Hephaestus



Hephaestus (Ήφαιστος in Ancient Greek, also spelled Hephaistos) is the god of forges and fire and blacksmith to the gods. His Roman counterpart is Vulcan, sometimes Mulciber.

[edit] Physical description
He appears as a "huge lump" of a man with his shoulders at different heights and a bulging, misshapen head and his leg in a steel brace, with a wild black beard that sparks fire. He is the only Olympian to show such extreme physical injuries. Inside his workshop, he wears a jumpsuit smeared with grime and oil with the name Hephaestus embroidered over the chest pocket. In the fourth book, when Percy meets Hephaestus, he stated that he (Hephaestus) had "cleaned up" when he went to Olympus.

[edit] History
Due to Zeus' giving birth to Athena, Hera was angry at his actions. She then gave birth to Hephaestus. He was an ugly and deformed child. A rumor was spread by Hera that Zeus threw him from Mt. Olympus at birth due to his ugliness, when it was really Hera herself.

The goddess of love, Aphrodite, was causing a lot of problems in Olympus due to her radiant beauty. Zeus decided to wed her to Hephaestus to keep her off the market, though she still had multiple affairs with Ares. Though these days the affair is considered old news and every one just accepts it but Hephaestus still tries to find ways to publicly embarrass his wife and her lover in front of the other gods with elaborate traps and tricks. The most famous one and the first one was when he caught the two lovers in a magical net and then invited the other gods to come and laugh at the unfortunate.

He also took part in creating the metal giant Talos, the Trojan Horse, and other various automatons.

[edit] Personality
Hephaestus tends to be gruff, and disappointed in life and in people. When he was a child, his mother wanted nothing to do with him, and tried to kill him merely because he wasn't a good looking baby. His wife Aphrodite, is unfaithful to him. He is very bitter about his life, and says that he puts his faith in machines rather then people, as machines can't let you down. Hephaestus is said to have greatly admired Daedalus.

[edit] Powers/Abilities
He is god of the forges and can forge anything in a short amount of time. He is a master blacksmith and can make anything with the materials around him. He is the god of fire so can control fire and lava. Like the other gods he can teleport using shadow travel. He presumabley posseses the standard power of a God.

[edit] Children

 * Charles Beckendorf (Deceased)
 * Jake Mason
 * Two unnamed others
 * Isaac (Presumably not a book character, as he only appears in the video game.)