The Fall of Hephaestus

My mother, Hera, did not pay me any attention when I was young. It was because I was weak in comparison to my siblings Ares and Athena. But like all sons, I never had anything but love for my mother.

It was my father Zeus who was to blame for Mother ignoring me! He would tell Mother not to pay me any attention or else I would never grow big and strong like him. Ares, on the other hand, was born to be like our father.

Ares paraded around Mount Olympus like Zeus, making sure all the other gods knew that he was present. He would take whatever he desired and expect others to deal with the aftermath. No wonder Zeus always talked about Ares and how great of a son he was. They’re basically the same god!

Athena was different from Ares though. Her temperament was stable, unlike Ares’, and she could hold an intelligent conversation without making everything about her. She also taught me the basics of fighting and how to defend myself, not that it really mattered since Ares was so much bigger than me back then; Ares was always a bully.

It wasn’t until many years had passed that my power started to manifest itself in a fiery fashion. As a young god I was weak and fragile, despised by the other Olympians, but as I became older I was able to control fire and even touch it without being harmed.

I would go out on my own, down from Mount Olympus to the island of Lemnos to practice my growing powers. The islanders stayed away from me at first, for their own safety I imagine. I didn’t pay them much mind, until one of them brought me some metal and asked for my help in crafting the piece of metal into a hammer.

I melted, bent, and twisted the metal into a hammer. As soon as I finished crafting the metal into a hammer, I was filled with pride over my work, even though it was simple. Before then I had crafted some things here and there on Mount Olympus, but my work was unrefined and lacked a certain touch to it.

The islander thanked me for my help and then told me that if I wanted to continue refining my craftsmanship, the other islanders would supply the metal for me. As the years passed, my skills grew to be unparalleled among both humans and the gods themselves. I was to the point where I could imbue whatever I made with godly properties. The only Olympian who knew of my abilities was Athena.

I trusted Athena and she didn’t tell any of the other gods of my abilities until that stupid Trojan war happened. Athena came pleading to me to craft armor for the hero Achilles, because his own armor had been lost by some fool named Patroclus. I reluctantly agreed and forged armor worthy of the Titans themselves.

As the Trojan war dragged on, Zeus noticed the armor that Achilles wore and became infuriated that none of the Trojans could lay a hand on him, despite the gifts that Zeus provided them with. In a thunderstorm of fury, Zeus landed on Mount Olympus and demanded to know who was responsible for Achilles’ impenetrable armor.

That’s when it happened…

Athena ran and fell at Zeus’ feet, crying and begging Zeus not to unleash his wrath on the one responsible. “Tell me who is responsible and I’ll decide whether to be wrathful!” Zeus thundered.

“I… I’m responsible, Father…, I went to Hephaestus and begged him to forge Achilles’ armor when I saw that Achilles was in trouble,” Athena stammered. Confused by what he had just heard, Zeus pushed past Athena and headed straight for me.

Before I could even think, Zeus was upon me, with his hand around my neck pinning me against the side of the mountain. “What powers have you been hiding from me, boy?!” Zeus yelled.

“Nothing, just the skills to craft weapons and armor.” I managed to squeeze out from underneath Zeus’ grip. But I could tell my father had already made up his mind, I just didn’t know at the time if he was going to kill me or banish me from Mount Olympus.

To this day, I don’t know what his real intentions were, but on that day, he beat me to a pulp. I may have been weak as a young god, but I was never hideous as I am now. Zeus made sure that I was unrecognizable and that I would forever be crippled because of his beating. It all happened so fast, but I still remember Athena crying and begging father to stop, and Ares just standing there with his arms crossed, with a smug smirk on his face.

Once the beating stopped, Zeus picked me up by my throat and said, “You are no son of mine.” Then he threw me off of Mount Olympus and it seemed like I fell for three days before I landed with a crash on the island of Lemnos, my new home.

Bibliography: Hephaistos, theoi

Author's Note: In the original story Hephaestus is born from Hera and is already weak and crippled. Also, Hera was the one who threw Hephaestus off of Mount Olympus because she was embarrassed about Hephaestus. After Hephaestus fell to the island of Lemnos, he was nurtured back to health by Eurynome and Thetis. It was with them that he refined his skills as a craftsman over the period of nine years. For my story, however, I wanted to build upon the idea that Hephaestus is a weak god when he is young. Just like a small flame needs nurturing in order to become bigger, so does Hephaestus need nurturing in order to develop his godly powers. If you didn't already know, Hephaestus is the god of fire, smiths, craftsmen, metalworking, and stone masonry. This is the reason why Hephaestus will continue to grow his powers over time, because just like a fire continues to grow as it is fueled, so will Hephaestus' powers grow as long as he lives. Additionally, I wanted to build sympathy for Hephaestus, since he seems to be a misunderstood Olympian god. The original stories about Hephaestus do build sympathy for Hephaestus, but they don't develop his personality in-depth. In my stories, my goal is to give Hephaestus his own perspective and personality. So, I hope you enjoyed my take on Hephaestus' fall from Mount Olympus!