Prometheus, recognizing humanity’s potential, was mankind’s benefactor, and wished to bestow upon us the knowledge of the gods. One day Prometheus, acting against the wishes of the Olympian gods, stole the flames of enlightenment and gave them to humankind. In reprisal Zeus, desiring that fire’s powers be reserved for the divine, punished Prometheus’ act of kindness towards humanity with perpetual damnation.

However, even Zeus’ son, Hephaestus, didn’t escape the ruling Olympian God’s wrath. A kind and peace-loving god, Hephaestus was the only god who suffered from any physical deformity and for this he was cast out of Olympia. This is a passage from Homer’s tales of Troy, ‘The Iliad’, recounting Hephaestus’ expulsion from Olympus the incident that led to his becoming a smith and creator of rare beauty:

“...That would have been a dangerous time, had not Thetis and Eurynome taken me in-- Eurynome, daughter of the tidal Ocean. Nine years I stayed, and fashioned works of art, brooches and spiral bracelets, necklaces, in their smooth cave, round which the stream of Ocean flows with a foaming roar: and no one else knew of it, gods or mortals...”

Still standing today at the heart of the ancient site of the Agora in Athens, there stands a temple dedicated to Hephaestus called the Hephaisteion. The temple’s construction was started in 449 B.C. However, the Agora itself was in use as early as the 6th century B.C., at the time of the monetary reforms of Solon and the Silver production of the Laurium mines, as the financial, judicial and cultural center of Athens.

The Athenian Agora wasn’t the only architectural marvel to be built around tales of deities and Silver. At the same time in Asia Minor a wonder was under construction in honor of another deity whose roots lay firmly intertwined with the Moon and Silver.