S1 E17

Hephaestus

Title

• Greek god of fire, metalworking, blacksmiths, forges, technology, sculpture

Description

• An ugly, stocky, bearded man in a chiton (greek robe) and a circular cap, with a hammer or other implement of smithcraft.

Duties

•  Created the weapons and armor for the gods as well as for heroes

Lineage

• Some sources have Hera birthing Hephaestus by herself in retaliation for Zeus birthing Athena, other sources have him as the son of both Zeus and Hera

Stories

• Hephaestus was told by the sun god Helios that he was being cheated on by Aphrodite with Ares. So he set a trap for the lovers. When Aphrodite and Ares next got together they were held fast by invisible bonds. Hephaestus then dragged them before the gods in Olympus. All the gods laughed at the naked pair. Then Poseidon coaxed Hephaestus to let them go promising that either Ares or Poseidon would pay the adulterers fee.

Interesting Facts

• One of the stories of his fall from Olympus has Zeus throwing him down and Hephaestus becoming lame from that, the other story is that Hera cast him out because he was lame already

Symbols

• Tongs, hammer, anvil, fire, donkeys

Ears burning

It is thought that this stems from 2nd century Rome. Ears burning suggests that someone is talking about you behind your back.   A variation on this offers that the burning sensation means that someone is talking well of you and if your ears are cold then they are speaking ill of you. In looking this up, the ears burning superstition I found has been used by famous poets such as G. Chaucer and Charles Dickens. This helped it to widely spread that the belief is true. 

There is an ancient philosopher who began this next version of the superstition, in which if one’s ears were itching it meant the same thing as your ears burning. Here it is highlighted that there is a difference between the left side and right side. As with the lucky rabbit’s foot superstition (covered in Season 1, Episode 15) we once again find that the right side was all that is good and the left side represented all that is bad or evil. 

Itching ears means you’ll hear a secret. Depending on which ear, you will know the gender of the person who wants to tell it. (Left Girl, Right Boy)

By now this superstition has reached quite possibly every country in the world.

Weaving and Fiber Arts

Earth-North

There is evidence of thread spinning from 20,000 years ago. Hand spinning, which is spinning the wool or other material against the leg to get a thread is where it started and simply became more complex as time went on with drop spindles and spinning wheels.

It is not known where exactly weaving started, early looms required two people to work. In Meroe, at about the 4th century BC they were quite skilled. There is possible evidence for weaving to have started much earlier, but nothing concrete as of this time.

 As far as knitting goes it was established before the 11th century, we know this because of a knitted sock that was found in Egypt, well made and obviously not a forerunner. Many histories place the beginning of knitting in the middle east and migrating from there.

Crochet, however, didn’t