Hephaestus (the god of fire, forging and volcanoes in Greek mythology) forged "the most marvellous of all shields" for the hero Achilles in connection with the Trojan War. The shield shows the cosmos known at the time with the sky, earth, sun, sea, moon and constellations as well as scenes from everyday life. Among other things, it depicts a vineyard of gold with vines on silver poles and a cheerful grape harvest. Homer describes this scene in his "Iliad": virgins, all cheerful and full of joy, carried the delicious fruit in woven baskets .
Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera. As he was small and ugly and also had a limp, his mother threw him off Olympus. After the efforts of other gods failed to persuade Hephaestus to return to Olympus, Dionysus intoxicated Hephaestus with wine, tied him to a donkey and transported him back to Olympus. The return of Hephaestus is a pictorial motif on numerous vases. See also under wine gods.
Image: by Angelo Monticelli (1778-1837), Public Domain, Link
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Andreas Essl
Autor, Modena