Comparative Mythology
Parallels in other mythological systems for Hephaestos's symbolism include:
- The Ugarit craftsman-god Kothar Hasis, who is identified from afar by his distinctive walkâpossibly suggesting that he limps.
- As the Egyptian Herodotus was given to understand, the craftsman-god Ptah was a dwarf.
- In Norse mythology, Weyland the Smith was a lame bronzeworker.
Read more about this topic: Hephaestus
Famous quotes containing the words comparative and/or mythology:
“The hill farmer ... always seems to make out somehow with his corn patch, his few vegetables, his rifle, and fishing rod. This self-contained economy creates in the hillman a comparative disinterest in the worlds affairs, along with a disdain of lowland ways. I dont go to question the good Lord in his wisdom, runs the phrasing attributed to a typical mountaineer, but I jest caint see why He put valleys in between the hills.”
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past.... Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)