Hephaestus

Hephaestus, the Roman Vulcan, is the god of fire and the forge, the divine craftsman whose skill shapes the wonders of Olympus — the armor of heroes, the thrones of the gods, the very sceptre of Zeus. Lame and, in some tellings, cast from heaven, he is the one Olympian marked by imperfection, yet unmatched in art.

His fire is the working, transforming fire of craft, and the philosophers took him as the image of the demiurgic power at the lowest, material level — the artisan-god who imposes form upon the resistant matter of the visible world, an earthly reflection of the higher fashioning by which the Demiurge frames the cosmos.

Epithets

• Amphigyeeis Ἀμφιγυήεις — the lame, strong in both arms
• Klytotechnes Κλυτοτέχνης — the renowned craftsman
• Polymetis Πολύμητις — of many devices
• Mulciber Lat. — the softener of metal