Behold the second of April’s additions to the Sorcerer’s Workbench: a pendant for devotees of Hephaistos, the Greek god of fire, the forge, metalwork of all kinds, and the broad portfolio “craft” which overlaps with the territory of the goddess Athena.
With Dionysos and Zeus out of the way, Hephaistos was the obvious next choice for Olympian devotional talismans. I have a miniature anvil which has served as an altar to him and which has lived on my workbench since it was first given to me by a lover in 2006. His image hangs over my workshop. Those hours not devoted to the work of the muses are devoted to the works of fire and hammers and tongs.
As such, I didn’t need to do much research for this image. I chose to depict a blacksmith’s tools rather than a jeweler’s because they will be more universally recognizable: anvil and hammer and tongs. And I included the modern elemental triangle of fire, partially to fill that negative space and partly because Hephaistus rules primal elemental fire, not just its use in art and artifice.
The detail didn’t come out in the metal quite as perfectly as I might have liked, so I may redo the design some day, but I’m still very pleased with it, overall.
Our society, like that of ancient Greece, habitually and systemically overlooks the skilled craftsfolx who design and make the things we use every day, and the gods who rule over those works. This image gives me, and others like me, a piece of jewelry with which to declare our devotion to the life of fire and metal, craft and artifice, and this fiery god who rules it.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1443238336/anvil-of-hephaistos-devotional-pendant