Procrustes and Hephaistos
To conclude, we offer you two short stories about gods and sons of gods. Over time, many different readings have emerged about Procrustes and Hephaistos. We found these versions applicable to our story.

Procrustes, son of Poseidon, was a villainous blacksmith in ancient Greece. He ran an inn in Attica where travelers could spend the night. Procrustes invited every passerby to stay overnight, but the unsuspecting travelers who responded to his invitation were not to be envied. They faced a night in a special bed, and as the traveler fell asleep Procrustes came by to check whether his guest would fit in the bed. If the guest didn’t fit – which was always the case, because Procrustes could adjust the bed – he went to work with his blacksmith tools. If the guest was too short, Procrustes would stretch the body. If he turned out to be too long, Procrustes amputated the protruding body parts. All travelers died as a result of these treatments. And Procrustes? He robbed their belongings and continued this reign of terror for many years until he was slain by his own method by Theseus, hero of Athens.

The inn was now empty, but not for long. The workshop would soon house another blacksmith, the divine goldsmith Hephaistos, son of Zeus and Hera. Hephaistos had lived with the other gods on Mount Olympus, but he was ugly and walked with a limp as a result of a deformity of his foot. He was bullied, and his discomfort and limping were the subject of ridicule and mockery. With his two right hands he made the best weapons and the most beautiful thrones to please the gods, yet he was not much loved as a fellow inhabitant of Mount Olympus.
One fateful day, Zeus, the king of the gods, cast him down from Olympus out of anger or perhaps boredom. After a free fall that lasted a day, he ended up in the sea. A person who would have sailed off the coast of Attica that night (be it that there was no such person), would have witnessed Hephaistos who could not swim because of his disabilities, being rescued by a dolphin. Exhausted, he arrived at the abandoned forge, where he decided to set up a shop. To begin with, he built twenty bronze tripods with wheels that could drive independently. They served to help him move around, as well as to transport his products to Olympus. He also made automata, assistants of gold, in the form of women. This was a remarkable achievement, even for a god. They could understand him, speak to him, and help with his work. Later, he would make Pandora, the first woman. She was a gift to mankind, which until then consisted of only men.
After these remarkable accomplishments, Hephaistos began taking on assignments for others. His clients were both gods and mortals. He was a good listener, had an eye for the talents of his customers and made items according to their wishes. In combination with his creativity, this was seen as the secret of his craftsmanship. And so it was with Hermes, son of the same Zeus but of another mother, the mountain nymph Maia. Hermes was the god of commerce and travelers, but also the patron of thieves. He had come to the inn disguised as a mortal, because he too had taken part in the bullying of Hephaistos on Mount Olympus. Hermes wanted to fly and he knew only Hephaistos could help him do that. Hephaistos, who had seen very well who he had in front of him, played along. He asked about his client’s wishes and invited him to come up with a detailed description of his desire to fly. He combined the dreams with the athletic talents of the daredevil. Together they designed a winged helmet and winged sandals. The results were not only astonishingly effective, but also paragons of beauty. These and many other attributes brought great fame to Hephaistos, eventually bringing him back to Olympus to work there only for the gods.

Procrustes’ ruthless working method, characterized by his obsession with averages, is better known to us mortals than the collaborative and solution-focused approach that Hephaistos transformed from an outcast into the blacksmith of the gods. We can only hope that Hephaistos will descend once more from Mount Olympus to teach us the tricks of his trade.