as her own kid.

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Three Books on a Table

https://bolesblogs.com/2026/07/24/three-books-on-a-table/

I just discovered #Hesiod https://github.com/otto-link/Hesiod, a node-based free and #OpenSource #terrain generator.

Looks very promising! It looks surprisingly complete and usable, given it's mostly developed by a single person.

#gamedev

Moirai

In ancient Greek religion & mythology, the Moirai (a.k.a. in English as the Fates) were the personification of destiny.

There were 3 sisters named: Clotho, who was the spinner; Lachesis, who was the allotter; & Atropos, who was the inevitable, a symbol for death. Their Roman equals are the Parcae.

The Moirai’s role was to make sure that every being, mortal & divine, lived out their destinies. For mortals, this destiny went their entire lives & is pictured as a thread spun from a spindle. A spindle is the thing that Sleeping Beauty touched to become Sleeping Beauty.

Usually, they were considered to be above even the gods, in their role as enforcers of Fate. Zeus was even scared of them. Even though, in some stories, Zeus is able to command them. But these are rare.

The word Moirai (also spelt Moirae or Moerae) comes from Ancient Greek. This means “lots, destinies, apportioners.” It also means a portion, or lot of the whole.

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Fates are mentioned in both Inferno & Purgatorio by their Greek names. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the Weird Sisters (or 3 Witches) are prophetesses, who are deeply rooted in both the real & supernatural worlds.

The Moirai are:

• Clotho, the spinner. She spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle. Her Roman equal was Nona (“the 9th”), who was originally called upon in the 9th month of pregnancy.
• Lachesis, the allotter or drawer of lots. She measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Her Roman equal was Decima (“the 10th”).
• Atropos, “inexorable,” or inevitable,” literally “unturning.” She was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of each person’s death. When their time has come, she would cut their life-thread with her shears. Think about the end of Disney’s Hercules, when our main man, Herc, went to save Meg from Hades’ domain. Herc’s life-thread turned gold when he saved. Her Roman equal was Morta (“the dead one”).

In the Republic of Plato, the 3 Moirai sing together with the music of the Seirenes. Lachesis sings the things that were, Clotho the things that are, & Atropos the things that are to be. Pindar, in his Hymn to the Fates, holds them in high honor. He calls them to send their sisters, the Hours (Eunomia, “lawfulness”; Dike, “right”; & Eirene, “peace”), to stop the internal civil strife.

In the Theogony, Hesiod describes the Moirai as daughters of the primeval goddess Nyx (“night”), & the sisters of the Keres (“the black fates”), Thanatos (“death”), & Nemesis (“retribution”). Later in the poem, Hesiod instead calls them daughters of Zeus & the Titaness Themis (“the Institutor”), who was the embodiment of divine order & law. This places them as sisters of the Hours.

In the cosmogony of Alcman (7th century BC), first came Thetis (“disposer, creation”) & then simultaneously Poros (“path”) & Tekmor (“end post, ordinance”). Poros is related to the end of all things.

Later, in the Orphic cosmogony, first came Thesis, whose ineffable nature is unexpected. Ananke (“necessity”) is the primeval goddess of inevitability who is entwined with the time-god Chronos, at the very beginning of time. They represented the cosmic forces of Fate & Time. They were sometimes called to control the fates of the gods. The 3 Moirai are daughters of Ananke.

In the Theogony of Hesiod, the 3 Moirai are personified as the daughters of Nyx & are acting the gods. Later they were daughters of Zeus & Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order & law. In Pluto’s Republic, the 3 Fates are daughters of Ananke (necessity).

The Moirai were supposed to appear 3 nights after a kid’s birth to determine the course of its life. At Sparta, the Temple to the Moirai stood near the communal hearth of the polis. Polis means “city” in Ancient Greek.

As the goddesses of birth who even prophesied the fate of the newly born, Elieithyia, the ancient Minoan goddess of childbirth & divine midwifery, was their companion.

The Erinyes, a group of chthonic goddesses of vengeance, served as tools of the Moirai. Chthonic means concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld. They inflicted punishment for evil deeds, particularly upon those who sought to avoid their rightful destiny. The Morai were confused with the Erinyes, as well as the death-goddesses, the Keres.

In earlier times, they were pictured as only a few, or perhaps only 1, individual goddess Homer’s Illiad speaks generally of the Moira, who spins the thread of life for men at their birth. She’s Moria Krataia, “powerful Moira,” or there are several Moirai.

In the Odyssey, there’s a reference to the Klothes, or spinners. At Delphi, only the Fates of Birth & Death were revered. In Athens, Aphrodite was called Aphrodite Urania, the “eldest of the Fates.”

In the older myths, they’re daughters of primeval beings like Nyx (“night”) in Theogony, or Ananke in Orphic cosmogony.

The Moirai could be placated as goddesses. Brides in Athens offered them locks of hair, & women swore by them. They may have originated as a birth goddesses & only later their reputation as the agents of destiny. The Moirai were also credited to be the inventors of 7 Greek letters – A, B, H, I, T, & Y.

The Fates had at least 3 known temples: Ancient Corinth, Sparta, & Thebes. The temple in Sparta was situated next to the grave/tomb of Orestes.

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#7thCenturyBC #Alcman #Allotter #Ananke #AncientGreek #Aphrodite #AphroditeUrania #Athens #Atropos #Chronos #Chtonic #Clotho #Corinth #Dante #DanteSInferno #Death #Decima #Delphi #Destiny #Dike #Disney #DivineComedy #Eirene #Elieithyia #Eunomia #Fate #Fates #Grave #Greek #GreekMythology #Hesiod #Homer #HymnOfTheFates #Illiad #Institutor #Klothes #Lachesis #Macbeth #Midwifery #Moerae #MoiraKrataia #Moirai #Morta #Nemesis #Night #Nona #Nyx #Odyssey #Orestes #Orphic #Parcae #Pindar #Plato #Polis #Poros #Pregnancy #Prophetesses #Purgatorio #Republic #Roman #Seirenes #Shakespeare #Shears #SleepingBeauty #Sparta #Spindle #Spinner #Spinners #Tekmor #Thanatos #TheErinyes #TheHours #TheKeres #TheMoira #TheMoirae #Thebes #Themis #Theogony #Thesis #ThreeWitches #Time #Titaness #tomb #WeirdSisters #Zeus

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜’𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: "𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗼𝗻𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 & 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀" 𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗱 -

Going way back now, one of Greece's earliest poets with the earliest versions of the Greek creation along with didactic verse of right behavior.

#books #bookreviews #bookworm #readreadread #tbr #tbrpile #tbrlist #quotes #reading #hesiod #theogony #worksanddays #greekmythology #poetry #ancientgreece #didacticpoetry #creationmyth

You do realize fascism is Zeus punishing Prometheus for sneaking off with fire hidden inside a fennel stalk right? He sends Pandora as a gift to Epimetheus (Hindsight) who, despite Prometheus (Foresight) having warned him, oh yes plenty of warning, thoughtlessly accepts what was clearly a very bad no good offer.

So, we've been screwed for quite some time; ambition started it, denial assured it. As Hesiod once said: Thanks, Obama.

#Hesiod #Pandora #Zeus #Prometheus #Epimetheus #FacistUSA #ProblemOfEvil

« The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it. »

― Hesiod

🔗 · https://poligraf.tumblr.com/post/768519023806840832/the-man-who-does-evil-to-another-does-evil-to

#quotes #Hesiod #evil #good #reciprocity #oneness #interbeing #GoldenRule

It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏

"He [Hermes] cast upon the dogs which were guarding them [the guard dogs of the cattle of Apollon] a stupor and strangles, so that the dogs forgot the cows and lost the power of barking."
#Hesiod, The Great Eoiae Frag 16

🏛 Red-Figure Kylix depicting #Hermes with a dog by the Iliupersis Painter, ca 375–350 BCE, #Apulia in Magna Graecia

@mythology @antiquidons
#DayOfHermes #Mythology #GreekRomanArt

𝗪𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬

✧ Venus Anadyomene ✧

Venus Anadyomene is an oil-on-canvas painting by Titian, dating to around 1520. It depicts the Greek goddess Venus rising from the sea and wringing her hair, with a shell visible at the bottom left, taken from a description of Venus by the Greek poet Hesiod in which she was born fully-grown from a shell. The wringing of her hair is a direc...

#VenusAnadyomene #Venus #Hesiod #Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Anadyomene_(Titian)

“Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros, fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.”

Hesiod’s Theogony, Hugh G. Evelyn-White trans.

#Hesiod #Theogony #Eros

The way papyrologists reconstruct ancient texts based on tiny scraps of papyrus seems like sorcery.

And really, it is sorcery. But it also makes sense. Here's a look at an example from the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women.

#hesiod #papyrology #papyri #greek #ancient
https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2023/12/reconstructing.html

Proclus Interprets Hesiod: The Procline Philosophy of the Soul by John Finnamore. https://www.academia.edu/110982735/Proclus_Interprets_Hesiod_Soul_Matters

Interesting article on how #Proclus interprets #Hesiod's different metal races/ages of men in Works and Days with the human soul.

It's the #DayOfDionysos here at Erotic Mythology! 🍇

"When Seirios [#Sirius, the star] scorches the flesh, when the crude grapes which #Dionysos gave to men - a joy and a sorrow both - begin to colour."
#Hesiod, The Shield of Herakles 398

🏛️ Dionysos holding a kantharos, Roman statuette, Archaeological Museum of #Eleusis

#GreekRomanArt #ancientGreece #ancientRome @antiquidons @histodons @mythology #Dionysos

The July installment of 'Polylith' (my monthly newsletter) is here, in which we consider the image of an empty eggshell floating in shallow water.

#towardThePolylith #pointTurnstone #hesiod #chaos

https://cscottmills.com/polylith/052/

Composed by request:

A study of primary sources
Reveals the first of earthly forces,
Among whom I am counted one.
In later legends, I’m the son
Of Beauty, and I pierce the hearts
Of wisdom-lovers with my darts,
Who lounge while listening to the phorminx
And praise me over dinner and drinks.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #riddle #ancientgreece #hesiod #homer #athens #plato #philosophy #love #mythology #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

@SeanMoriarty

#Zeus Teleios and #Hera Teleia are #gods that are made perfect in their #marriage. Their surnames quite literally translate to mean "having reached its end, finished, complete, perfect, entire, fulfilled" (LSJ).

#Hesiod says of Zeus: "Lastly, he made Hera his blooming wife: and she was joined in love with the king of gods and men, and brought forth #Hebe and #Ares and #Eileithyia" (Theogony, 921). She is His FINAL wife; a goddess chosen specially by Zeus to help him govern the cosmos.

In their #book "The Hera of Zeus: Intimate Enemy, Ultimate Spouse," scholars Gabriella Pironti and Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge describe the will of Zeus as being identical to that of Hera. This truth is exemplified in the #Iliad—Hera, who is lobbying for a #Greek victory at #Troy, steers Zeus's mind when she feels he is acting in ways that contradict his will.

In the introduction to Richmond Lattimore's translation of the Iliad, it is mentioned how early in the Epic Cycle, Zeus decided the winners of the #Trojan war centuries before it even took place. Despite this, he favors the Trojans over the Greeks because of their unwavering piety. He additionally considers saving his son—Sarpedon—from dying on the battlefield, but Hera reminds him that in doing so, the rest of the deathless gods would have free reign to save their children, too.

Hera frequently challenges Zeus in this way. And #Homer describes these interactions as being explosive, with Zeus often threatening violence which sends Hera fleeing. Regardless of this, though, he eventually succumbs to her wishes, knowing full well that Her will is His, and the pair reconcile.

Gabriella Pironti and Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge posit that the constant back-and-forth between the two divine sovereigns—Their endless falling apart and coming back together—serves as a cycle of renewal that balances the cosmos in perpetuity.

—

🌬🪶 #AncientGreekReligion #HellenicPagan #HellenicPaganism #HellenicPolytheism #HellenicPolytheist 🌬🪶

Here's a list of what I've been working on/thinking about for the last week. https://clerestory.netlify.app/work/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20221129

Featuring #duBoisReymond #Kant #Graeber #Lucretius #Hesiod #Spinoza #Bacon #McGilchrist #Arendt #Geertz #Piaget #Einstein #Wertheimer #Solon #Confucius #Buddhism #complexity #Logos #Althusser #Nietzsche #Spinoza #Marx #Schopenhauer #Montaigne #Kuhn #Nagel #Pythagoras #Popper #Gödel and more!

When Hesiod wrote “Works and Days” (~2,800 years ago), ecology and economics were one and the same thing. Today they’re completely separated and this explains the mess we’re doing.

#ecology #economy #economics #hesiod #sustainability