of love. In Homer, the skill of Hephaestus in metallurgy is often mentioned; his forge was on Olympus, where he was served by images of golden handmaids which he had animated. Similar myths are found in relation to the Finnish smith-god Ilmarinen, who made a golden woman, and the Teutonic Wieland; a belief in the magical power of metal-workers is a common survival from an age in which their art was new and mysterious. In epic poetry Hephaestus is rather a comic figure, and his limping gait provokes “Homeric laughter” among the gods. In Vedic poetry Agni, the fire-god, is footless; and the ancients themselves attributed this lameness to the crooked appearance of flame (Servius on Aen. viii. 814), and possibly no better explanation can be found, though it has been suggested that in an early stage of society the trade of a smith would be suitable for the lame; Hephaestus and the lame Wieland would thus conform to the type of their human counterparts.
Except in Lemnos and Attica, there are few indications of any cult of Hephaestus. His association with Lemnos can be traced from Homer to the Roman age. A town in the island was called Hephaestia, and the functions of the god must have been wide, as we are told that his Lemnian priests could cure snake-bites. Once a year every fire was extinguished on the island for nine days, during which period sacrifice was offered to the gods of the underworld and the dead. After the nine days were passed, new fire was brought from the sacred hearth at Delos. The significance of this and similar customs is examined by J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, iii. ch. 4. The close connexion of Hephaestus with Lemnos and especially with its mountain Mosychlus has been explained by the supposed existence of a volcano; but no crater or other sign of volcanic agency is now apparent, and the “Lemnian fire”—a phenomenon attributed to Hephaestus—may have been due to natural gas (see Lemnos). In Sicily, however, the volcanic nature of the god is prominent in his cult at Etna, as well as in the neighbouring Liparaean isles. The Olympian forge had been transferred to Etna or some other volcano, and Hephaestus had become a subterranean rather than a celestial power.
The divine smith naturally became a “culture-god”; in Crete the invention of forging in iron was attributed to him, and he was honoured by all metal-workers. But we have little record of his cult in this aspect, except at Athens, where his worship was of real importance, belonging to the oldest stratum of Attic religion. A tribe was called after his name, and Erichthonius, the mythical father of the Attic people, was the son of Hephaestus. Terra-cotta statuettes of the god seem to have been placed before the hearths of Athenian houses. This temple has been identified, not improbably, with the so-called “Theseum”; it contained a statue of Athena, and the two deities are often associated, in literature and cult, as the joint givers of civilization to the Athenians. The class of artisans was under their special protection; and the joint festival of the two divinities—the Chalceia—commemorated the invention of bronze-working by Hephaestus. In the Hephaesteia (the particular festival of the god) there was a torch race, a ceremonial not indeed confined to fire-gods like Hephaestus and Prometheus, but probably in its origin connected with them, whether its object was to purify and quicken the land, or (according to another theory) to transmit a new fire with all possible speed to places where the fire was polluted. If the latter view is correct, the torch race would be closely akin to the Lemnian fire-ritual which has been mentioned. The relation between Hephaestus and Prometheus is in some respects close, though the distinction between these gods is clearly marked. The fire, as an element, belongs to the Olympian Hephaestus; the Titan Prometheus, a more human character, steals it for the use of man. Prometheus resembles the Polynesian Maui, who went down to fetch fire from the volcano of Mahuika, the fire-god. Hephaestus is a culture-god mainly in his secondary aspect as the craftsman, whereas Prometheus originates all civilization with the gift of fire. But the importance of Prometheus is mainly mythological; the Titan belonged to a fallen dynasty, and in actual cult was largely superseded by Hephaestus.
In archaic art Hephaestus is generally represented as bearded, though occasionally a younger beardless type is found, as on a vase (in the British Museum), on which he appears as a young man assisting Athena in the creation of Pandora. At a later time the bearded type prevails. The god is usually clothed in a short sleeveless tunic, and wears a round close-fitting cap. His face is that of a middle-aged man, with unkempt hair. He is in fact represented as an idealized Greek craftsman, with the hammer, and sometimes the pincers. Some mythologists have compared the hammer of Hephaestus with that of Thor, and have explained it as the emblem of a thunder-god; but it is Zeus, not Hephaestus, who causes the thunder, and the emblems of the latter god are merely the signs of his occupation as a smith. In art no attempt was made, as a rule, to indicate the lameness of Hephaestus; but one sculptor (Alcamenes) is said to have suggested the deformity without spoiling the statue.
Authorities.—L. Preller (ed. C. Robert), Griech. Mythologie, i. 174 f. (Berlin, 1894); W. H. Roscher, Lex. der griech. u. röm. Mythologie, s.v. “Hephaistos” (Leipzig, 1884–1886); Harrison, Myth. and Mon. of Ancient Athens, p. 119 f. (London, 1890); O. Gruppe, Griech. Mythologie u. Religionsgesch. p. 1304 f. (Munich, 1906); O. Schrader and F. B. Jevons, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan People, p. 161, &c. (London, 1890); L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, v. (1909). (E. E. S.)
HEPPENHEIM, a town of Germany, in the grand-duchy of
Hesse-Darmstadt, on the Bergstrasse, between Darmstadt
and Heidelberg, 21 m. N. of the latter by rail. Pop. (1905), 6364.
It possesses a parish church, occupying the site of one reputed to
have been built by Charlemagne about 805, an interesting town
hall and several schools. On an isolated hill close by stand the
extensive ruins of the castle of Starkenburg, built by the abbot,
Ulrich von Lorsch, about 1064 and destroyed during the Seven
Years’ War, and another hill, the Landberg, was a place of
assembly in the middle ages. Heppenheim, at first the property
of the abbey of Lorsch, became a town in 1318. After belonging
to the Rhenish Palatinate, it came into the possession of Hesse-Darmstadt
in 1803. Hops, wine and tobacco are grown, and
there are large stone quarries, and several small industries in the town.
HEPPLEWHITE, GEORGE (d. 1786), one of the most famous
English cabinet-makers of the 18th century. There is practically
no biographical material relating to Hepplewhite. The only
facts that are known with certainty are that he was apprenticed
to Gillow at Lancaster, that he carried on business in the parish
of Saint Giles, Cripplegate, and that administration of his estate
was granted to his widow Alice on the 27th of June 1786. The
administrator’s accounts, which were filed in the Prerogative
Court of Canterbury a year later, indicate that his property was
of considerable value. After his death the business was continued
by his widow under the style of A. Hepplewhite & Co. Our only
approximate means of identifying his work are The Cabinet-Maker
and Upholsterer’s Guide, which was first published in
1788, two years after his death, and ten designs in The Cabinet-maker’s
London Book of Prices (1788), issued by the London
Society of Cabinet-Makers. It is, however, exceedingly difficult
to earmark any given piece of furniture as being the actual work
or design of Hepplewhite, since it is generally recognized that to
a very large extent the name represents rather a fashion than
a man. Lightness, delicacy and grace are the distinguishing
characteristics of Hepplewhite work. The massiveness of
Chippendale had given place to conceptions that, especially in
regard to chairs—which had become smaller as hoops went out
of fashion—depended for their effect more upon inlay than upon
carving. In one respect at least the Hepplewhite style was
akin to that of Chippendale—in both cases the utmost ingenuity
was lavished upon the chair, and if Hepplewhite was not the
originator he appears to have been the most constant and successful
user of the shield back. This elegant form was employed by
the school in a great variety of designs, and nearly always in
a way artistically satisfying. Where Chippendale, his contemporaries
and his immediate successors had used the cabriole
and the square leg with a good deal of carving, the Hepplewhite
manner preferred a slighter leg, plain, fluted or reeded, tapering to
