In both ancient Greek and Latin "Hephaistos' breath" is a poetic way to say fire and often the god's name was used as a synonym for the element. Even iron, "hardest of all things", is softened by fire and melts through the strength of #Hephaistos.
I wrote a whole article on #Hestia and Hephaistos, the gods of fire in #GreekMythology which is free to read on my website:
"Demodokos struck his lyre and began a beguiling song about the loves of Ares and Aphrodite, how first they lay together secretly in the dwelling of #Hephaistos. Ares had offered many gifts to the garlanded divinity and covered with shame the marriage bed of Lord Hephaistos."
Homer, #Odyssey 8.267
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is mirrors. #Aphrodite is often depicted with a mirror, so much so that a stylised mirror became the symbol of the planet #Venus and of the element copper in #alchemy. Copper is associated with Aphrodite through the island of #Cyprus, one of her major cult centres where she is said to have first stepped foot after her birth in the sea. Cyprus was famous in antiquity for its copper ore deposits.
So much so that our word copper derives from aes Cyprium, metal of #Cyprus. Mirrors in antiquity were often made of polished #copper (alloys).
Today, the symbol of #Venus is still used in biology for the female sex ♀️.
Another story about mirrors concerns #Aphrodite's husband Hephaistos: According to the Illiad, #Hephaistos landed on Lemnos after being thrown from Olympos by his father Zeus. The myth can be read as an intersting allegory:
Hephaistos (the personification of fire) arrives on #Lemnos from the sky, as it would through a burning mirror. He is weak, within an inch of his life, but the people of Lemnos care for him and kindle the weak little flame until it grows strong enough to craft the most beautiful things.
Read more about #Hephaistos in my article on gods of fire:
A humourous oil painting of the love of #Mars and #Venus that was created when the artist was only 15 or 16 years old.
Mars ist struck by an arrow in his chest but it is a love arrow 😘
🏛️ Mars, Venus and #Vulcan, by John Singleton Copley. Oil on canvas, dated 1754 CE. Today in the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, USA.
"Phaethon [#Helios] laughed, because #Ares in the seafight of [#Dionysos against the Indians] had fled again before the fire of #Hephaistos, as once before he fled from his chains."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 39.403
🎨 Helios (possibly Alexander of Macedon) bronze bust, 1st century CE.
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is fire and there are two major Greek gods associated with fire: #Hestia, goddess of the hearth, and #Hephaistos, god of smiths.
They represent #fire in two different forms: the sacrificial flame of the hearth as the sacred centre of domestic life and the flame of Hephaistos, source of all arts, and fuel of the funeral pyre. But both could be invoked for the cooking of sacrificial meat or a good meal:
"For without you [Hestia] mortals hold no banquet."
Homeric Hymn 24 to #Hestia
"Swine with the fat abundant upon them were singed and stretched out across the flame of #Hephaistos."
Homer, Iliad 9.467
As the hearth of a house is at the same time the altar on which sacrifices are offered to the domestic gods, Hestia presides over all sacrifices, and, as the goddess of the sacred fire of the altar, she gets a share of every sacrifice to the gods made at home or in their temples.
If it did go out, only sacred fire produced by friction, or by bronze burning mirrors drawing fire from the sun, might be used to rekindle it.
A ritual from #Lemnos, the cult centre of #Hephaistos, has all fires on Lemnos extinguished for nine days until new fire is brought from the island of #Delos:
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is work.
Four deities spring to my mind when I think of work: #Demeter, #Hermes, #Hephaistos, and #Athena. #AncientGreece was an agricultural society with 80% of the population being involved in this line of work. In Greek mythology, it was Demeter who invented agriculture but according to Diodorus Siculus she burnt all the grain when her daughter #Persephone vanished out of grief and anger.