War is over. The Olympians triumphant. The Titans vanquished.  Zeus rules.  So why can’t his son, Hephaestus — god of craftspeople, volcanoes, & fire — chillax?

Aggravated by his bum leg, his prying mother, Hera, and his unfaithful wife, Aphrodite, he has only the comfort of three golden robots he designed to look exactly like his estranged wife, the goddess of love.

He's promised Prometheus, who created human beings, that he’d protect the goofy little humans forever, but Zeus has commanded Hephaestus to destroy them.

Worst of all, Hephaestus suspects his dazzling robots are a little too fascinated by the human beings.  Is he paranoid? Or has he really heard his glittering machines talking revolution and rage against the gods?  If the god of volcanoes gets anymore antsy, the eruption will be earth- shattering.

Commisioned:  San Francisco Olympians Festival, 2010 (Stuart Bousel, Artistic Director)

Staged Reading, July 31, 2010, Exit Stage Left, San Francisco, as part of the 2010 San Francisco Olympians Festival, directed by Evelyn Jean Pine

Published in Songs of Hestia, Exit Press, Spring 2012

The beautiful Hephaestus Poster is by Nathan Anderson.