Hephaestus - Tumblr Posts

Aglaea starting to flirt with Hephaestus right after he divorced Aphrodite:

Greek gods as random things said by Ethel Cain @vacillator

Zeus

Hera

Demeter

Hades

Hephaestus

Ares

Aphrodite

Apollo

Artemis

Dionysus

Helios: You know, sometimes the woman a man marries usually resembles his mother.

Hephaestus: What is that even supposed to mean?

Helios: That she'll probably love your brother more.

Hephaestus: ...

Hephaestus: I hate you.

Helios: The sentiment is mutual.

Hephaestus: Why are you roasting me in the first place? What did I do to you?

Helios: It's not about what you did to me. It's about what you didn't do to my daughter, Aglaea.

Hephaestus: Namely?

Helios: You know... holding hands, kissing, cuddling naked...

Hephaestus: Okay, no need to continue. I see what you mean now.

Helios: Great, I didn't want to continue either.

Hephaestus: Do you want me to marry her?

Helios: She always wanted to marry you. Not sure if she's be able to stand an asshole like you though.

Hephaestus: She is.

Helios: How do you know that?

Hephaestus: Sometimes the man a woman marries usually resembles her father.

Helios: ...

Helios: Touché.

Note: Aglaea is sometimes considered Helios' daughter. While this version is less common, the idea of Helios telling Hephaestus the truth about his wife so that Aglaea could have a chance with him is hilarious.

Before starting to talk about this subject I want to make one thing clear: Hephaestus is one of my favourite Greek Gods (either in Top 5 or Top 10), so I'm not writing this post because I dislike him, but because I cannot stand superficial/surfface-level depictions of greek gods' personalities, nor the simplification of them and the erasure of their nuances (either through romanticization or demonization).

I do appreciate the fact that a lot of people start to realize that the relationship between Aphrodite and Hephaestus was a disfunctional one and that both of them are happier with different people (Ares and Aglaea, respectively). However, the fact that many people are usually focusing only on Aphrodite's actions and ignore Hephaestus' abusiveness rubs me in a wrong way.

Now, referring to Hephaestus as an Incel or choosing to villainize him for that is not the best solution either. He wasn't the only god asking Zeus for a wife, nor the only one who presents a more or less misogynistic attitude towards women. We're talking here about Ancient Greece, so expecting the deities to act how we would expect them to act based on nowdays' principles and standards is unrealistic and juvenile. I would also like to point out the fact that Hephaestus is, according to Hesiod's Theogony, happily married with Aglaea, who is also described as his first and only wife. They also have four daughters according to Orphic Rhapsodies Frag. And yet he is the exact same deity that you guys claim to be an Incel, which is a contraditiction to the original meaning of the term. The word was ment to reffer to a category of men who blame their appearance for not being able to have sex (when in truth the reason why women don't want them is rather due to their personality and beliefs; and by beliefs I mean their tendency of objectifying women and having ridiculously high standards for their future wives while simultaneously getting offended when a woman has her own standards too). I can see Apollo and Hades falling into more Incel Stereotypes than him, considering the fact that one of them cursed many women for refusing to sleep with him, whereas the other literally had to kidnap a woman in order to have a wife. And yet nobody dares to call them Incels, just because they two aren’t described as being disabled nor falsely considered unattractive, unlike Hephaestus.

That being said, negating his wrongs and turning him into a woobie who did nothing wrong just because you cannot stand Aphrodite isn't a good way of perceiving their relationship either. While Aphrodite was indeed manipulative towards Hephaestus and her sleeping with his own brother in his bed was hardly admirable, I would also like to point out the fact that Hephaestus was pretty much toxic and revengeful towards her too.

Now, there are a lot of versions on how they got married as well as a lot of lost fragments, which leads to speculations rather than something 100% certain. So I won't talk about it purely because I want to avoid misinterpretiation and misinformation, and discuss directly about what intetests me the most.

Wheter or not Aphrodite willingly married him or loved him, what do we know for sure is that she preffered Ares more and had an affair with him all this time. Being cheated on is a form a betrayal from a partner, so Hephaestus being angry on her is understandable. However, instead of divorcing her directly, he decided to humiliate her in one of the worst ways possible before separating from her:

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 14. 40 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :

"With cheek shame-crimsoned, like the Queen of Love, what time the Heaven-abiders saw her clasped in Ares' arms, shaming in sight of all the marriage-bed, trapped in the myriad-meshed toils of Hephaistos : tangled there she lay in agony of shame, while thronged around the Blessed, and there stood Hephaistos' self: for fearful it is for wives to be beheld by husbands' eyes doing the deed of shame."

On top of that, Hephaestus directed his wrath towards one of Aphrodite and Ares' daughters (Harmonia) and her descendants as well, despite the fact it wasn't technically her fault that she was fathered by his brother:

Statius, Thebaid 2. 265 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :

"The dread necklace of Harmonia . . . The Lemnian [Hephaistos], so they of old believed, long time distressed at Mars' [Ares'] deceit and seeing that no punishment gave hindrance to the disclosed armour, and the avenging chains removed not the offence [of his affair with Hephaistos' then wife Aphrodite], wrought this [a cursed necklace] for Harmonia on her bridal day to be the glory of her dower [description of the necklace follows] . . .

The work first proved its worth, when Harmonia's complaints turned to dreadful hissing, and she bore company to grovelling Cadmus, and with long trailing breast drew furrows in the Illyrian fields [the pair were turned into serpents in Illyria]. Next, scarce had shameless Semele [their daughter] put the hurtful gift about her neck, when lying Juno [Hera] crossed her threshold. Thou too, unhappy Jocasta, didst, as they say, possess the beauteous, baleful thing, and didst deck thy countenance with its praise - on what a couch, alas! to find favour; and many more beside. Last Argia shines in the splendour of the gift, and in pride of ornament and accursed gold surpassed her sister's mean attiring. The wife of the doomed prophet [Eriphyle wife of Amphiaraus] beheld it, and at every shrine and banquet in secret cherished fierce jealousy, if only it might be granted her to possess the terrible jewel, nought profited, alas!"

Furthermore, I would also like to emphasize the fact that Hephaestus had a considerable amount of lovers. And while timeline is another uncertain aspect and he might have slept with those women before he married Aphrodite and/or between the moment when he divorced her and the one when he remarried, the possibility of him cheating on Aphrodite isn't an impossible one. In this case, that could be taken as a Double Standard, and his reaction when he found out that Aphrodite was cheating on him would be completely hypocritical.

As I said, Aphrodite was abusive and toxic towards him as well. But deciding to solely demonize her instead of acknowledging that both of them were abusive and toxic towards each other -I don't like to use this term but I can't find another one for the moment- is purely slut-shaming. Some of you guys are complaining about how "Hera has no agency" and were praising Kaos for portraying her as cheating on Zeus despite the fact that this is out of her character because "He finally got a taste of his own medicine", yet when Aphrodite cheats on her possible unfaithful husband she's suddenly a whore. You guys want a goddess who can be sexually active without any sort of inhibitions, yet when Aphrodite is brought into discussion there's at least one person who won't hesitate to call her all slurs for that, whereas Demeter is turned into a prude on top of being a Helicopter Parent in many fanfictions and retellings (because apparently when a woman becomes a mother she cannot care about anything else).

So instead of choosing one extreme or another where a) Aphrodite is a brainless slut and Hephaestus a poor woobie or b) Aphrodite is a helpless victim and Hephaestus an Incel who deserved to be cheated on, perhaps it would be a better idea to treat them as humane, realistic figures, instead of some sort of cartoonish caricatures who can easily fit into whatever labels and tropes you want them to fit in.

hephaestus  ⠂ greek god of fire, metalworking and volcanoes

You are having a breakdown because your wife just cheated, and no one is really that good to give you any comfort.

03: percy jackson - coming of age

coming of age, teen troubles, vengeful youth if you squint, the emotional rollercoaster of being a teenage demigod

Sharing so that more people can see this because I wanna see this made too

hear me out

God Games. Hephastus part

Hes working on something, facing away from Athena. Gets frustrated. Throws it behind him. Athena catches it during her part, fiddles with it a bit, turns it upside down, BAM, it's a lifelike mechanical owl that flutters its wings and cocks its head. Hephaestus takes it back.

"Fine. Release him"

Hephaestus then has that owl on his shoulder at the end in the background of Athena and Zeus fight.

Can we have this please weekend im begging u. Tag anyone who could make this into a wipe or animatic.

Please.

Ares: I CAN'T DO IT!

Hephaestus, laughing: I CAN'T EITHER!

Ares: I CANT FUCKING DO IT ANYMORE

Athena: WELL I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, YOU CAN EITHER GIVE UP NOW, OR YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT. BECAUSE WE CERTAINLY CAN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU, AND WE KNOW YOU CAN'T DO IT WITHOUT US.

Ares:

Ares: I appreciate it,

Ares: BUT LOOK WHAT WE'RE DEALING WITH-

Apollo: Ares-

Ares: YOU GOTTA DRAW THE LINE SOMEWHERE!

Hera: Ares we gotta-

Ares: YOU GOTTA DRAW A FUCKING LINE IN THE SAND. YOU GOTTA MAKE A STATEMENT.

Ares: YOU GOTTA LOOK INSIDE YOURSELF AND SAY 'What am I willing to put up with today?'

Ares, motioning to Zeus: NOT FUCKING THIS

Ares: If you bite it and you die, it’s poisonous. If it bites you and you die, it’s venomous.

Hephaestus : What if it bites me and it dies!?

Hades: Then you’re poisonous. Jesus Christ, Hephaestus , learn to listen.

Apollo: What if it bites itself and I die?

Poseidon: That’s voodoo.

Zeus: What if it bites me and someone else dies?

Hephaestus: That’s correlation, not causation.

Poisodeon: What if we bite each other, and neither of us die?

Apollo: That’s kinky.

Ares: Oh my God.

“Run your morning bath in sea foam Soak your milky skin in the tide Little pearl, you think you're in gold But I can see the dirt in your lines”

I love that this song is a narration of Hephaestus’ thoughts/emotions towards Aphrodite.

Credits:

Lyrics: “Alrighty Aphrodite”, Peach Pit

Art 1: “The Birth of Venus” by Henry Courtney Selous, 1852.

Art 2: “Lady holding a dish of pearls” by Pierre Mignard (cropped detail)

Nah same cause I'm like no hephaestus kid( i would love too see), no hades,no persephone ,like please moreeeee

i have nothing against aphrodite but guys…come onnnn where’s the variety??

Commissions of Hermes, Hephaestus, and Dionysus for @tartarusgames on IG

Any redistribution or reproduction of commissioned artwork for any purposes without express written permission from the client is not permitted.

Apollo and Hephaestus though??? They did not want to be there, they just wanted it overwith. "Here's an argument, oh no you disagree, release him sure idc" and that's honestly so iconic of them. They just want her to stop bothering them.

Yes.

GREEK GODS AS ANIMATED TEXTS :D

low effort Olympian memes :)

ZEUS

POSEIDON

HADES

HERA

DEMETER

HESTIA

APOLLO

ARTEMIS

ATHENA

HEPHAESTUS

ARES

APHRODITE

DIONYSUS

HERMES

Epic the musical gonna consume me

Not me, choosing God Games as my first animatic of epic the musical. You know, the longest song? with the most characters?

No, never. It's not like I have to conserve energy for a dracula theatre production or anything. Nooo.

Anyway, here are some rough designs and some even rougher frames. I did storyboard the whole thing for the most part, but I still have so much to do, anyway:

Let's start with Athena:

I made her hair in rough wing shapes, and her cape is technically wings, but can turn into snakes. When she needs those.

I'm quite pleased with her spear design, since she is also the patron goddess of weavers, and spinning, I took inspiration from a distaff, which as far as my research goes is used to hold loose fibers to be spun into thread?

Next up is Apollo:

At first I wanted to go with a more plague heavy desing, since that is mostly what he did during the trojan war, which would be Odysseus's reference point, I guess. But that would not have fit so well with the lyrics, so he got a snek instead. And he has hyazinths as his laurel wreath. (and the last touch is his hair, which is inspired by Mortius on YouTube, through whom I properly discovered epic)

Next up: Heffefuff (Hephaestus)

I wanted to include the whole: "was thrown from olypus as a baby"-thing, so I gave him two prosthetics: his arm and lower leg. His arm is made from metal. Engraved is his fall/push from Olympus on his bizeps, and the legendary weapons he crafted on his lower arm (including but not limited to: Achilles Helmet and Spear). His lower leg is made up from fire and Magma/Lava.

He's also got an eyepatch, cause those are cool.

Next on the roster is Aphrodite:

From the beginning I knew I wanted to go for Aphrodite Areia, the Aphrodite which would have been worshipped in Sparta. The Armed Aprhodite in full armor, with weapons and shield. The first draft on the left, was just that: a first draft (though I am keeping the Spartan Shield). The second draft (which became the final one) Is what I'm gonna go with. I am givng her legs a seafoam patters, as the : formed out of seafoam -origin, is the funniest in my opinion.

In her hand, she is holding a rose, which kinda doubles as a weapon, not sure about the practicality on that.

Ares is up next:

Like Aphrodite Ares also has 2 drafts, the left one is more traditional or rather mainstream I think. I wanted to lean into the "breaker of walls" epithet which he holds. So I gave him a hammer and a matching shield to Aphrodite.

Fun fact another ephithet of Ares is (according to wikipedia), "Wearing the gore of men", or sth similar. So his clothing is made from blood. Ain't that neat?

For the final product I'm leaning more towards the brawler version on the right, with the big gauntlets. Just like him more. more antithetical to Athena in that way, me thinks.

Next up: Hera

The only one I really struggled with. There are so many cool designs for her out there, and I did not want to copy anyones. So I tried to do my own thing. First of: her sleeves are those of an 80's wedding dress. To match her vibe and domain as goddess of marriage. The veil is of a similar effect, being essentially one long peacock feather. This design also does not have her crown yet, whoops.

She is associated with cows, but I did not want to give her horns, so instead she got the legs. Another association with her is pomegranates, which is very interesting as those are usually associated with Persephone. But since both rulers of the Underworld are very absent in Epic the musical, I think Hera can have them. As a treat. Specifically, she's got a scepter with a pomegranate on top, which transforms into a microphone.

Now for Zeus.

He don't get a picture. Nor specific art. Buddy is gonna be a cumulus nimbus and be happy about it. Fuck him. Actually that would be a really dumb idea.

Anyway, here are some Apollo v. Athena frames:

Based off this incorrect quote:

How I imagine the greek gods, (picrew)

Zeus

Hera

Ares

Hephaestus

Hades

Artemis

Pt.2 will be soon!

MC to Ophion: Ophion, can you say meow?

Ophion(upset) : My spouse...I love you but I have dignity too...I'm a dragon for Olympus' sake

MC to Lil' Salomon: Sal, can you say meow?

Lil' Salomon (upset): Master! That's rude!

MC to Hephaestus: Heph, can you say meow?

Hephaestus (doubtful): umm...m-meow?

MC smiles embracing Heph : ahh...that's healing!

Ophion and Lil' Salomon are shocked watching the scene

Hephaestus (glad while MC still hugs him): Mama is happy...that's good!

Aizen watching the scene from a far point: you, impure romantic fiend!