This week's #MythologyMonday theme is fire and there are two major Greek gods associated with fire: #Hestia, goddess of the hearth, and #Hephaistos, god of smiths.
They represent #fire in two different forms: the sacrificial flame of the hearth as the sacred centre of domestic life and the flame of Hephaistos, source of all arts, and fuel of the funeral pyre. But both could be invoked for the cooking of sacrificial meat or a good meal:
No fire meant a disruption of all normal life for nine days: no regular meals like bread or porridge, no incense to burn for the gods, the hearth and thus the centre of every community and household is dead - until new life arrives from the sea.
#Hephaistos, it is said, loves #Lemnos "more than any place on earth". According to the Illiad, it was on Lemnos where Hephaistos landed after being thrown from Olympos by his father #Zeus and it is on Lemnos where he has his forge.
The myth of his fall from Olympos can also be read as an allegory:
#Hephaistos (fire) arrives on Lemnos from the sky, as it would through a burning mirror. He is weak, within an inch of his life, but the people of #Lemnos care for him and kindle the weak little flame until it grows strong enough to craft the most beautiful things.
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