Hephaestus was a builder and architect, goldsmith and gunsmith, blacksmith and inventor of mechanical objects. He forged the weapons of Heracles and Achilles, two great heroes. His cult has origins in Lemnos, where the ancient inhabitants believed that the volcanic fires coming out of the mountain Moschilo came from the god’s underground forge.
It is clear that a volcanic deity similar to Hephaestus had always been venerated in the Aeolian Islands since the first Greek settlement and that there was a temple dedicated to him on the Acropolis. On the islands the god could reveal himself in all his destructive power during the violent explosions of the two active volcanoes, but he also presented himself as a wholesome deity for the therapeutic virtues of the hot springs and fumarolic hot areas that are closely connected with these endogenic forces.
