Home
Forum
Members
Newsletter
Photos
Symposia
Rituals
Temenoi
Eranoi &
Thiasoi
Exegetai
Mantikoi
Agon
Retreat
The Gods
Hellenismos
Shop
Links
Join
Contact
Hephaistos
Blessing:
Hephaistos values hard work, honesty, dependability, and above all, loyalty. He is not concerned with getting the glory, but with getting the job done, and doing it well. He encourages his followers to tackle their problems with vigor and persistence, and shows them how to take rough and unpleasant things and turn them into works of beauty. He is a peacemaker, capable of seeing the many different sides of an argument. He doesn't jump into a fray until he has carefully weighed all sides of the dilemma. But when he does, his actions are swift, decisive, and effecient. He is the patron of all civilized arts, though smiths and metalworkers are his special charges.
Epithets:
Ambidexter (Skillful)
Symbols:
forge, anvil, tongs
Animal(s):
quail
Sacrifices:
frankincense, fire opal, aloe, red poppy, hibiscus, nettle, galbanum, olibanum
Primary Cult Center(s):
Lemnos, Athens opposite the Acropolis, Ephesus
Festivals:
Apaturia: 3 days in Puanepsion (October-November)
Hephaestia: (celebrated on different dates)
Khalkeia: 30 Puanepsion (October-November)
Ways to honor:
Work with your hands, particularly in making jewelry, smithing, or home repair projects. Support artisans and craftspeople. Support those with disabilities. Read about volcanoes and earthquakes. Visit the site of one, if you're able. Be a peacemaker..
For more information:
Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound 1-81, 365-369
Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica 1.202-205, 1.850-860, 3.16.1
Apollodorus' Library 1.3.5-6, 1.4.1-4, 1.6.2, 1.9.23, 2.4.11, 2.5.6, 2.5.10, 3.14.6, 3.16.1
Hesiod's Shield of Heracles 120, 240, 297
Hesiod's Theogony 570-572, 865, 927-929, 945-946
Hesiod's Works and Days 60
Homer's Iliad 1.571-608, 2.100, 5.10, 15.310, 18.368-617, 20.73-74, 21.328-382
Homer's Odyssey 8.266-366
Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3b.305
Homeric Hymn to Hephaistos 20
Hyginus' Fabulae 166
Hyginus' Poetica Astronomica 2.12-13, 2.15, 2.34
Pausanias' Descriptions of Greece 1.20.3, 2.31.3, 9.35.4
Pindar's Olympian Odes 7.32
Plato's Critias 109c
Plato's Laws 920d
Plato's Symposium 197b
