Hephaestusis?unmask

Hephaestus is the smithing god. He is also famous for being ugly and lame. He returned to Olympus after being exiled for being too unattractive.

He's also the smithing god. Hephaestus created the gift that the gods gave to mankind: the first woman Pandora and her pithos. Hephaestus is also famous for his transactional relationship, he received Aphrodite in exchange for Hera's freedom.

Most importantly, he is the smithing god. He crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods. And almost any finely wrought metalwork imbued with powers that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus. I tried, and it's actually easier to create a list of things Hephaestus didn't make.¹

Did I mention Hephaestus was the smithing god?

We need a princess who works hard. Off to a good start, we've already eliminated at least half the Disney princesses. Preferably, she would have an actual profession or run a business. This princess would convert raw materials into a finished product. And if at all possible, let's have her know her way around a fire.

Tiana, from the Princess and the Frog. Her kitchen is his forge. Her pot is his anvil. She runs a successful business. The Mardi Gras ball is the most Hephaestan image in the canon. The whole glittering court is in costume, and she is the one holding the tray, making everything happen. And now let's hammer it in.

• Work ethic — Tiana works two waitress jobs
• Transactional relationship — She trades a kiss from Prince Naveen for a reward
• Hideous form — She turns into a frog. She's green and slimy. That form does not show up in promotional material for the film.
• Cast out — Tiana is chased out of New Orleans into the bayou.
• Success through labor — Tiana builds her dream restaurant by hand.

Most importantly, unlike other princesses whose happily ever afters imply a life of ease and luxury, Tiana doesn't stop working even after the film credits roll. The forge fires never dim.

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Extra-diegetic. Hephaestus is the god of blacksmiths and artisans. The Princess and the Frog was Disney's deliberate return to hand-drawn animation, after the studio had closed its 2D division and gone entirely digital. Pencils, paper, ink — the old craft, revived for this film. It underperformed at the box office, and Disney all but retired hand-drawn features in its wake — so for Tiana, as for Hephaestus, the hard work was its own reward.²

Footnotes

1. And that's usually only because chronologically he wasn't alive yet to make them. ↩

2. It grossed about $267M worldwide against a ~$105M budget. See The Princess and the Frog. ↩