Hephaestus: Revenge of the Blacksmith

Hello all!

It has recently been brought to my attention that I have never done a post about Hephaestus. This is an enormous oversight on my part, because Hephaestus is one of my favorite deities. After Hades, Hestia, and Hermes, he's my favorite in the Greek pantheon. (...It appears that all of my favorites begin with the letter H. Interesting.) At any rate, Hephaestus is awesome. So, without further ado: Here's a post about him!

The origins of Hephaestus are somewhat unique among the gods. One of the more popular stories out of Greek mythology is the birth of Athena. She sprang out of Zeus' head, fully formed. As such, Athena was born of only one parent.

Hephaestus' birth is somewhat similar, and in fact stemmed from the creation of Athena.

You may recall that Hera, the wife of Zeus, has never been particularly content with her husband's philandering ways. In fact, she frequently goes out of her way to make the lives of her spouse's various mistresses exceptionally miserable. You can probably guess that she was rather wrathful that Zeus had a child without her.

So Hera did the natural thing – she conceived a child all by herself, and gave birth to him. That'll show Zeus!! – right?

(Yeah, I don't really understand her reasoning either.)

Unfortunately, the child – Hephaestus – was born with a deformity. It is frequently listed as shriveled or curled feet. When Hera saw her son, she was horrified by his deformity. She picked him up and flung him off of Mount Olympus, winning the Mother of the Year award in the process.

Hera rejects her son.

(Can you see why I have serious issues with Hera?)

Hephaestus somehow survived the fall. He was taken in by nymphs and raised. Hephaestus grew to be a very talented craftsman – specifically, blacksmithing.

When Hephaestus grew up, he got his vengeance upon his mother. He forged a special golden throne and had it shipped to Olympus for Hera. When the goddess sat in it, she found herself unable to move!

Though the gods tried everything they could think of, they were unable to free Hera. (I'm sure some of the pantheon were rather amused by her difficult circumstances. Hera was not always the most popular goddess.) Eventually they reached out to Hephaestus, hoping that the god who had built the chair would be able to free her from it. However, the crippled deity refused. In his mind, his mother had received her just comeuppance.

Always.

Hera was only freed when Dionysus, god of wine and partying, got Hephaestus drunk and convinced him to release his mother from her chair-y prison.

Interestingly enough, Hera is not the only deity to be imprisoned in a creation of Hephaestus:

Aphrodite, goddess of love, became the consort/spouse of the blacksmithing god.  It was an interesting mix; she, who was named the most beautiful of all the goddesses by Paris of Troy, married to a god so misshapen that his own mother tried to kill him out of disgust.  The marriage was brought about by Zeus and Hera, and it was not a happy one.  Aphrodite frequently cheated on her husband.  One of her adulterous lovers was none other than Hephaestus' own brother, Ares.

When Hephaestus found out about the affair, he crafted more than just a plan.  He created a chain of magical links, and bound them above Aphrodite's bed.  The next time she and Ares started going at it, the trap was sprung.  The lovers found themselves wrapped in chains, naked and unable to move.  Hephaestus found them shortly thereafter.

(The most PG picture I could find of the affair.  However!)

(Look at his face!  That is one fed-up god.)

Hephaestus dragged them before the rest of the gods.  They were humiliated, and made to pay a fine for their crime.

His disability may have caused him hardship, but Hephaestus rose above it to join the other Olympians in the home of the gods.  Though many viewed him as hideous, his craftsmanship was gorgeous and second to none.

And that, my friends, is Hephaestus.

I hope you enjoyed the post!  It is my last one for the next several weeks.  As a reminder, I am going on temporary hiatus because I'll be out of the country.  I shall return mid-July, ish.  Take care all, and I'll see you upon my return!

Mothers: Myths and Fairy Tales

First off, let me wish you all a happy late Mother's Day!  I hope all the mothers reading this had a wonderful day.

Considering how very important the role of mother is in our lives, they tend to get a very bad rap in a lot of myths and fairy tales.  I've talked before about Hera, the step-mom from hell; about Aphrodite, who treated her daughter-in-law in an absolutely terrible fashion; and let us not forget Demeter, who couldn't protect her daughter from being stolen into a marriage against her will.  And that's just the Greek pantheon!

Fairy tales have it even worse.  We're all familiar with evil, wicked stepmothers - why, my last post had both an evil stepmom and an awful mother-in-law!  There's also a lot of fairy tales with absentee mothers.  Disney has helped perpetuate this stereotype by predominantly making films with evil mother-like figures - or by having the mom just be absent.

And yet, for all of the focus that the nasty mothers of myths and fairy tales get...there are actually an awful lot of good ones as well.

Take Greek mythology.  I find it hard to say much good about Hera, given how much I loathe her treatment of Hephaestus and Zeus' bastard children.  Despite this, she is the goddess of marriage and the family.  In both her Greek and Roman forms (Juno), she was regarded as a motherly figure to whom many prayed for mercy, guidance, and a strengthening of family bonds.
Aphrodite may have been a nightmare to Psyche, but her Roman form, Venus, was pretty much the ultimate mom.  She led her son Aeneas to safety in the midst of a war, and helped him to start his own kingdom elsewhere...which eventually led to the foundation of Rome.
And Demeter?  Zeus may have given their daughter over to Hades without her permission, but Demeter fought for Persephone with everything she had.  She roamed the earth, searching for her daughter.  Eventually she destroyed all crops and brought about a winter, which she promised would end with either the death of all mankind (and therefore the gods, since mankind was their source of worship) or the return of her daughter.  Not many can go up against Zeus and win, but Demeter loved her daughter so much that she was able to tie with him; Persephone got to return to her mother for half of every year.

So alright, sure, there are some pretty swell examples of motherhood in mythology (Frigg in the Norse myths remains a favorite of mine)...but what about fairy tales?

The Evil Queen from Snow White is a pretty famous villain...so much so that Snow White's birth mom is usually forgotten.  In fact, she spent much of her marriage longing for a child, and loved Snow so much that she died bringing her into the world.
Another fairy tale, Snow White and Rose Red (which is completely different from Snow White) has a single mother raising two daughters in by herself.  She obviously loves them, and has raised them to be kind, wonderful young ladies.
There's a fairy tale archetype which I haven't talked about yet, but which has a common motif.  In it, the mother rejoices so much in the birth of her child that she dies.  She is buried, and a tree sprouts over her grave.  In times of trouble, her child goes out and cries in front of the tree, which usually whispers words of comfort and wisdom.  In some versions of this story, such as The Juniper Tree, a child dies and is brought back to life thanks to the tree.  The mother cares so strongly for her child that she looks out for them even after death.

And it seems that Disney has recently recognized its dearth of strong, motherly roles, because its last few films have had some great ones.  Moana's mom - and especially her grandmother - believed in their girl and wanted her happy.  The live action Beauty and the Beast finally addressed the question of what had happened to Belle's mom, and it is obvious how much she cared for her child.  The live action Cinderella also shows that it was Cinderella's birth mother who instilled in her such great kindness and compassion for others - traits that not even her wicked stepmother could squash.  The Princess and the Frog's Tiana has a wonderful mother in Eudora.

Stories tend to focus on the bad parents, and it's far too easy for us to do the same.  Today, I wanted to take a look at the quiet love lurking behind the scenes - at the loving mothers who are there, if we only look for them.

The Six Swans

Hello all!

Today I wanted to take a look at a fairy tale I really enjoy.  There's several different versions of it (the one by the Grimms is, of course, significantly more violent), but the one I know best comes from Andrew Lang's The Yellow Fairy Book.  The story itself is called The Six Swans.  Shall we begin?

Once upon a time there was a king who was out hunting with his court.  The king got himself quite lost in the woods, and found himself hungry and thirsty, with no idea where he was or how to get back.  He wandered for a time before he met an old woman - a witch.

The witch told the king that without her help, he would never find his way out of the woods.  He would die of starvation, all alone.  Left with no choice, the king begged the witch for help.  She led him to her home, where her daughter, a beautiful maiden, sat waiting.  (The book actually says "She received the King as if she were expecting him" - I've always wondered if the witch or her daughter cast some spell to get the king lost.)

A deal was offered by the witch.  If the king married her daughter, she would show him the way out of the forest.  On the surface, the deal was not a bad one; the witch's daughter was quite beautiful and well behaved.  Yet a sense of dread filled the king every time he looked at her.  Left with no choice, the king reluctantly accepted the witch's offer.  He and the witch's daughter left the woods, and were soon married at his castle.

This was not the king's marriage.  He was a widower, and his previous wife had given him seven children: six boys and one girl.  The king's sense of unease about his new spouse lingered, and he feared for the safety of his children.  Without telling her of their existence, he whisked the seven children away to a small castle in the woods, where they could live in safety.

But the king was a doting father, and he did not like to be separated from his children.  Because of this, he visited them frequently, disappearing into the woods for hours at a time.  The queen took note of this, and did not like his absences.  Since the king refused to tell her where he went, she bribed some of his servants, who admitted to the existence of the children.  (Since girls were considered inconsequential at the time, only the boys were mentioned.  As such, the queen thought that there were only six kids.)

The queen did not like that at all.  Her mother had taught her some of her witchcraft, so she set out for the castle with magic in hand - six enchanted shirts she had sewn.  When the children saw a rider approaching they ran to meet it, expecting their father.  However, the daughter was more cautious, and stayed back to watch.  She was horrified to see the queen throw the shirts over her six brothers.  One by one, the boys fell to the ground...where they transformed into swans!

The queen rode back to the castle, satisfied that her job was done.  As for the swans, they flew off into the night, leaving the king's daughter all alone.

When the king came to visit the next day, he was horrified to find his sons missing.  The princess explained everything that had happened to him, but she did not know that the attacker was the queen.  Not wanting to lose his only remaining child, the king begged his daughter to return with him to the castle.  However, she was afraid of the place, and instead ran away.

After she grew tired of running, the princess found shelter in a tiny cottage.  There were six beds within the home, and she fell asleep underneath one of them.  She awoke to the sound of wings.  Six swans were flying in through the window.  One by one they landed - and then they transformed into her brothers.

The boys were delighted to see their sister, and much hugging ensued.  However, they warned her that she could not stay in the cottage, as its owners were rough brigands.  They sadly told her that they would be unable to protect her, for the curse only allowed them to transform back into humans for fifteen minutes each evening.

The princess wanted nothing more than to find a way to break the curse on her brothers.  They told her that such a thing was impossible, and that the effort required would be too great.  Undaunted, she demanded to know what she needed to do.

In order to break the curse, the brothers explained, the princess would need to spend six years in complete silence.  She could not speak a word, or even utter a laugh.  In addition, she would need to sew six shirts out of starflowers.  (In the Brothers Grimm version of the story, the shirts must be sewn out of nettles - a plant which would be significantly more painful to work with.)  Despite their warnings about its difficulty, the princess vowed to do this in order to save her brothers.

With their fifteen minutes up, the brothers transformed back into swans and flew away.

With her brothers gone, the princess found a tree and climbed it to sleep.  As soon as she awoke the next morning, she gathered as many starflowers as she could find.  The princess began to sew.

Some time passed, and there came a day when huntsmen stumbled upon the tree the princess was sewing in.  They hailed her, but she did not answer.  Question after question they asked her, but the girl continued to sew in silence.  When they continued to bother her, she threw down her jewelry in the hopes of quieting them; when that did not work, she began to throw down her clothing, one piece at a time.

The huntsmen were soon joined by their king, who ruled over a nearby land.  He was struck with curiosity about the girl, who still refused to speak.  The tree was climbed, and the princess carried down to be presented to the king.  He flung his cloak around her and put her on his horse.  They rode back to his castle together.

Even though she was voiceless, it didn't take long for the king to fall in love with the beautiful princess.  Soon they were married, and she became his queen.

But not everyone in the kingdom was happy about this.  The king's mother still lived in the castle, and she was an evil, conniving woman.  She disliked the new queen, and was distrustful of her silence.  She began to spread nasty rumors about the queen.

Time passed, and the queen kept true to her word - she never spoke, or laughed, and she sewed every day on the shirts.  Eventually she became pregnant, and bore a child to the king.  However, as soon as the child was born, the king's mother whisked it away.  She spread a rumor that the queen had killed the child.  The king refused to believe it, but the queen remained silent on the matter, simply taking up her sewing once more.

Again the queen became pregnant, and once more the king's mother stole away the child, claiming that the queen had killed it.  The king still refused to believe that his gentle wife could do such a thing, but she was unable to speak up in her own defense.  When the third child of the king and queen likewise disappeared, the king was left with no choice but to turn his wife over to the castle guards.  She was sentenced to be burned at the stake the next day.

All the while, the queen continued to sew.  When dawn came and she was lead away to the stake to face her punishment, she took the shirts with her.  They were all finished, save for the left sleeve on the sixth shirt.

It so happened that the day she was to be burned alive was also the last day of the six years of her silence.  As the queen was led to the stake, she looked up and saw six swans flying towards her.  She smiled then.

The swans swooped in, and the queen flung a shirt onto each of them.  One by one, the swans transformed back into her brothers.  (One of them was left with a wing instead of a left arm, because he wore the shirt that she had been unable to complete.)

Her trial completed, the queen stepped down from the stake and approached her husband, who was staring in wonder at the swans-to-men.  She spoke to him for the first time, and told him that she was now free to defend herself against the allegations of his mother.  The queen explained that it was the king's mother who had stolen their children.  The castle was searched, the children were found, and they were brought before their father.

The king's mother was punished for her wickedness.  (In some versions of the story, she is attacked by the swans before they are turned back into princes.  In others, she is so overcome with rage at her plan's failure that she falls into a fit and dies.)

As for the king and queen, they lived in joy and peace with the six brothers for the rest of their days.

What did you guys think of the story?  If it sounds familiar, there's a good reason why.  There are an enormous number of fairy tales in which the female is unable to speak for some reason (The Little Mermaid is a great example of this).  There are also many in which children are transformed into birds.  Sometimes these are other fowl, such as ravens - but this particular version of the story used swans for a reason.  Its origins lie in the Celtic myth of The Children of Lir, which I discussed in an earlier post.

I hope you guys enjoyed!  I had a great time looking for pictures to use for this post.  I'll be back next week with another story!

Happy Beltane!

Hey guys!

Today we're going to be taking a look at a Gaelic festival called Beltane.  Beltane is an ancient holiday celebrating the coming of summer.  You might be more familiar with the name May Day.  Taking place on May 1st, Beltane falls between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.  Where Samhain marks the beginning of winter and the arrival of the cold spell, Beltane celebrates the start of summer and the arrival of the heat wave.  It's a time for fertility and the hope for renewal.

There are a number of characters involved in the rituals celebrating Beltane.  There's a neutral party called the Blue Men who watch over everything.  They don't take sides, but they defend the other players from outside forces.  The central figure is the May Queen, whose job is to awaken the earth from winter by harnessing the four elements.

The May Queen is guarded by the White Warrior Women, who represent order.  The May Queen is courted by the Winter King and takes him as her consort.  However, the Winter King attempts to overpower the May Queen, aided by the Red Men, who represent chaos.  The Red Men and the White Warrior Women counter one another, and are opponents.

(In behavior, the Red Men are very similar to the satyrs of Greek mythology, or to some of the earlier celebrations of Lupercalia.  They eat, drink, make merry, seduce, bed, and act in excess on the night of Beltane...and they attempt to encourage everyone at the festival to do the same thing.  A friend who has seen the Beltane festival described their behavior to me as "lewdness and lascivious.")

In the conflict which ensues, the Winter King is slain.  The May Queen takes pity on her consort, and brings him back to life...but he is changed.  He becomes the Green Man, a representation of the frozen winter earth being renewed for summer.  The corpse of the Winter King is then thrown onto the Beltane bonfire, and traditional blessings are spoken.

I mentioned that I had a friend attend the Beltane festival.  This festival occurs every year.  In the darkness, bonfires are lit, and an enormous ceremony takes place.  People dress as the May Queen, the Winter King, and all of the other characters.  There are enormous amounts of red and white paint used.  And then...they dance, and they perform the story.  I have never been lucky enough to see it in person, though I hope to one day.

However, my friend is a professional photographer, and she takes pictures of Beltane.  You can see her pictures from last year's celebration here, and this year's here.  (Some of the pictures are not quite safe for work, as a warning.)

I hope you guys enjoyed the look at Beltane!  My words do not do it justice.  I highly recommend checking out pictures or video footage of the celebration; the images are absolutely stunning, and tell a breathtaking story.

See you guys next week!