Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster - Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust
Civilian WW2 disaster of 3 March 1943
Hephaestus
Authors Note: This post has mentions of (g)rape. If this is triggering, please go on to 1 of our other posts.
Hes the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture, & volcanoes.
In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Hera, either on her own or her husband/brother, Zeus. He was cast off Mount Olympus by his mom, Hera, because of his lameness, the result of a congenital impairment. Or, in another account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his advances.
As a smithing god, Hephaestus created all the weapons of the gods on Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods & was worshipped in the manufacturing & industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus symbols are a smiths hammer, anvil, & a pair of tongs. In Rome, he was equated with Vulcan.
In Hesiods Theogony, Hera gives birth to Hephaestus on her own, out of revenge for Zeus having, without her, fathered Athena (the daughter of Zeus & Metis). Apollodorus similarly states that Hera gives birth to Hephaestus alone. Though according to Homer, Hephaestus is 1 of the kids of Zeus & Hera.
Some sources state that the origin myth of Hephaestus was that of a daemon of fire coming up from the Earth, that he was also associated with gas which takes fire & burns & is considered by many people to be divine & that only later was a volcano considered Hephaestus smithy.
He was associated by Greek colonists in southern Italy with the volcano gods Adranus (of Mount Etna) & Vulcanus of the Lipari islands.
The 1st-century sage, Apollonius of Tyana, is said to have observed, there are many other mountains all over the earth that are on fire, & yet we should never be done with it if we assigned to them giants & gods like Hephaestus. Nevertheless, Hephaestus domain over fire goes back to Homers Iliad, where he uses flames to dry the waters of the Scamander River in order to force its eponymous deity, who was attacking Achilles, to retreat.
His favorite place in our mere mortal world was the island of Lemnos. He liked to live among the Sintians. But he also repeatedly went to other volcanic islands like Lipari, Imbros, & Sicily, which were called his abodes/workshops. In 1 version of events, Hera rejects, then ejects Hephaestus from Olympus/the heavens because of his congenital impairment. (Its implied that his congenital disability is because of Zeus & Heras familial relationship, i.e. brother & sister.)
Because of Heras actions, he fell into the ocean & of Heras actions, he fell into the ocean & was raised by Thetis (Achilles mom & 1 of the 50 Nereids) & Eurynome, the Oceanid. In another version, Hephaestus, attempting to rescue his mom from Zeus advances, was cast down to earth by Zeus, not Hera!
He (Hephaestus) was cast down for 1 whole day & landed on the island of Lemnos. On Lemnos, he was cared for & taught to be a master craftsman by the Sintians. Later writers describe his physical disability as a result of his 2nd fall. While Homer makes him disabled from birth.
Hephaestus was 1 of the Olympians who came back to Olympus after being exiled. In an archaic story, Hephaestus wanted revenge against Hera for rejecting him by forging her a magical golden throne, which, when she sat on it, didnt let her stand up again.
The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go. But he refused, saying, Ive no mom. It was Ares who undertook the task of fetching Hephaestus at 1st. But he was threatened by the fire god with torches. At last, Dionysus (the wine god) fetched him, got him drunk on wine, & took the subdued smith back to Olympus on the back of a mule, accompanied by revelers.
According to Hyginus, Zeus promised anything to Hephaestus to free Hera. Hephaestus asked for Athenas hand in marriage (urged by Poseidon, who was hostile toward Athena), leading to his attempted (g)raping of the goddess, who rejected his advances.
In another version, he demanded to be married to Aphrodite to release Hera, & his mom fulfilled the request. Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with an anvil(s) & 20 bellows that worked at his bidding.
He crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, & almost any finely wrought metalwork imbued with powers that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus. He designed all the thrones in the Olympian palace, the Aegis breastplate, Hermes (not the fashion house) winged helmet & sandals, Aphrodites famous girdle, Eros bow & arrows, Helios chariot, Heracles bronze clappers, & the shoulder of Pelops.
Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to mankind: the 1st woman, Pandora, & her pithos (a large jar)/box. In some versions, Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestus forge. Hephaestus gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide. In later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the Cyclopes Brontes, Steropes, & Arges, who were highly skilled blacksmiths in their own right & forged Zeus thunderbolts, Poseidons trident, & Hades helmet of darkness/invisibility.
According to Homer, Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him or others. This includes tripods with golden wheels, able to move at his wish in & out of the assembly hall of the celestials & handmaidens wrought of gold in the semblance of living maids, who had understanding in their hearts, & speech & strength, as a gift of the gods.
They moved to support Hephaestus while walking. Hephaestus also put golden & silver lions & dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders. These guard dogs didnt age or perish. (So does this mean that they could possibly still be around, hidden somewhere Like the Nag Hammadi library.)
A similar golden dog was set by Rhea to guard the infant Zeus & his nurse (the goat Amaltheia) on the island of Krete/Crete. Later, Tantalus was said to have stolen the automaton when it guarded Zeus temple, or to have persuaded Pandareos to steal it for him.
Later texts attempt to replace the automaton with the idea that the golden dog was actually Rhea, transformed by Hephaestus. Hephaestus fought against the giants & killed Mimas by throwing molten iron at him. He also fought another giant, Aristaeus, but he fled.
During the battle, Hephaestus fell down exhausted & was picked up by Helios in his chariot. As a gift of gratitude, Hephaestus forged 4 ever-flowing fountains & fire-breathing bulls for Helios son Aeetus. At the marriage of Peleus & Thetis, Hephaestus gave a knife as a wedding present.
When the Trojan War began, Hephaestus sided with the Greeks & forged the armor of Achilles, the cuirass of Diomedes, & Agamemnons staff of office. But Hephaestus was also worshipped by the Trojans & saved 1 of their men from being killed by Diomedes.
Though she was married to Hephaestus, Aphrodite had an affair with Ares, the god of war. Eventually, Hephaestus discovered Aphrodites affair through Helios, the all-seeing sun (Were gonna circle back to this. Keep this in mind.), & planned a trap during 1 of their trysts.
While the lovers lay together in bed, Hephaestus ensnared them in an unbreakable chain-link net so small as to be invisible & dragged them to Mount Olympus to shame them in front of the other gods for retribution. The gods had a good laugh at the sight of these unclothed adulterers. Poseidon persuaded Hephaestus to free them in return for a guarantee that Ares would pay the adulterers fine, or Poseidon would pay it himself.
In The Odyssey, Hephaestus says he would give Aphrodite back to Zeus & demand back his bride price. Some versions of the myth state that Zeus didnt return the dowry. In fact, Aphrodite simply charmed her way back again into her husbands good graces.
In The Iliad, Hephaestus is described as being married to the Grace named Charis during the events depicted in the Trojan War. While in Theogeny, hes married to the Grace named Aglaea, with no indication of having ever been married to Aphrodite.
In Dionysiaca by Nonnus explicitly stated that, though Hephaestus & Aphrodite were once married (shes referred to as his ancient wife). Theyve since separated & Hephaestus is now married to Charis.
Heres the keep-in-mind part: In a later detail, Ares put the young soldier, Alectryon, by their door to warn them of Helios arrival, as he suspected that Helios would tell Hephaestus of Aphrodites infidelity if the 2 were discovered. But Alectryon fell asleep on guard duty. Helios finds the 2 & alerts Hephaestus. Ares, in a rage, turned Alectryon into a rooster, which always crows at dawn when the sun is about to rise.
The Thebans said that the spicy time union of Ares & Aphrodite produced Harmonia. But that of the union of Hephaestus with Aphrodite, theres usually no issue. Because Harmonia was conceived during Aphrodites marriage to Hephaestus, for revenge, on Harmonias wedding day to Cadmus, Hephaestus gifted her with a finely worked but cursed necklace that brought immense suffering to her descendants, culminating in Oedipus. (Check out our post on Oedipus.)
An Athenian founding myth tells the citys patron goddess, Athena, refused a union (spicy time) with Hephaestus. Pseudo-Apollodorus records an archaic legend, which claims that Hephaestus once tried to (g)rape Athena. But she pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh.
Athena wiped the happy time juice off using a tuft of wool. She tossed it into the dust. This impregnated Gaia (his own great-grandma). This caused her to give birth to King Erichthonius, whom Athena adopted as her own kid.
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: the art of making three-dimensional forms
- French: sculpture
- German: die Plastik
- Italian: scultura
- Portuguese: escultura
- Spanish: escultura
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Studio Drift Lonneke Gordijn ( ) & Ralph Nauta ( )
The Ewe Garden Sculpture Trail
Sculpture Showcase2,500-year-old sculpture discovered at UNESCO site in Turkey
Comments:
and inGenoppt (Bumpy surface)
This has some bumps, at least! Meet Shelby, one of the mascots of Brooklyns Gowanus Canal famously a waterway of toxic sludge that has been undergoing a frustratingly slow cleanup effort for decades. Shelby is one of three cheerful mutants representing the microscopic life of the canal. More info on the wall sign if you zoom in, and the Wikipedia article on the Gowanus is a fascinating read.
The Progress of Science by E.H. Kennington on Glasgow University's James Watt Building (South). Created in 1957, it features mythological figures such as Vukcan, Zeus and Hermes, mixed in with technological developments, such as James Watt's centrifugal govenor, and reminders of the natural world, such as the whale in the bottom left corner. There is also an image of the nearby spire on the university's main buildings in the top right corner.
'Streetwice Moose', cool sculpture by Johnny EmilIm curious about Matereality V2 in Cape Town. Soil, timber, wire, sugar and discarded objects become artistic material.
I like art that makes ordinary matter feel worth looking at again.
Europe link
Cathy de Monchaux turns sculpture into something between beauty and threat.
Her Paris retrospective makes me think about how often the most memorable art lives in that uncomfortable middle.
If you happen to be near Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill in Seattle, stop by the Seattle Asian Art Museum and take in the exhibit of glazed porcelain sculpture and other objects by the Kondo family, especially Takahiro Kondo. The work is gorgeous, supported by several artful videos on large screens, and presented in a soothing, cooling space that gives you a break from sun and heat.
needle-felt fruit fly (Drosophila Melanogaster), handmade by me in may this year
It has a pipe cleaner skeleton, allowing it to stand on its own and pose to a degree. The wings were done with thrifted fabric mesh to replicate the wing transparency, and can also bend and pose.
This was made as a gift for a professor.
Milk Cartons and Bottle Gourds Form Sipho Mabona's Tribute to His Late Father
Faceted Paper Grids: Geometric Sculptures by Ramon Ramos
Folded Forms: Sculptural Canvas Works by Susan Maddux
Visited earlier this month. Wandering around paths in the woods you can see some 200 individually displayed modern sculptures for sale. Something for all tastes but they do not come cheap! Great setting and a very pleasant way to spend an hour or two even if, like me, you do not buy anything.
Two favourites: a bird from recycled cutlery by Ed Hill and an exhibit from old metal parts (unattributed) which is rusting away quietly.
Clay Transforms into Vibrant and Funky 'Habibti' Sculptures by Maryam Yousif
Leaf It Be Rhubarb #05 by Thomas Typewriter a new photo-sculpt
"Leaf It Be - Rhubarb #05" by Thomas Typewriter (photo-sculpture, 36"w x 24"h, rhubarb leaf & scanner)If you like this, or any of my other art, please consider throwing some support my way through my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/ThomasTypewriterTypes) or Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/thomastypewriter).TIL: Twin sisters Rebecca and Ruth Brown make thousands of hand-sculpted clay soldiers that reenact battles at their -based Civil War Tails Diorama .
Each cat represents one real soldier in accurate scale, and the cover moments from to Picketts Charge. What started as a childhood grew into a one-to-one, historically detailed collection.
3 beautiful pieces in wood and bronze by Thomas AnderssonLove this little creature peering out from some sculpted foliage on Glasgow University's 1920s Memorial Chapel designed by J.J. Burnet and with sculptures by Archibald Dawson.
The English man in the sculpture The English Pug and the French Poodle in Montral. 2026. Wie die Faust aufs Auge - like the fist on the eyeToday's Flickr photo with the most hits: this sculpture in Murrisk, Co Mayo, Ireland. The Coffin Ship commemorates the great famine, the exodus it led to, and those who too weak to even to survive the crossing.
'Verity' (the sculpture), Ilfracombe, Devon
A rather fine example of a corbel head on David Hanilton's 1838 Mosesfield House in the Springburn area of Glasgow.
Works by Richard Serra (1938-2024) in Saarbrcken, Basel, and Bilbao.
needle-felt Glep sculpture, handmade by me last december.
Mostly made from wool roving, the eyes are oven-clay painted with acrylic and anchored with a paperclip and hot glue.
tired buddha...
tired buddha...
Bonsoir
Another of the unusual grotesques on Saint Mary's Episcopal Cathedral on Great Western Road in Glasgow. I'm fairly sure this one is relatively modern.
Additional Images:
DCF 7318 was discovered by field techs trapped in a collapsed building. This hybrid uses a foetal unit for data collection and uplink. While the biomech base utiliising a former living skull is an operational syncaster. The gray matter was resusitated and used to broadcast corrupt Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, Theta signals to render a local population inert. Techs wore Faraday suits and neutralised the broadcast. The foetal unit will be flashed and integrated into Institute infrastructure.
Some renders from an old project I did for a collective. Apple Girl, "La Ragazza Mela" is inspired by a tale from Italo Calvino, the model was sculpted and intended to be printable.
Made with love and in profound connection with the original story.
Sculpted with , rendered in with few adjustments made in .