The Olympians...Part 3

Zeus and Hera had two children: Ares and Hephaestus. Ares was the God of War: an inexorable and terrible God who slept on the skins of the men he killed and spread discord and pain wherever he went. On the flip side of the coin he is also sometimes held to be the patron of heroic deeds and valiant acts of war. Hephaestus' story is an interesting one. He alone of the Gods is not perfectly formed. He is a deformed and cripple God and Hera, the Goddess of family herself was repulsed to see him when he was born. He was thrown from Olympus from whence he fell nine days and nights till he reached the earth. By the time the Iliad is written, however, Hephaestus is back on Olympus and is indeed a very important divinity: the god of fire and mechanical creation and invention. He is the blacksmith of the Gods and keeps their armour as well as their domestic metalwork in shape.

Zeus alone gave rise to Athena. She is said to have "sprung from his head in full armour." She is Zeus' favourite child and the most trusted Olympian, by men and Gods alike. She is the only one who is allowed to carry Zeus' master bolt and his shield: the terrible Aegis. She is most often referred to as the gray eyed or stormy eyed goddess. Athena is a complex concept to swallow. She was a warlike Goddess yet not the Goddess of war: that was Bellonna. She was the Goddess of arts and crafts and a patron of tradesmen. She was the protector of cities and the urban way of life. Most importantly she was the Goddess of wisdom: the all knowing Goddess and the strategist of the Gods.