Trust is not given, it's forged.
-Hephaestus ("God Games")
Hephaestus is the god of fire and blacksmithing. He is the son of Hera, brother of Ares and husband (or ex-husband) of Aphrodite. He serves as “Level 2” of Zeus' test for Athena during God Games in EPIC: The Musical.
Biography[]
Act 2[]
Hephaestus is invited by Zeus to test Athena as a pre-requisite for saving Odysseus from Calypso. In “Level 2” of God Games, Hephaestus asks Athena why he should trust Odysseus if he would sacrifice his own crew and break the bonds he forged with them. Athena explains that the crew ignored and betrayed Odysseus and how he could build a better future with his wife and son. After this, he says that Odysseus should be released.
Renditions/Animation[]
N/A
Trivia[]
- Hephaestus' instrument is a hammer and church bell to match his smithing and metallic theme.[1]
- In the official animatics, Hephaestus is shown to have prosthetics in his legs.
- This is likely a reference to how he was thrown off of Olympus as a child, and a second time (according to a different source) as an adult.
- Hephaestus is voiced by Jorge's father, Mike Rivera.
- In mythology some sources present Zeus as the father of Hephaestus, but he is sometimes called the son of Hera alone, created by the goddess herself out of jealousy after Athena was born seemingly without any woman's assistance, coming out of her father's head. But he was so ugly that Hera threw him off of Mount Olympus when he was just a baby, causing him an injury in his leg. In some versions of Athena's birth, however, Hephaestus was already a living god when that happened.
- While Homer mentioned Hephaestus as the husband of Aphrodite (having "won" her hand in marriage by making a deal with Hera and Zeus), in the Iliad their marriage is seemingly over (due to their mutual unhappiness and her infidelities), since the wife of the god of crafts is Charis (or Aglaea, as Hesiod called her), a minor goddess of beauty and adornment. Both stories agree that Aphrodite is the lover of the god of war, Ares, and in the musical they are portrayed together, with no interaction with Hephaestus.