{"id":1079,"date":"2020-12-09T13:23:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T13:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/?p=1079"},"modified":"2020-12-14T16:18:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T16:18:26","slug":"hephaestus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/hephaestus\/","title":{"rendered":"Hephaestus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSLIS, MD<br \/>\nSchool of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Pediatrics<br \/>\n2020<br \/>\nPoem<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I think often of Hephaestus<br \/>\nArtisan of the Gods<br \/>\nAs spoken of by Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>I think often of the Olympians<br \/>\nLooking down at him<br \/>\nBent over his Forge.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if they told him he should be content<br \/>\nFor he is a God<br \/>\nAnd rests far above the lot of Men.<\/p>\n<p>Silent on his casting out of Olympus<br \/>\nFor the offense of being lame.<br \/>\nIsolated upon Lemnos, or Sicily.<\/p>\n<p>Admired for deep craft when needed:<br \/>\naxes, clappers, helmets, sandals, armor,<br \/>\nchariots, swords, and even the Aegis, by others irreproducible all.<\/p>\n<p>Skill which changed history, or myth, or legend;<br \/>\nPeoples and places, hopes and fears.<br \/>\nAll altered by his hand ultimately.<\/p>\n<p>An artificial shoulder, automatons, metal animals,<br \/>\nAnd even the thrones of those who sat above him<br \/>\nSneering as they did at his supposed imperfection.<\/p>\n<p>(Even if a throne figured in his guileful revenge,<br \/>\nEnchanted in entrapping embrace.)<br \/>\nI muse upon Hephaestus<\/p>\n<p>For skill unrespected until needed;<br \/>\nForgotten until wanted;<br \/>\nDerided until necessary.<\/p>\n<p>For the crime of being different.<br \/>\nFor the impertinence of protecting another.<br \/>\nAnd allowed back only through artifice and guile.<\/p>\n<p>Even his revenge upon unfaithful Aphrodite and Mars<br \/>\nMade whole by that self-same mockery.<br \/>\nWas this becoming of the God(s)?<\/p>\n<p>When Gods lose sight, what happens next?<br \/>\nWhat if he had simply stopped?<br \/>\nWhat ruin may have befallen history?<\/p>\n<p>He stands not alone \u2014<br \/>\nAs did Kothar-wa-Khasis, Ugarit crafter-god;<br \/>\nOr Ptah of the Egyptians, stunted and called deformed;<br \/>\nOr Weyland the Norse smither, worker of bronze;<br \/>\nOr Tvastr of the Hindus;<br \/>\nOr Ossetian Kurdalagon.<br \/>\nIs this the fate of all mankinds?<br \/>\nIs this the action of all peoples?<\/p>\n<p>Is this the lot of those who move differently<br \/>\nRespected when needed; rejected when not<br \/>\nAnd toil amidst flames for acceptance?<\/p>\n<p>I think often of Vulcan<br \/>\nOutcast of the Gods;<br \/>\nWas the crime deformity?<br \/>\nOr was it being clever?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSLIS, MD School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Pediatrics 2020 Poem &nbsp; I think often of Hephaestus Artisan of the Gods As spoken of by Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and beyond. I think often of the Olympians Looking down at him Bent over his Forge. I wonder if they told him&hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/hephaestus\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read <\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,10],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2020-issue","category-writing","tag-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1136,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions\/1136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}