Hi there. Apologies for le delay, exams and everything. Anyways I’m back and going to try to be consistent from now on. 😀
So in this post I’ll be telling you guys about the birth of three more gods, namely Apollo, Artemis and Hephaestus. This post will be concerning the birth of three gods rather than two since Apollo and Artemis are twins, and there’s not much variation in how each of them were born.
Ok so first off, the divine twins, Artemis and Apollo. They were the children of Zeus and Leto, daughter of Titans Coeus and Phoebe. Leto and Zeus were maintaining a secret relationship when Hera found out that Leto was pregnant with Zeus‘ children. As it is in most myths, Hera was obviously enraged. To prevent Leto from undergoing a peaceful labor, Hera ordered Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth from assisting Leto. She also forbade any Greek land from providing shelter to Leto and cursed her such that she would never be able to give birth on a land on which the sun has shone.
Leto wandered the Earth in pain, moaning for relief. Zeus, feeling her sorrow, raised a floating island from the depths of the ocean, Ortygia. Since the sun had never shone upon this island and it was uninhabited, Leto was able to give birth to her twins. Artemis was the first twin to be born, and immediately assisted her with her brother’s birth. Due to the Eileithyia‘s orders, Leto had to suffer for nine whole days and nights, until Apollo was finally given birth to. Zeus blessed the island of Ortygia, renamed it Delos, which became sacred to Apollo, and anchored the floating island to the surface.
Artemis
Apollo
And now for Hephaestus. Hepheastus (hef-es-tus) was one of the two children of Zeus and Hera., technically. Zeus had nothing to do with Hephaestus‘ birth, but he is still considered the father. In retaliation of Zeus giving birth to Athena, Hera sought to give birth to one of her own. When she gave birth to Hephaestus, she was revolted. Her son, who was to be her crowning achievement, her revenge on Zeus, was pretty fugly and incredibly lame. Resisting the urge to vomit, she cast her newborn from the heavens.
After a day’s fall he landed in the sea, where the daughter nymphs of Oceanus (Titan of the sea) Eurynome and Thetis cared for him. When he grew old enough, Hephaestus designed a contraption, a golden throne for his divine mother. When Hera sat upon it, her hands and feet were clamped. Hephaestus agreed to let her go on one condition: his mother would make him an Olympian. After doing so, he let her go and henceforth became the patron of blacksmiths and god of fire.
Hephaestus
Right, so in the next post, I’ll be discussing the birth of the only god left, Ares. And then I’ve got a lot more stuff planned, like the stories of Hercules, Jason, etc. so stay tuned! 😀
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it and are excited to know how I’ll present the next one. Feel free to like and share! Until next time!
Mythological Facts 