Blog Response #1

So as far as the blog entries go I hope i'm doing the right type of response here, although I don't know for sure.

In the first few books of the Iliad there were a few things I found interesting:

I think that the mother-son relationship between Hera and Hephaestus is important if only because of Thetis and Achilles’ importance in the first book and their mother-son relationship. In a story were lineage is so important through paternal lines I found it interesting that these two mother-son relationships are so pronounced in the first book of the Iliad.

Thetis asking Zeus to the war on behalf of Achilles to for her is a big event in the first book and so is the fact that Zeus obliges. Maybe he still harbors some type of lust/attraction for her since the initial attraction that was never able to come to fruition? (All because of Themis’s prophecy that had said that the son Thetis would bear was destined to be stronger than it’s father. Zeus then sets her to be married to Peleus. There’s a vase, the Erskine dinos, that portrays this wedding. (You can see it here. The top band is the procession. Since Zeus himself set up the wedding all the gods were in attendance. )

Hephaestus comforts his mother in the end of book one bringing her drink and condolences. I found it very interesting they mentioned Hera “Of the Golden Throne" after talking about a ‘loving’ interaction about Hera and Hephaestus. Mainly because in one notable myth it was Hephaestus who, wanting revenge, made her the Gold Throne and when she sat in it chained her with unbreakable shackles.