Highlights
- Hephaestus, the Greek god of craftsmen, was cast out of Olympus by his mother, Hera, due to his deformities.
- Hephaestus sought revenge against Hera but later made amends with her and the other Olympians.
- In the Percy Jackson series, Hephaestus plays a role in helping the main characters and is depicted as understanding machines more than people.
The Percy Jackson series is famous for the way in which it weaves classical Greek mythology stories into the plot, as Percy and his friends constantly encounter characters from that world or need to use the knowledge of those stories in some way in their own quests. It’s both a way to integrate these myths into the story and introduce the audience to this folklore that they might have previously been unfamiliar with.
Episode 5 of Percy Jackson and The Olympians introduced audiences to Hephaestus, the Greek god of craftsmen. His backstory is important to the plot of the episode, but it’s only briefly touched on in the actual show itself. Those who are looking to learn more about the (unfortunately) tragic backstory of Hephaestus within Greek mythology might be wondering why exactly he was cast out of Olympus, and why so much misfortune seems to follow him.
Who Is Hephaestus?
Hephaestus, as they mention in the Percy Jackson show, is the god of craftsmen, but also of forges, fire, technology, sculptors, blacksmiths, and volcanoes. So, pretty much anything mechanical or that a person crafts with their hands is under the domain of Hephaestus. He was Hera’s child, conceived through her own power as she impregnated herself. Perhaps because of this, when Hephaestus was born, he was incredibly deformed. Hera, disgusted by the sight of her child, threw him off of Mount Olympus, which crippled him permanently (despite being the goddess of family, Hera certainly wouldn’t be winning any Mother of the Year awards).
Hephaestus landed in the sea, where he was raised by a Nereid (a minor sea goddess) named Thetis. However, he was, understandably, always angry with Hera for what she had done and would seek revenge against her later in his life. When he had grown older, he traveled back to Olympus and presented the gods with brand-new thrones that he had created. Hera’s in particular was quite magnificent, which she was suspicious of, but it impressed her enough that she sat in it anyway. It immediately bound her in unbreakable chains, and Hephaestus refused to release her until much later, when Dionysus befriended him and convinced him to forgive Hera and let her out of the chains.
After this, he made up with Hera and was at least somewhat accepted by the Olympians again. Though he was incredibly handy and a fantastic inventor, he was often immediately judged by those around him because of his appearance. In the Percy Jackson series, he is often characterized as understanding machines more than people, which he explains in The Battle of the Labyrinth:
It isn’t easy being a brilliant inventor, always alone. Always misunderstood. Easy to turn bitter, make horrible mistakes. People are more difficult to work with than machines. And when you break a person, he can’t be fixed.
What Happened To Hephaestus?
Later on, Olympus was falling into chaos because of many of the male gods’ attraction to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. The family was threatening to fall apart as Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, and Hermes were all competing to win her for themselves, while Hephaestus sat back, assuming his deformities meant that he would have no chance with the goddess. Hera, in an attempt to salvage things, decided that as the goddess of marriage, she would decide who to pair Aphrodite off with. She chose Hephaestus, much to the dismay of Aphrodite and Ares in particular, and they were married right then and there.
Of course, Aphrodite didn’t really love her husband, despite his devotion to her. She began sneaking off with Ares, which everyone except Hephaestus knew about. However, after she birthed two children (Eros and Harmonia) who bore a striking resemblance to Ares, he grew suspicious, and Helios – the god of the sun – finally revealed the affair to him. Hephaestus, heartbroken, crafted a net that he used to catch Ares and Aphrodite in the act the next time they met each other. When he had trapped them in bed, he called the other gods in to look at them and laugh, and only agreed to release the pair when he was promised to receive back the gifts he had made for Aphrodite’s dowry.
What Role Does Hephaestus Play In Percy Jackson?
The first real mention of Hephaestus is when Percy and Annabeth venture to Waterland, an amusement park full of the god’s creations. They must retrieve Ares’s shield from a trap that was initially meant for Ares and Aphrodite. In the TV show, Hephaestus actually appears and assists Annabeth with freeing Percy from the throne after she makes a heartfelt plea. However, in the book series, Hephaestus is not present in this moment, and actually doesn’t meet the main characters until the fourth book, where he sends Percy and friends on a mission to find out who was using one of his forges, and later rescues Percy from Calypso’s island.
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