Hera gives Hephaestus a babysitter
Wealth of Hera, Zeus, and Hephaestus lore I felt the need to share from the bT 14.296 Iliad scholia!! It’s genuinely so fun and exciting it’s my favorite Hera/Hephaestus interpretation
I included bolded summaries of the big/important myths here as TLDRs. I adore how much this adds to Zeus and Hera’s relationship
[Homer wrote:] “Going to bed while secretly consorting with her beloved, she [Hera] escaped the notice of her parents.”
[bT scholia on the passage:] And how, then, does he say (Iliad 5.202) that she was reared by Oceanus? Or does ‘to rear’ (ibid.) not mean ‘from infancy’? […]
[Hera and Zeus loved eachother secretly before the fall of Kronos; Oceanus and Tethys hand off Hera to Zeus; Hera gives Hephaestus to Cedalion] So then, she [Hera] was secretly united with him [Zeus]. But when Kronos was cast into Tartarus, she, being [mistakenly] thought to still be a virgin, was given in marriage to Zeus by Tethys and Oceanus. After giving birth to Hephaestus, she pretended to have conceived without intercourse. And she handed him over to Cedalion the Naxian to be taught metalworking; for which reason even to this day a memorial is preserved among the Naxians […]
[Samians are inspired by the love of Zeus and Hera to have their dalliances of love before marriage] Others say that Zeus secretly, without the knowledge of her parents, deflowered Hera on Samos; hence the Samians, emulating the goddess in jealous devotion, secretly bring their maidens together with their suitors, and then later celebrate the marriages openly with sacrifice.
[“parents” in the passage “Going to bed while secretly consorting with her beloved, she [Hera] escaped the notice of her parents” may refer to Oceanus and Tethys, not just Kronos and Rhea] Thus, ‘parents’ refers to those of Kronos and Rhea; but some interpret ‘parents’ as the ancestors, those of Oceanus <and Tethys>. [As an example of a similar verb as ‘to rear’ being used by Homer:] ‘From the same parents who bore Alcinous’ (Odyssey 7.54), so that we may understand ‘to rear’ [as Homer used in the passage where Hera says she is reared by Oceanus and Tethys] as meaning ‘to nourish from infancy’.
While the passage from the Odyssey was only used as an example to explain the verb ‘to rear’, it seemed to remind the scholiast of another myth they are about to relate. Here is the context of that Odyssey quote:
“Arete is the name she's given, and she's from the same ancestors who gave birth to king Alcinous. First earth-shaker Poseidon and Periboea, the best looking of women, gave birth to Nausithous. She was the youngest daughter of great-hearted Eurymedon, who once was king over the insolent Giants. Though he lost his reckless people and perished himself, Poseidon mixed with her, and she bore a son, great-hearted Nausithous, who ruled over the Phaeacians. Nausithous fathered Rhexenor and Alcinous.”
[the scholiast continues:] Some, however, say that while still a virgin, Hera fell in love with Eurymedon, one of the Giants, and by him bore Prometheus. Zeus, upon discovering this, cast the one into Tartarus and crucified Prometheus on the pretext of the fire.”
For context: the above passage comes from a late antiquity bT scholiast, perhaps imperfectly quoting the earlier D scholiast on 14.295 who wrote before them:
When Hera was being raised by her parents, one of the Giants, Eurymedon, raped her and made her pregnant. She gave birth to Prometheus. Zeus later married his sister [Hera], and when he found out what had happened, he threw Eurymedon into Tartarus, and hung Prometheus up in chains (he used the fire as a pretext). The story is in Euphorion.
Though it is interesting, the whole thing with Hera “loving” Eurymedon, because she did have a lover in a different source named Oromedon. They were probably confused/conflated even in antiquity.