The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses , Devil and Demons
(Latin Hephaestus) Greek god of fire, of smiths and craftsmen. The son of → Zeus and of → Hera. As he was lame when he came into the world, his mother threw him out of Olympus. In his underworld smithy he fashions precious weapons and implements, e.g.
the sceptre of Zeus, the chariot of → Hélios and the aegis of → Athená. In his work, he is helped by the → Cyclops. In origin, Hephaistos was a god of Asia Minor; and on the island of Lemnos he was revered as the embodiment of the fire which breaks out of the earth. At the end of the sixth century BC his cult reached Athens. The Romans identified him with → Vulcanus.
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