"Hephaestus, come –
look who’s here! Thetis would ask a favor of you!"
And the famous crippled Smith exclaimed warmly,
"Thetis – here? Ah then a wondrous, honored goddess
comes to grace our house! Thetis saved my life
when the mortal pain came on me after my great fall,
thanks to my mother’s will, that brazen bitch,
she wanted to hide me – because I was a cripple.
…And here is Thetis now, in our own house!
So I must do all I can to pay her back,
the price for the life she saved…
the nymph of the sea with sleek and lustrous locks,
Quickly, set before her stranger’s generous fare
while I put away my bellows and all my tools."
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 18, lines 457-464, 474-479. Goddess Charis tells the divine smith and god of fire, Hephaestus, that Thetis has come to call. Hephaestus is full of gratitude for the friendship of Thetis, whom he said saved his life after his mother Hera threw him out of Olympus because he was crippled.