English

Proper noun

Hephæstus

1. Archaic spelling of Hephaestus.
   • 1865, Homer and Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (translator), Iliad, volume 1, page viii:

     I have adopted, not without hesitation, the Latin, rather than the Greek, nomenclature for the Heathen Deities. I have been induced to do so from the manifest incongruity of confounding the two; and from the fact that though English readers may be familiar with the names of Zeus, or Aphrodite, or even Poseidon, those of Hera, or Ares, or Hephæstus, or Leto, would hardly convey to them a definite signification.

   • 1921, Padraic Colum, The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived before Achilles, page 83 (The Macmillan company):

     Then Zeus called upon the artisan of the gods, lame Hephæstus, and he commanded him to make a being out of clay that would have the likeness of a lovely maiden. […] All strove to add a grace or a beauty to the work of Hephæstus.

   • 1930, B. Z. Goldberg, The Sacred Fire: The Story of Sex in Religion, page 41 (2008 reprint; Forgotten Books; ISBN 160620047X, 9781606200476):

     There was chaste Artemis, athletic goddess of the hunt; Hermes with his winged feet, fleet messenger of the gods; and the swart and limping Hephæstus, their mechanic, hammering out the heavy armors on his smoky forge.

Derived terms

References

• “Hephæstus” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)