Percy Jackson: Gods and Demigods

Athena's Handkerchief Child (Percy)

Have you ever heard of the story of Hephaestus and Athena having a child? Probably not. If you did, I'm gonna tell you anyway. Get ready because things are about to get weird.

So, Hephaestus was the crippled blacksmith god. More on him later...

Right now, what you need to know (kinda) is that ever since Hephaestus helped Athena get out of Zeus' forehead, he started to develop a crush on her.

This made sense because they were both into tools and crafts. They were both deep thinkers and enjoyed solving mechanical problems.

Hephaestus' problem was that Athena hated love and never wanted to hold hands with a guy, much less marry one.

Even if Hephaestus had been handsome, Athena would still turn him down. But Hephaestus was Grade-A Industrial-Strength Ugly with Extra Gross.

He tried flirting with her a lot, like, Hey baby, want to see my hammer collection?

That definitely did not help. Every time he got close to her, she just ran off. She just kept moving away from Hephaestus. Finally, the poor guy was panting and sweaty.

He flung himself at Athena, wrapping his hands around her waist.

"Please," he begged. "You're the perfect woman for me!"

He buried his face into his skirt and sobbed and sniveled, and some of his godly sweat rubbed off on her knee.

"Gross!" She kicked Hephaestus away and snatched up the nearest peace of cloth, which was a handkerchief.

She wiped the godly sweat off her leg and tossed the gross piece of cloth out of Olympus, it slowly fluttered down the earth.

Then she ran away. That should've been the end of the story but something strange happened.

You might be wondering what happened to the piece of handkerchief.

It contained the essence of both Athena and Hephaestus, and somehow (don't ask me how) when it hit the ground, it grew into a mortal baby.

Some say, that there was some blood from Ouranos when he was chopped up to pieces on that spot which gave the gift of life.

But I don't know, I wasn't actually there.

Up on Olympus, Athena heard the baby crying. She tried to ignore it, but motherly instinct stirred inside her.

She went down from Olympus, and took the baby into her arms. The baby still cried. "Hush little one, I suppose technically you are my son." She decided. "Even though I am an eternal maiden, I will claim you as my own, and name you Erikthonius.

Personally, I think that she could've chosen a better name than that, she is the goddess of wisdom after all.

The kid grew up and he kicked Kekrops out and became the new King of Athens. That's why the Athenian kings liked to say they were descended from Athena and Hephaestus even though Athena is an eternal maiden.