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M oh

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hi, Hello, nerds. This is let's

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talk about myths, baby, and

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I am your host, that woman,

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you know, the one live. So

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I've always had a complicated relationship

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with the god of Festus, and it's

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definitely informed the way I tell stories involving

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him. He's a favorite for a lot of people, which

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I totally get. But I've always been skewed

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by the treatment of Aphrodite in relation

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to Fistus, which is unquestionably

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shit. But there really

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is so much more to this god than that

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marriage and the weirdness involved,

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which is something I've wanted to look deeper

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into an address for a long time. So

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when Kyle Lewis Jordan's name was mentioned

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to me about someone to talk to and

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he wanted to be on the show, I knew this

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was my inn and boy was it.

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So if you listen to last week's Conversation episode,

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you know that it was just part one of

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two of my conversation with Kyle, all

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about Hephaistus, and just as I

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hoped, that conversation inspired

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me to revisit this god and

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tell you more of his stories. I

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want to be open up front, though I'm not going to

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be going too deep into hephaestus

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impairment or his status as a disabled god,

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because there really is so much nuance and importance

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there that I'm not familiar enough to get into.

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As someone who has not experienced anything in that realm,

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I don't feel like I'm the right person to

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talk about it, And my conversation

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with Kyle, both part one from Friday and

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part two coming this Friday,

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does that already in a much more meaningful

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way. So anything I mentioned today when

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it comes to that aspect of aphistus Is

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character is based on that conversation

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episode and what I learned, and reiterating

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some of those things, but you should make sure to

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listen to those instead.

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I just want to talk about Haphistis as a

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god in general and all the things he

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had a hand in or that he did entirely

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alone stories in relation

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to him as a character, rather than just the

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ways in which Aphrodite is treated like garbage,

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not because she isn't and not because of Phistus

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is perfect or unproblematic, because

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he isn't those things either, but just because

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he's more than that. He's more than

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the god born by Hara despite her

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husband and then thrown from mount Olympus,

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because he wasn't one the idea

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of an Olympian perfect being. He's

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more than the god who married Aphrodite

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through scheming, even though he may

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or may not have actually been interested in her.

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And he's more than the god who trapped her and Aris

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in a net when he got them having sex. So

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I mean he did do those things too,

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and that's a whole other mass. Still,

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he Fastus was the god of fire

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and the forge and craftsmanship.

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He was the god who forged Achilles his

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armor after poor Patroclus

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died. He was the god who created

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automatons basically

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ancient robots. Hephaistus

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was really fucking cool, even if his

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marriage to Hephrodite was seriously

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fucked up. This

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is episode one hundred and thirty

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four. You know, he basically invented

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robots, Hephaistus and his

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forge.

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The basics of Aphistus's origins

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are this. He was born of Hara,

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just Harrah. He was born

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of just Hara because Harra was

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fucking sick of watching her husband

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succeed in the thing that she was the goddess

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of, damn it. Hara

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was a goddess of motherhood and yet her fucking

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husband was always able to have all these children

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all on his own, at least

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that's how he saw them. Athena and Dionysus,

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both children were in fact very much born

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of their mothers. It's just that Zeus either eate

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or killed their mothers before they were born,

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and thus the babies finished

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their gestation in Zeus. Doesn't

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mean he birthed them all on his own. Harrah,

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meanwild did exactly that. She had

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a feistus all on her own. Now,

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this is a complex story and

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definitely isn't the only version, because simultaneously

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have Isis also takes place in

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Athena's birth story. Zeus

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ate her mother Matus after he learned

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that the Titans child would outperform

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Zeus, and before long found himself

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with a horrible headache. According

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to these most entertaining versions,

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Zeus has this horrible, splitting

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headache, kind of like the one I had yesterday

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after my second dose, and

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he calls upon a faistus to help.

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I wish I had a fistus yesterday.

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Halfhistus is a craftsman, and he gets

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all his tools and whatnot. He's the perfect

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god to solve Zeus's problem. So

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Helphiustus cleaves at Zeus's

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head and bam splits it into

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and out pops Athena, and then I don't

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know, Zeus's head reforms

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right there. It's messy and a mystery,

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especially when you take into account the primary reason

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for her fistus is conception was Harry being

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mad at Sus for conceiving Athena. I've

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said it before, I'll say it again. Do not spend

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too much of your time trying to track down when

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and why when it comes to Greek mythology.

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You will never get anywhere, and you will get incredibly

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frustrated because it doesn't make any sense

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regardless. Hephaistus is, for some

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reason or another, born of just Hara

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badass in itself, way to

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go Hara, except when Hephastus

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is born, Harras sees that he has a

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clubbed foot. For this, it seems,

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she throws him off of Mount Olympus,

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or sometimes Zeus does it instead. Whoever

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does the actual throwing, it is often, if

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not always, because of his foot, because

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well, the Olympians fucking suck, and I guess sometimes

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they also feel a bit like partaking in eugenics.

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Perfect beings they are not. According

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to Homer, after her Fhistus was thrown off

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Olympus, he was raised by Thetis

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and Urinemy to Oceanids,

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who took him in and treated him

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as their own. It was with Thetis

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and your enemy that Hephiustus learned

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his arts and became this super

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powerful, super important

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god. Because

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the Phistus is one of the most

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powerful gods and certainly

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one of the most important overall

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and specifically to the lives

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of the ancient Greeks. Where would they

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be without his craftsmanship, without his forge?

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I mean, do you have any idea how much the ancient Greeks

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crafted pottery, metalwork,

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weapons, the whole lot of it all because

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of Hephaistus. Where

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would they be without this god? And

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of course without the fire. This

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places him on a similar level to Hestia,

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who is the goddess of the sacred hearth fire

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i e. The fire in everyone's homes and

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in temples and the like. These

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two are linked for their power over fire,

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and both are tied very closely with the

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everyday lives of the Greeks.

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The Greeks needed

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Hephaistus in a way they definitely

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did not need Zeus,

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As I said today, I want to focus mostly

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on Halphaistus, beyond Olympus,

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beyond the way the Olympians constrained

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him, and beyond the ultimately very problematic

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stories of him that are tied to

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the other Olympians. Let's

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talk creation. Halphaistus

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had the power to create life.

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According to he Sid He's the one who

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forms Pandora out of clay.

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The other gods give her characteristics and

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clothing and lots of other things, but have

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Faustus created her. But

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Pandora is human, And let's be honest,

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we all want to hear about the robots,

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the automatons. We

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learned about them very briefly in my episode with Kyle,

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but they're absolutely worth going into further,

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and so I had to. There

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are many references to these beings

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being created by Hephaistus,

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these metal, moving, thinking

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and talking beings,

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these fucking robots. In

9:17

the Iliad, Hephaistus is speaking with Fatus

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as he prepares to create new armor for

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Achilles. He and Thetis have a close

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relationship. She's one of the two oceanids

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who took him in as a child when he was rejected

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by his family, who loved him

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and treated him kindly, who taught him

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all that he knows, or at least

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taught him enough to learn all that he knows.

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The craftsmanship, the creation is

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all Hephistus. So when the

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Iliad as he prepares to make this armor,

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Homer has this very simple

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line, as though it isn't one of the coolest

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things to come out of the ancient world, he

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says, quote, and in support

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of their master, moved Tophaistus's

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attendants. These are golden

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and in appearance like living young

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women. There is intelligence

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in their hearts, and there is speech

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in them, and strength, and from

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the immortal gods they have learned how

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to do things. These stirred

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nimbly in support of their master

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and moving to where Thetis sat in her

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shining chair. Hephaestus

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has created golden beings, humanlike

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creatures made of gold to help

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him in his forge. There's mentioned

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before this of Hephaestus so called

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limping, and so it's also an interesting

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note to mention that not only did he create

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these golden women, and that they are women.

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I think it's extra interesting, but he created

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these fully functioning golden women

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to help him in his forge. As

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I imagine it, they help him with everything, both

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things relating to his impairment, and otherwise

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they aid him a bit. But otherwise they also

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just help him in the forge, something I

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imagine is pretty tricky and tiring and a

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lot of work. Who wouldn't want help.

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The Olympians certainly are going to help him. They

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just want him to make every single thing they could ever

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want or need. But

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he not only has these helpers that he's created

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from scratch, their women,

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their robotic automaton

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women helping a man forge

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weapons. It's pretty

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fucking cool. According

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to Philo Stratus, he quote

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made the gold breathe. Of

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course, these metallic beings

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aren't the only automated, lifelike

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creations of Hephaestus, nor

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are they remotely the most famous.

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For al Canoos, the king of the Feations

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of the Odyssey, he created gold

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and silver watchdogs, or maybe

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they were even griffins that served

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as guardians, lifelike

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and imbued with some kind of life

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force that made them able to protect

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the palace for

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eight s. This king of Colchis and father

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to Medea son Novelios,

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he created bronze bulls.

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These were enormous creatures that appear

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to have been full of life, like Hephiustus

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helpers and his forge their a task

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for Jason Yoking. These enormous

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bowls with bronze hoofs and that

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breathed fire and

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were explicitly the creations

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of Hephaistus. The

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writer Paustenius wrote of an early

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temple at the Oracle of Delphi,

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one made entirely of bronze and

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built by Hephaistus. And of course

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Aphistis made all of the palaces and security

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systems of Olympus, unbreakable

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locks, and everything the gods could ever

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want or need. Hephaiustus

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could make anything the Greeks could dream

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up, which leads me

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to Talos.

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I can never remember what I've already told you about

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Talos, but I don't think it's enough. Talos

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is an enormous automaton, a robot

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who patrolled crete and kept

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the island safe from pirates and anyone

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else looking to do them harm. Some

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say Talos was a gift of Hephaistus to the

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King Mynas, Others that he was a

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gift from Zeus to Europa after he,

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you know, left on an island to start a bull obsessed

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dynasty far away from her homeland, but

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in that case he was probably still made by Hephistus.

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All of the good versions of Tallos

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have him built by Hephaistus, because

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basically, if it was bronze and incredible

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and technologically advanced, then

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it was built by Hephaistus. Tallos

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not only patrolled the island of Creed, keeping

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it safe, but he was big enough and fast

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enough to patrol the entire island three

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times every day. He

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did, however, have one weakness.

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He had one blood vessel, basically his life

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source, running through his body and ending

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in his ankle. There it was either protected

13:51

by only a bit of thin skin or by

13:53

a stud that could be removed. Either

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way. Tallos was eventually taken out by

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the Argonauts as they ailed away

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from Colquis and attempted to land on Crete.

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It may have been Medeia who did it, or who

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told one of the heroes how to do it. The

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most famous heroes to have done away with

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Talos are the diet Scori, the

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Twins Castor, and Polyduches.

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Still defeated or not, Talos

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was an incredible character, and one that seemed

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so far beyond even the Greek

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myths in terms of imagination, of

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thinking up what could ever be possible

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because of Feistus could make anything.

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The Fistus that appears in the ili It

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is a very interesting one. Firstly,

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he isn't married to Aphrodite, but to a woman

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named a Gilia sometimes called

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Keras, who is one of the charities and

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the goddess of beauty, splendor, glory,

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and adornment. At

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the same time, the story of his marital problems

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with Aphrodite are mentioned in the Odyssey, with

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the story of him trapping her and Aries together.

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My beloved website theo dot com

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notes that this could be suggesting that he

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and Aphrodite have divorced and

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Havephiustus then married a Glia, because

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when he catches Aphrodite and Aries, he explicitly

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asks Zeus for the marital gifts

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he paid in order to marry Aphrodite, which

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is basically like asking for a divorce. It

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kind of makes sense, but that

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Haphistus is happily married to a nice woman

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who isn't in love with Aries is not

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the most exciting aspect of him in the

15:50

Iliad, and neither is the fact that

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he handcrafts the most incredible, unbreakable

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and invincible arm or ancient epic

15:58

had ever seen. But because he

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does that too. There is a

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section in the Eliat that's pretty

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famous because of what Achilles does, but

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Hephaistus does it too. They

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both fight a river, uh

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River, the river's commander

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or xanthis to be precise. First,

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Achilles fights the river because he's Achilles,

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but he does this out of necessity because really

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all he wants to do is reach Hector and avenge

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the death of poor Patrick Lis.

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So before long, Hara calls to her son

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Hephaistus and asks him to take over

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and fighting the river. The implication

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here, in a natural sense, is this

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river is flooding and something needs

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to be done. Practically speaking,

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it's flooding because it's full of

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bodies, and the best

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solution for both of these problems is

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fire. Hephaistus listens

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to Hara, and he goes to fight the river, and

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he does it with fire. He sends enough

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fire to engulf the bodies that had overtaken

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the banks of the river that are causing it to flood,

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and he burns them. He dries out the

17:04

plain and everything around to prevent

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the river from continuing to flood. It's

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an interesting passage because it's simultaneously

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clear what's happening from a practical human

17:14

perspective, but also Hephistus

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is very clearly fighting this fucking river, especially

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in the Iliad, though absolutely elsewhere.

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Hephistus really is a badass, badass

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and ingenious, because it's in

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the Iliad where we get an idea of just how

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many things Hephaistus has made,

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not just for humans, not just providing

17:36

them with the skills to make their own things,

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but the physical things he has made for the gods

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on Mount Olympus, which is basically

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everything in

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the Iliad. Homer sings of Hephiustus

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building the palaces of the gods, the most

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beautiful and technologically advanced

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buildings in all the Greek world. He

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sings of Harrah's bedroom built

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by Fistus, which has a secret

18:02

hidden lock that no god can open

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save for her. Homer

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sings of Zeus's home built by

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Hephiustus for the king of the gods.

18:12

He sings of all the thrones built by Hephaistus

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for the gods, of the jewelry and weapons

18:17

and literally everything that is made by human

18:19

hands all ultimately made

18:21

by Hephaistus. It was a

18:24

Faustus who made achilles armor and

18:26

Aphaistus who made the urn

18:28

were in the end Achilles's

18:31

ashes were mixed with patroclus

18:33

Is, so they could be together forever,

18:56

sing clear voiced muses

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of Hephais, dis famed for inventions

19:02

with bright eyed athena. He taught

19:05

men glorious gifts throughout

19:07

the world, men who before

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used to dwell in caves in the mountains

19:12

like wild beasts. But now

19:14

that they have learned crafts through

19:16

Haphiustus, the famed worker, easily

19:19

they live a peaceful life in their own

19:22

homes the whole year round.

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Be gracious, Hephaistus, and

19:27

grant me success and prosperity.

19:32

That is the entirety of the Homeric

19:34

him to Hephiustus, which I think says

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a lot about his importance and

19:39

his simplicity in a good way, as

19:41

in, when it comes to the daily life of

19:43

the Greeks, they saw him as someone important

19:45

to them who gave them unspeakable

19:48

gifts and all that, but not

19:50

really a figure of dramatics or trouble,

19:52

not one for entertainment, just

19:55

practicality.

20:15

Hephaistus was incredibly

20:17

important as a god. He was a creator

20:20

and a builder and basically the reason

20:22

the Olympians had anything cool

20:24

or technologically involved. It

20:27

was all Hephaistus. He was

20:29

also an example of a person with a physical

20:31

impairment in the ancient world, a

20:33

reminder that the Olympians were molded after

20:35

human beings. They were human in their

20:37

own ways, and as Kyliuis

20:40

Jordan's laid out so brilliantly

20:42

in our conversation last week, Hephaistus

20:44

was, in his way a disabled god, but

20:47

he was a god disabled by the Olympians

20:49

themselves. As a craftsman,

20:51

Hephaistus had found and built ways of

20:53

doing anything he could possibly need to. He

20:55

wasn't affected by his impairment. He figured

20:58

it out. He made all the best armor, and built all

21:00

the best structures and invented fucking robots.

21:02

He could do it all, even though the

21:04

Olympians didn't make it easy.

21:07

So while I did want to focus primarily on

21:09

non Olympian bits about a Fistus, I do

21:11

want to remind you of some of his most famous stories

21:14

because they're fascinating. When it comes to his

21:17

ingenuity and ability to create some

21:19

of the most absolutely wild shit. But

21:21

also, as Kyle pointed out in our conversation,

21:23

there are complexities that are often overlooked

21:26

and issues that other Olympians likely wouldn't

21:29

face in the same way that a Fistus does.

21:33

First, as we also made clear in that conversation,

21:36

all of these fascinating things about a Fistus

21:38

and all the ways the Olympians

21:40

made life difficult for him or fucked with him

21:43

do not absolve him of the ship he did.

21:46

But these things do add some complexity and nuance

21:48

to some, if not all, of those shitty

21:50

things, because for the most

21:52

part, all of the shitty things that happened

21:55

in and around Olympus revolved around he

21:57

Fistus trying to gain some acceptance

21:59

among his family and his home where

22:01

acceptance was hard to come by, and

22:04

that's where things get a little bit messy. But

22:06

as Kyle brought up, the Olympians themselves

22:08

are often overlooked when it comes

22:10

to the reasons and issues surrounding Hephistus's

22:12

actions. They seem to be trying to keep

22:15

him down. They are the ones that disable

22:17

him, that keep him from being as powerful

22:19

as he is clearly able to be. The

22:22

problematic story surrounding Hephistus all

22:24

ultimately come down to Olympus and

22:26

his place there. When you break it down, it's

22:28

more about him trying to regain some agency

22:31

and power over his life. He

22:33

just does it in dark ways. Hephiustus's

22:37

life began with him being outright rejected

22:40

by his family, literally thrown off

22:42

a mountain. The story of him returning

22:44

to Olympus after being thrown

22:46

off and raised among the oceanids

22:49

is a story of revenge and a story

22:51

of how Aphrodite ended up married to a

22:53

man she didn't love. Whether Hephaistus

22:55

ever loved her too, is very

22:57

much up for debate. Aphaistus

23:01

was looking to punish his mother for throwing him

23:03

off of Mount Olympus, for rejecting

23:05

him in the way that she did. You know, the

23:07

focus is on the tossing a kid off a mountain

23:10

thing, and I mean that's obviously bad,

23:12

just objectively bad. But the rejection

23:14

of your child because he doesn't meet your opinion

23:16

of what is and is not perfect

23:18

in your Olympian eyes is a whole other

23:21

level of fucked up. I think it says something

23:23

about Hara in that same way that so many

23:25

of her stories do this idea of an

23:27

angry, wronged woman and all this ship she'll

23:29

do because of it, rather than looking at

23:31

why she's so angry. That doesn't apply

23:33

here in the same way as it does to you know, punishing

23:35

the women's us assaults, but it still speaks to the general

23:38

approach to women, specifically

23:40

Hara in the people that told these stories,

23:44

regardless of Feistus is pissed, and I mean

23:47

rightfully so. And well, he's

23:49

cunning and he's got some real ingenuity

23:51

because what he does to punish

23:53

his mother is gift her with a throne.

23:57

The gift is, as you might have guessed, a

23:59

trap. As soon as Harris

24:01

sits down, the throne snaps into action,

24:03

locks her onto the seat. She can't move,

24:06

she can't get up, she definitely can't escape.

24:08

And this is Hephaistus who has created the

24:10

throne. So not only can heron not escape,

24:13

but none of the Olympians can help her escape

24:15

either. She is well and truly

24:17

stuck, just fucked. In

24:20

an attempt to have his wife freed, Zeus

24:23

makes a proposition, whoever frees

24:25

hera gets to marry Aphrodite dark.

24:28

I know there are some versions where this is

24:30

also based in Zeus's desire to keep Aphrodite

24:33

from fully utilizing her power. If

24:35

she's married to someone she isn't into and that wasn't

24:37

her choice, then the goddess of love is

24:39

inherently less powerful when

24:41

it comes to well the love. No

24:45

one is able to free hera, and ultimately

24:47

she's only freed when Hephaistus is convinced

24:50

by Dianeysus that he should be

24:52

the one to free hera and thus win Aphrodite's

24:54

hand, even though he was the one who

24:56

trapped her in the first place. That part

24:58

is reasonable. He trapped her, he

25:01

can free her. But what we don't know here

25:03

is whether or not have Fhiustus actually wanted

25:05

to marry Aphrodite, or whether this ultimately

25:07

put him in the same position as her, married

25:10

to someone he didn't love. I

25:14

could certainly see he Fistus freeing hera

25:16

out of kindness that's a relative

25:19

term, or just being sick of all the

25:21

drama, or just because she's clearly

25:23

learned her lesson From there, he would

25:25

end up married to Aphrodite, whether he liked it or not,

25:27

because such is the will of Zeus.

25:30

Still, none of this excuses how he handles

25:33

hera or his marriage to Aphrodite,

25:35

though there are ways to see it through Helphiustus's

25:38

eyes and through the eyes of people

25:40

back then and what their rights were when it came

25:42

to marriage. As

25:44

you might recall, and as I've briefly mentioned already,

25:47

one of my favorite stories of Haphistus

25:49

Aphrodite in Aries is the time that Helios

25:52

spotted Aphrodite and Ares having sex

25:54

in the home that she shared with a Fistus on Olympus.

25:57

Helios told Hephiustus, and Hephistus

25:59

fashioned a net of chains that were invisible

26:02

so he could and did trap Effroditie

26:04

and Aries. In the act he shows

26:07

the other Olympians in an attempt to get some

26:09

kind of compensation for the fact that his wife

26:11

is cheating on him, and the other Olympians

26:14

all laugh. This

26:17

has been a favorite story of mine, mostly due

26:19

to the absurdity of it visually and because

26:21

I absolutely love Aphroditian Aries together.

26:24

I just always have. I think they're the only example

26:26

of two Olympians actually loving each other in the

26:28

mythology and mutually. But

26:30

I'll admit I also thought it was funny when

26:32

the Olympians all laughed at a Fistus.

26:35

I mean, if you just imagine it, it's

26:37

funny. But at the same time, I'm now able

26:39

to see it in a different way because,

26:41

as Kyle pointed out, would that

26:43

have happened to any of the other Olympians

26:46

if the roles were reversed, If Aries

26:49

was married to Aphrodite and she was cheating

26:51

on him with a fistus, would the

26:53

other Olympians laugh at Aries?

26:56

I mean, probably not. I

26:58

suppose they do, like k so maybe,

27:01

but I can't see them howling with laughter at the

27:03

god of war being insulted

27:05

in that way. But they do laugh

27:08

when it comes to have fistus. And

27:12

in this moment, again something that was mentioned

27:14

in my conversation with Kylous Jordan and that

27:16

I never really considered.

27:18

The ramifications of Aphaistus

27:21

is not just showing off this infidelity

27:23

to the gods. He isn't just trying to shame

27:25

or embarrass Aphrodite and Aries,

27:28

though that's part of it. He's

27:30

trying to get his dowry back, trying to get the marital

27:32

gifts that he paid to Zeus when he married

27:34

Afrodite. In essence, he's taking

27:37

back his power in the relationship,

27:39

taking back his own agency on Olympus,

27:42

and as I mentioned earlier, potentially even

27:44

formally divorcing Aphrodite

27:47

so that he could marry someone he loved and who loved

27:49

him A glia so

27:52

obviously have Fhistus's solution is gross

27:54

and weird, but when it comes to the world

27:56

back then, the rights of the husband, etcetera,

27:59

it is a bit more understandable. Still

28:01

gross and weird, but you can see where it comes

28:03

from, and you can see especially how skewed

28:06

this act is for Aphiustus rather

28:08

than anyone else. The

28:10

character of a Phistus and how he's treated on Olympus

28:13

is fascinating and really isn't

28:15

something I'd considered before or really been

28:17

able to see. I guess he

28:20

really is the most powerful god generally,

28:22

and so the Olympians, finding every

28:24

way imaginable to keep him under

28:26

their thumb makes a lot of sense.

28:29

They disable him through their own treatment,

28:32

the way they make his life harder in order

28:34

to keep him subjugated and beholden

28:36

to them. That way, he's

28:38

still there to make everything for

28:41

them to do their bidding, but he

28:43

isn't able to realize just how powerful

28:46

he actually is beyond them.

28:49

I mean, if anyone could take on Zeus

28:52

objectively, it's a fistus because

28:54

without Aphaistus, Zeus wouldn't

28:57

even have his lightning bolts, and

28:59

where would he be? Then? Without

29:01

a Fistus, Aries wouldn't have weapons

29:03

or armor, neither would Athena.

29:07

Without a Fistus, the

29:09

gods wouldn't have anything.

29:27

Oh, Nerds, thank you so much for listening. As

29:29

always this episode, I

29:31

mean, it's just kind of a list of all that makes

29:33

a Fistus cool, and it's really best enjoyed

29:35

alongside my conversation with kyleis Jordan's

29:38

both the first part that aired last Friday and

29:40

the second part that will air this coming Friday.

29:42

I wanted to talk about a Fistus as a character

29:44

outside of the shitty things he did to Hera and Aphrodite

29:47

with this episode, but I also think that God is

29:49

best understood from the lens that

29:51

we used in that conversation episode,

29:54

or really just the lens that Kyle uses generally,

29:56

because honestly, I learned so much

29:58

from that conversation and I'm now able to see

30:00

a Fistus in this totally different light to

30:03

the point where, yes, I wanted to

30:05

make this episode about not about the Olympians,

30:07

but I also think it's important to look at

30:09

it with this view of how

30:11

the Olympians treat him and how he is seen.

30:14

I've always known that I wasn't doing

30:16

a Fistus justice. He's just been one of those

30:18

blind spots for me, based entirely in

30:20

the fact that I've loved Ephrodite

30:22

for as long as I've loved mythology.

30:25

But on top of looking at him as a fully fledged

30:28

character that's complex and nuance,

30:31

that maybe has some background why he

30:33

behaves that way, or what

30:35

outside forces on the Olympians

30:37

cause him to behave in certain ways or

30:40

contribute to his need to behave in certain

30:42

ways, It's obviously interesting to look

30:44

at him from the perspective of a god with

30:46

physical impairment. His

30:49

club foot is so often translated to him

30:51

being quote unquote lame, which

30:53

is a word that is just so full of horrible connotations

30:56

and shouldn't ever apply to people. But

30:58

on top of that, it really said just things about a Fistus

31:01

that aren't there. He was strong and powerful

31:04

god and a very important God, and it was often

31:06

the Olympians that made his life difficult.

31:08

Does that excuse his behavior? No, of

31:10

course not. He's messy as fuck when

31:12

it comes to Hera and Aphrodite. But still,

31:15

if you look at him as somebody struggling

31:17

to gain some agency in their

31:19

life, some acceptance in

31:21

their world, you get this much more nuanced

31:24

view. Regardless,

31:26

obviously, you shouldn't set a trap for your significant

31:28

other to catch them in the act of cheating by encasing

31:31

them in an invisible net and then bringing all

31:33

the other Olympians into witness it. That's

31:35

not cool. It's very bad and

31:37

not good. But I

31:39

do think it's so interesting to think to like, did

31:42

a fistus ever want to marry Aphrodite?

31:44

We don't have a lot of indication that he did,

31:46

just this idea that she was the goddess of love

31:49

and beauty and so or so this concept

31:51

of like, of course he should have or

31:53

of course he should have wanted to, But that means

31:55

nothing, and it places an obsession on her looks and sexuality

31:58

that is obviously kind of problematic, deeply

32:00

unnecessary. And I didn't even

32:02

get to his relationship with Athena. Kyle

32:05

and I do go over that quite a bit in Friday's Conversation

32:08

episode, so make sure you listen to that. But something

32:10

that's not often mentioned too is that Hephistus

32:13

is also a patron god of Athens, and his

32:15

temple was just below the Acropolis. It's

32:17

actually the best preserved temple in Athens as

32:19

far as I know. It's gorgeous. But

32:21

when discussing Athens, it's just always about Athena.

32:25

I really just wanted to emphasize today all

32:27

of the things he made, all the things he did that

32:29

we're not problematic, as well as

32:31

looking at kind of a bit of a

32:33

why behind the problematic bits, not

32:36

excusing them, but why, like where

32:38

did that come from? Especially to do

32:40

with the fact that like every single

32:42

thing made in that whole

32:44

world was by him, and he was basically

32:46

just this incredible wonder of a human,

32:49

not a human wonder of an Olympian.

32:52

And yet you know, we when

32:54

we talk specific stories

32:56

involving him, they're weird and problematic

32:59

as hell. Anyway, at this point,

33:01

I'm fully rambling, but I do just want to emphasize

33:03

how much you should listen to last

33:05

week's and this week's Conversation episodes, not

33:08

least of which because next week again we talked about

33:10

his relationship with Athena, which is super interesting,

33:13

as well as reception of him

33:15

in Greek myth i e Hafestus in pop

33:17

culture which means we talked about Disney's

33:19

Hercules and my favorite interpretation

33:21

of half Fistus by a mile Laura

33:24

Olympus. So check back

33:26

Friday. It's going to be good. Now we

33:28

need to go rethink everything I've ever thought

33:30

or said about halfhist Us. You're

33:33

all the best. Thanks for listening. I'm live

33:35

and I love this ship a lot. If you're wondering,

33:37

it's a lot