Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/37

THE GREEK GODS 23 the head of Zeus by a stroke of his axe (lightning) ; amid loud cries of victory (thunder) the goddess of the thunderstorm, Pallas Athena, springs forth, evidently a tale in which the phenomena occurring at the cleav- ing of a thundercloud by lightning have been attributed to the different divinities of the thunderstorm. 33. Out of regard to the fructifying power of the spring thunderstorms, Charis, the goddess of spring, is represented as being wedded to Hephaestus, according to the Iliad ; in the Odyssey, however, he is the husband of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and fertility. After the invention of the art of working metal by the aid of fire, the phenomena of the thunderstorm were compared to the work in a forge, and so Hephaestus became the smith of the gods, with hammer, tongs, cap, and short working garment, who made weapons and ornaments for the im- mortals. Then when the Greeks became acquainted with the burning mountain on Lemnos and the volcanoes of Sicily and the Liparian islands, they transferred the forge of Hephaestus to these mountains, and called the Cyclops his comrades. The story now ran thus : because he had sided with his mother Hera in her quarrel with her husband, he was thrown down from Heaven upon the island Lemnos. This forthwith became one of the principal seats of his worship, a worship which blended with that of the oriental Cabiri (' great gods '), who were worshiped there and were in their nature related to him. 34. Another god of lightning and fire, originally, like Hephaestus, is Prometheus ('man of forethought'), who purloined fire from the gods, in order to give life, as well as fire, to the human beings that he had formed out