"Look how limping Hephaestus conquers War,
the quickest of all the gods who rule Olympus!"
"The cripple wins by craft."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 373-375. The gods laugh and cry out at the end of the bard Demodocus’ story, when crippled god of fire Hephaestus finds wife Aphrodite and lover and god of war Ares in his marriage bed. Hephaestus cleverly traps the pair with "cunning chains" which he forged so they "could not move a limb or lift a finger." This act of divine justice foreshadows how Odysseus will lay a trap for Penelope’s suitors and inflict a surprise defeat on them.