Day 68: Tumbling Down to Lemnos

Lines 590-98
ἤδη γαρ με καὶ ἄλλοτ' ἀλεξέμεναι μεμαῶτα
ῥῖψε ποδὸς τεταγὼν ἀπὸ βηλοῦ θεσπεσίοιο.
πᾶν δ' ἦμαρ φερόμην, ἅμα δ' ἠελίῳ καταδύντ
κάππεσον ἐν Λήμνῳ, ὀλίγος δ' ἔτι θυμὸς ἐνῆεν·
ἔνθα με Σίντιες ἄνδρες ἄφαρ κομίσαντο πεσόντα."

ὧς φάτο, μείδησεν δὲ θεά, λευκώλενος Ἥρη,
μειδήσασα δὲ παιδὸς ἐδέξατο χειρὶ κύπελλον.
αὐτὰρ ὁ τοῖς ἄλλοισι θεοῖς ἐνδέξια πᾶσιν
οἰνοχόει γλυκὺ νέκταρ, ἀπὸ κρητῆρος ἀφυσσων.


For once before I was eager to defend you,
Then laying hold of my foot he hurled me
From the divine threshold, and I was borne
All through the day and, along with the setting sun,
Fell down on Lemnos, my soul and spirit in dire straits;
Then the Sintian men forthwith attended to my sinking self."

Thus he spoke, and the goddess white armed Hera laughed,
And smiling she took the cup in hand from her child.
Then from the right he pours sweet nectar for all the other gods,
Drawing up from the mixing bowl.


Hephaestus here demonstrates an excellent way to end soften a harsh encounter between two other people: make yourself the butt of a joke. Like Nestor he uses the past to demonstrate his point. But, unlike that ancient king he illustrates how foolish it is to oppose the will of Zeus by telling of the last time he had tried to defend his mother and the rather comical consequences to him of Zeus' reaction. A great way to defuse the tension, though I think that the poet's larger point in this section was still a comparison between the frivolity of the gods and the stern sobriety of mortal men. But I think it still works.