Hera And Hephaestus

I've heard Hera kicked off Hephaestus, her son, 'cause he was ugly. I want to hear more about this.


There are several versions of this story. Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, but when he was born, his mother saw he was very ugly and threw him from Mount Olympus. He fell for nine days and nine nights and landed into the ocean and then he was brought up by Thetis, who was Achilles' mother. Because of this fall, he was rendered lame.
He wanted revenge for this, so he made a magic gold throne that he send as a gift to Hera. When she sat on it, she was magically tied and she couldn't go away. The other gods begged Hephaestus to come back to Olympus and free her, but he declared he had no mother. Greek god Dionysus got him drunk and brought him to mount Olympus on a mule. He finally freed Hera when he was given Aphrodite as a wife.
Another story says that it was Zeus who threw him from mount Olympus, either because he was ugly, or because the little child tried to defend his mother, Hera, when she had an argument with Zeus. In this version, he only fell for one day. And, of course, he remained crippled forever because of this fall. He landed in the island of Lemnos, where he learned to be a blacksmith.
Poor Hephaestus, I guess you can say he was a child who was abused by his parents. I guess these gods didn't have an easy life, after all!

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Jul 25, 2024
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I remember something different NEW
by: Anonymous

I remember reading as a child that Hera was angry with Zeus because of his affairs. Hera met a handsome mortal, and as an act of revenge, had sex with him. Hephaestus was born but was so ugly to Hera, she threw him off Olympus.

Dec 20, 2017
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by: A.I.

In general it is considered that Hephaestus was born normally from Hera and Zeus. There is one version though which says that he was born from Hera alone. She swallowed a certain plant and became pregnant, because she wanted to have a child alone, just like Zeus had had Athena alone (which is not entirely correct, because Athena grew in her mother's womb until Zeus swallowed her mom, Metis, and then she continued to grow inside her father's head - so we can't say he had the child all alone).

Dec 14, 2017
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hephaestus
by: Anonymous

But what part of hera did Hephaestus come from because all of his other siblings came fro a part of zeus

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