Rerun of No. 2712 - The armor of Achillēs
> Rerun commentary: Since Hephaestus sort of inherited the domain of technology by default, he's now also the god of the Internet, those annoying CAPTCHAs, printers that fail when you need them the most, and actively misleading AI summaries of things that include a bunch of made-up rubbish.
Let me quote what I wrote about this over a year ago.
The ancient Greek gods are balanced better than I thought.
The ancient Greek gods have lost their power, nobody sacrifices to them anymore. But they are still strong as symbols, a lot of things are named of them.
When I was young, I learned that Hēphaistos is considered the god of railways. This makes sense. The ancient Greek pantheon got into power before the industrial revolution. Then people invented the steam engine, steam trains, automated looms, the cotton gin, and everything else to make our lives easy. Since Hēphaistos was a smith, and he created Zeus's throne that can move on its own, he had to take all these new inventions to his domain. And, I thought, since our lives are now so automated that most people work in industry and very few people have to work in agriculture, Hēphaistos is now the god of almost everything. The pantheon became unbalanced, I figured, because there's just one god of industry and a hundred gods for everything else that's now irrelevant. They are thus no longer suitable as symbols for concepts in modern life.
Except I was entirely wrong thinking that. In retrospect, I should have realized this when I complained that so many things are named of Athēnē.
In reality, the ancient Greek pantheon is very well balanced for the modern world, much better than for ancient Greece. In ancient times, most people had to work in agriculture. There was one god of agriculture, Dēmētēr, covering the work of most people. Today, few people work in agriculture. Yes, we have people working in industry or transportation, and they're covered by Hēphaistos. But there are also a lot of people who work in retail, covered by Hermēs; service workers in restaurants and hotels, covered by Zeus; people in healthcare, overseen by Apollo; people in education or research, overseen by Athēnē; and people staying home raising children full time, overseen by Hēra. It's actually a pretty decent balance. I have to admit, the pantheon had a lot of foresight for our modern condition.
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But when it comes to metallurgy, Hēphaistos wasn't more advanced technologically than the humans at the time were. Even Achillēs's shield is made of bronze. Hēphaistos hadn't yet known how to make steel armor yet. He certainly couldn't have forged anything from mithril or adamantine.
> Rerun commentary: Since Hephaestus sort of inherited the domain of technology by default, he's now also the god of the Internet, those annoying CAPTCHAs, printers that fail when you need them the most, and actively misleading AI summaries of things that include a bunch of made-up rubbish.
Let me quote what I wrote about this over a year ago.
The ancient Greek gods are balanced better than I thought.
The ancient Greek gods have lost their power, nobody sacrifices to them anymore. But they are still strong as symbols, a lot of things are named of them.
When I was young, I learned that Hēphaistos is considered the god of railways. This makes sense. The ancient Greek pantheon got into power before the industrial revolution. Then people invented the steam engine, steam trains, automated looms, the cotton gin, and everything else to make our lives easy. Since Hēphaistos was a smith, and he created Zeus's throne that can move on its own, he had to take all these new inventions to his domain. And, I thought, since our lives are now so automated that most people work in industry and very few people have to work in agriculture, Hēphaistos is now the god of almost everything. The pantheon became unbalanced, I figured, because there's just one god of industry and a hundred gods for everything else that's now irrelevant. They are thus no longer suitable as symbols for concepts in modern life.
Except I was entirely wrong thinking that. In retrospect, I should have realized this when I complained that so many things are named of Athēnē.
In reality, the ancient Greek pantheon is very well balanced for the modern world, much better than for ancient Greece. In ancient times, most people had to work in agriculture. There was one god of agriculture, Dēmētēr, covering the work of most people. Today, few people work in agriculture. Yes, we have people working in industry or transportation, and they're covered by Hēphaistos. But there are also a lot of people who work in retail, covered by Hermēs; service workers in restaurants and hotels, covered by Zeus; people in healthcare, overseen by Apollo; people in education or research, overseen by Athēnē; and people staying home raising children full time, overseen by Hēra. It's actually a pretty decent balance. I have to admit, the pantheon had a lot of foresight for our modern condition.
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That can't be right. Hēphaistos was a very busy smith cranking out large number of high quality metalwork. And he made Zeus's throne which can move without being pulled by horses, so the story about making a bed that trapped Aphroditē with her lover is plausible.Hephestus did get back at Aprodite once, it involved Ares and an admantine net.
But when it comes to metallurgy, Hēphaistos wasn't more advanced technologically than the humans at the time were. Even Achillēs's shield is made of bronze. Hēphaistos hadn't yet known how to make steel armor yet. He certainly couldn't have forged anything from mithril or adamantine.
Statistics: Posted by b_jonas — 23 Mar 2025 12:06