Hephaistos: Greatest God or the Lamest God?

In class today we were discussing which god is greatest. The obvious answer would be Zeus whose main role is as the leader of the gods, but when we started to look in greater detail that view started to be challenged. When Susan said we had to pick out a name and think about how they could be considered the greatest god or goddess I initially thought it would be quite easy until we drew out Hephaistos and all I could think of was "how lame." Well not really really, but who can resist that pun? I did find it hard to initially come up with any real reason that I couldn't dismiss straight away. The first thing we came up with was his main role as the blacksmith of the gods. Now this could be seen as a sign of his serving role to the rest of the gods but at the same time it can also be said that the gods need him to protect themselves.Not only the god of blacksmiths but he's also the god of fire and volcanoes both strong destructive elements which could denote great power. In book 21 of Illiad he "produced a supernatural conflagration ... and the whole plain was dried up." (Illiad. 21.342-345) His power is so great he is expected to help and save Achilles who has divine help from many, detectably, more powerful deities and so is can be considered equal.

The next day we looked at the Homeric Hymn for Hephaistos to see if it matched our interpretations.

"Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Hephaestus famed for inventions. With bright-eyed Athena he taught men glorious crafts throughout the world, —men who before used to dwell in caves in the mountains like wild beasts. [5] But now that they have learned crafts through Hephaestus the famed worker, easily they live a peaceful life in their own houses the whole year round.
Be gracious, Hephaestus, and grant me success and prosperity!"

The main point expressed in this hymn is his role as a 'working man's god'. He is one of the only gods who actually makes things which is probably why the ancients felt connected to him. It expressed a view that without him men would not have progressed and would still live in caves. That seems to be the only role it expresses and seems to miss out others we pointed out. He is famed for his inventions but he was also cunning and used his inventions to trick Hera and Aphrodite and Mars to get the better of them when he felt insulted. 

Walter Burkert has his own interpretation of Hephaistos from his book Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical:

Hephaistos: Hephaistos the god has crippled feet, making him an outsider among the perfect Olympians; for this there are realistic and mythological explanations; special powers are marked by a special sign… Glorious works of art come from his hands: tripods on wheels which roll about automatically and even robot maidens made of gold who support their master. Even more astonishing is the shield which he makes: an image of the entire world of man framed by the heavenly starts. The craftsman god becomes the model of the all-fashioning creator.
(Burkert 1985: 168)

Burkert has brought up something the Homeric Hymn and us left out, the fact that Hephaistos is a crippled god. The stories differ but at some point in his life he was declared lame and unfit to be on Olympus. Sometimes its at his birth and he was thrown off a mountain, sometimes he is lame because he was thrown off a mountain. All interpretations agree that he is lame, though for me it was an obvious negative point when talking about the greatest god, something that the author of the hymn must have felt too seeing as it isn't mentioned there either. Burkert though seems to suggest that it is a sign marking him out as special, maybe even greater than the "perfect Olympians" (Burkert 1985: 168) He is being present here as being the great craftsman -even a creator. We should remember that he did in fact create Pandora, although look at how that turned out. So even a great god can still have flaws and make mistakes.






Bibliography

• Anonymous. Translated by Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (1914) The Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 
• Burkert, W. (1985.) Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, Oxford: Blackwell. 
• Homer, translated by Rieu, E. V. (1950) The Iliad. London: Penguin.