Editing Hephaestus (section)

==== Hephaestus and Athena ====
[[File:Athena Scorning the Advances of Hephaestus.jpg|thumb|''[[Athena]] Scorning the Advances of Hephaestus'' by [[Paris Bordone]] (between c. 1555 and c. 1560)]]
Hephaestus is to the male gods as Athena is to the female goddesses, for he was believed to have taught the mortals crafts and arts alongside Athena.<ref>Od. vi. 233, xxiii. 160. Hymn. in Vaulc. 2. &c.</ref> At Athens, they had temples and festivals in common.<ref group="lower-alpha">See Dict of Ant. s. v. Hêphaisteia, Chalkeia.</ref> Both were believed to have great healing powers, and Lemnian earth (terra Lemnia), from the spot on which Hephaestus had fallen, was believed to cure madness, snakebite and haemorrhage; priests of Hephaestus knew how to cure wounds inflicted by snakes.<ref>Philostr. Heroic. v. 2; Eustath. ad Hom. p.&nbsp;330; Dict. Cret. ii. 14.</ref> He was represented in the temple of Athena Chalcioecus (Athena of the Bronze House<ref>The Museum of Goddess Athena, [http://www.goddess-athena.org/Museum/Temples/Sparta/index.htm Sanctuary of Athena Chalkiokos at Sparta]</ref>) at Sparta, in the act of delivering his mother;<ref>Paus. iii. 17. § 3</ref> on the chest of Cypselus, giving Achilles's armor to Thetis;<ref>v. 19. § 2</ref> and at Athens there was the famous statue of Hephaestus by Alcamenes, in which his physical disability was only subtly portrayed.<ref>Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 30; Val. Max. viii. 11. § 3</ref>  He had almost "no cults except in Athens".<ref name="Greek Folk Religion" /> The Greeks frequently placed miniature statues of Hephaestus near their hearths, and these figures are the oldest of all his representations.<ref>Herod. iii. 37; Aristoph. Av. 436; Callim. Hymnn. in Dian. 60</ref> In [[Athens]], there is a [[Temple of Hephaestus]], the ''Hephaesteum'' (miscalled the "Theseum") near the [[agora]]. Athena is sometimes thought to be the "soulmate" of Hephaestus.<ref>Stein, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JwgtCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 p. 11], which goes on to say: "Yet a kind of cloudy mysteriousness shrouds their relationship; no single tradition was ever clearly established on this subject, and so what confronts us is a blurred image based on rumors and conflicting reports."</ref> Nonetheless, Hephaestus "seeks impetuously and passionately to make love to Athena: at the moment of climax she pushes him aside, and his semen falls to the earth where it impregnates Gaia."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hillman |first1=James |title=Facing the Gods |publisher=Spring Pubns |year=1980 |isbn=978-0882143125}}</ref>

An Athenian [[founding myth]] tells that the city's patron goddess, [[Athena]], refused a union with Hephaestus. Pseudo-Apollodorus{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=281}} records an archaic legend, which claims that Hephaestus once attempted to rape Athena, but she pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=123}}<ref name="Burkert-143">{{citation |last=Burkert |first=Walter |title=Greek Religion |page=143 |year=1985 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-36281-0 |author-link=Walter Burkert}}</ref> Athena wiped the [[semen]] off using a tuft of [[wool]], which she tossed into the dust, impregnating [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] and causing her to give birth to [[Erichthonius of Athens|Erichthonius]],{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=123}}<ref name="Burkert-143" /> whom Athena adopted as her own child.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=123}} 

The Roman mythographer Hyginus{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=281}} records a similar story in which Hephaestus demanded Zeus to let him marry Athena since he was the one who had smashed open Zeus's skull, allowing Athena to be born.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=123}} Zeus agreed to this and Hephaestus and Athena were married,{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=123}} but, when Hephaestus was about to consummate the union, Athena vanished from the bridal bed, causing him to ejaculate on the floor, thus impregnating Gaia with Erichthonius.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=123}}<ref>Hyginus made an imaginative etymology for ''Erichthonius'', of strife (''[[Eris (mythology)|Eris]]'') between Athena and Hephaestus and the Earth-child (''chthonios'').</ref> Nonnus refers to this tale of Erechthonius being born of the Earth after a "makeshift marriage", but says that Athena then nursed Erechthonius on her "manlike breast".<ref name="nonnus 29.317" />