(European mythology)
The Greek smith god. He was lame as a result of having interfered in a quarrel between his parents, Zeus and Hera. So angry did Zeus become that he flung his son out of Olympus and let him fall heavily on the island of Lemnos. A late variant of the legend states that Hephaistos was born a dwarfish figure, with a limp, and that in disgust Hera threw him into the deep, where he would have drowned had not sea nymphs rescued him.
Hephaistos appears to have been imported from Asia Minor. He was associated with subterranean fires; the Greeks thought Lemnos showed signs of volcanic activity. In Athens, along with other centres of industry, the fire god was transformed into the deity of craftsmen who used fire for their trades. His own workshop was located within Mount Aetna in Sicily, an idea the Romans adopted for their analogue Vulcan.
