The legend says that Hephaestus was son of Hera and Zeus and he was trained by his mother to the art of forging metals. Hephaestus became lame after been punished by Zeus, who kicked him down of the Olympus. From then he was growen up by Thetis. After this, Hephaestus smelted himself in Sicily, inside the Etna, where he builds his workshop. Here, thanks to the heat of the lava, he could melt the metals and create new weapons. Moreover, always according to the legend, after making peace with his father, he became the smith of  the Gods, who has the task of making lightning whit whom Zeus punished evils.

“The zones and the intervals of the shield were five,

with divine knowledge and it was

full of beautiful sculptures.

Here he created the earth, the sea, the sky

And the effortless Sun and the round

Moon, and the stars where shines

Crowned the blue sky,

And the Pleiades, and the Hyades and the

Stormy Orion Star and the major Great Bear

That could be called even Plaustrum around the pole

It turns around and Orion looks,

That is divided just by the sea.”

(Vincenzo Monti, translation of the Iliad Book XVIII v. 668-679.
Beginning of the nineteenth century)