Hephaestus1.0078_Velázquez

Hephaestus1.0078_Velazquez

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Homer Od. 8.270

Diego Velázquez, "The Forge of Vulcan," 1630, Prado, Madrid, no. 1171.

Velázquez narrates the moment in Odyssey 8.270-71 when Helios reports to Hephaestus that he has seen Ares trysting with Aphrodite, Hephaestus' wife. The shock on his face will effect a change of plan — from the present work on a suit of armor to the crafting of that wrought netting the cuckold will soon use to entrap the adulters.

Apollo appearing to Vulcan and his cyclops, who are forging armor in a dimly lit workshop

Since the reporter wears that laurel crown, Velázquez is actually projecting Apollo (qua sun-god) in where Homer had Helios.

Ovid (Met.. 4.170) has the daughters of Minyas sing the story of "The Sun in Love," ... "even the Sun, whose star-born radiance governs the world, became the thrall of love" — retaliation for having finked at Od. 8.270 ff.

Almost by slight of hand Helios has become Apollo. Safer: two millennia of tradition are telescoped here.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.