Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #115. Revising Myth: "The Fire Maiden"

Mythic revision has been going on for some time, and it's still a popular thing today. I remember the early days of it. It seemed that a number of feminist writers, not content with the passive heroines one encounters in many fairy tales, began to do revisions. Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, was an early and popular case of this, but there were many other revisions. And it settled into a trend widely practiced today. I've published several revised mythic or fairy tale stories; "Sunniva" (revision of Cinderella); "Sennicherib," re-telling of a biblical narrative, a revision of "Aladdin," and a second one of that tale called "The Woman in the Lamp," one that involved the Greek play "Antigone," and several others. "The Fire Maiden" revised and changed the tale of the Greek god of the forge, Hephaestus; you may know him his Roman name, Vulcan. He was the blacksmith of the gods. 

Hephaestus had his forge under the volcano Mount Etna in Italy. Cyclopes made up his work crew. He hammered out weapons for the gods, forged Zeus' thunderbolts, made a shield for Achilles and jewelry and ornaments for Hera and the other goddesses. As later myths had it, he was misshapen, crippled, and ugly. Married to the beautiful, sexy Aphrodite, goddess of love-sex-sensuality, he constantly played the cuckold as she ran around with other gods, notably Ares. He was the butt of jokes because of this. In the Odyssey there is a story about how he made an invisible net, spread it over Aphrodite's bed, and, when they were joined in an embrace, pulled it up, caught them both, and displayed them for all the other gods to see. The joke was on Ares and Aphrodite, but during the episode Apollo leans over to Hermes and whispered, "Good joke, but I wish it was me up there with her, not Ares." Hephaestus just can't win.

popular depiction of Hephaestus

But if you look at the early myths, Hephaestus is not ugly or repulsive. He has love affairs with Aglaea, one of the three Charities and the Greek goddess of beauty, splendor, glory, and magnificence; with Gaia, the ancient Earth Mother; the goddess Aetna, and many others; he has a whole herd of children borne by incredibly beautiful goddesses. He had to have some good looks. And, of course, he married to Aphrodite. His revision from a handsome, desirable god to the "bandy legs" in Homer's story—the sooty, misshapen, ugly horned god of later legend—probably got started because he had a limp. Prometheus stole fire from his forge and gave the fire to humans. Zeus punished Prometheus but also took his anger out on Hephaestus, throwing him out of heaven, which hurt his feet and he had a slight limp after that. Zeus soon let him return, but his limp evolved into his transformation from a handsome god to the figure of a twisted, ugly outcast.

Dolenda, Temple Maiden

In this story, Hephaestus is in Persia. The Romans are about to invade, and the Persian king has hired him to make weapons for them in the hope that divinely-forged implements might repel the Romans. During that time, two of the women the king has sent to him get a fight,  and the king sentences them to death, Hephaestus intercedes for them and sends them to the Fire Temple to make an offering of atonement. When there, he sees Dolinda, one of the temple maidens, and is smitten with her. He is so taken with her that he comes in the form of a dream so he can look at her. She sees him in the dream, recognizes what has happened, and tells him Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, will be angry with him for looking upon her nakedness and invading a sacred place where only virgins were to be. Hephaestus knows as much, and he only looks upon her, unable to overcome his love for the girl.

Goddess Aetna

Sure enough, his ancient lover Aetna appears to him and tells him he is to come to her island to meet with Hestia—and Athena and Artemis—all virgin goddesses—to answer for his impropriety. He comes there. After enjoying a few days of love with the goddess from the volcano on Sicily, he goes to face his accusers. Hestia, who has always disliked her brother because some people worship him as god of the hearth rather than worshipping her, builds a case against him. Athena and Artemis chime in. They hope to get him thrown out of Olympus once more. Hephaestus sees that they have a pretty good case against him, but then Aetna intervenes. A primal goddess who existed before any of the trio of goddesses indicting Hephaestus, she shows them the fate of Dolinda. Her city will be conquered by the Romans. The other temple maidens commit suicide so they will not be be raped by invading soldiers, but Dolinda will not have the courage to plunge the knife into her heart. Aetna ends the vision with soldiers breaking into Dolinda's room.

This upsets the goddesses. Hephaestus offers a deal to Hestia. If she will give him the girl, who is dedicated to Hestia, he will marry her and save her from her fate. He will also withdraw his claim as a god of hearths, so that worship will go entirely to her. He will remain the god of forges. Hestia is content with this. The three goddesses return to Olympus. Hephaestus stays a few days with Aetna before he goesto marry, and rescue, Dolinda.

The story appeared in Legendary, a print book released by Jaffa Books, an Australian press. Get a copy here.

For more titles, see my Writer's Page.

Be on the lookout for two new titles, The Court of the Sovereign King and Sinfonia:  A Painted Lady:  A Vampire Chroincle, Part 2. Both are in production and will be released in the next months.

I would love to hear your comments.