Myth Monday - Dionysus and the Return of Hephaestus
This story reveals the power or skills of Dionysus and presents a possible explanation for the inclusion of Dionysus among the Olympians.Hera didn't much care for her lame son, Hephaestus. If Zeus was his father, he didn't much care for him either. One of them tossed the young god from Mt. Olympus. Hephaestus was tended by nymphs, including Thetis, mother of Achilles, for which reason he was much indebted to her. Dionysus, too, had been tended by nymphs, in his case the nymphs of Nysa. As half-brothers (at most), Dionysus and Hephaestus still had more in common than Hephaestus did with his Olympian brother Ares.
Hephaestus sent his most unmotherly mother a throne as a present. What Hera didn't know was that it was a magical throne that would make Hera stick to it permanently.
One of Dionysus' two mothers had a similar throne. When Theseus arrived in the Underworld on a mission to help abduct Persephone, he was bound to a chair from which he couldn't rise, until Hercules came along to obtain his release.
Well, Hera was stuck to the throne and none too happy about it. Her son Ares tried to help, but he couldn't get her out. He thought Hephaestus might be talked into releasing Hera, so he went to Hephaestus for a chat. Hephaestus, like many of the Greeks, wasn't fond of the war god. Hephaestus beat Ares off with firebrands. However, when someone talked Dionysus into doing a good turn for Hera, he obliged by getting Hephaestus good and drunk, attaching him to the back of a donkey, and bringing him to Hera.
Hephaestus was willing to release his mother on conditions, which included the acceptance of Dionysus among the Olympians.
