The Orphic Hymns

workman, part of the world, blameless element, all-devouring, all-subduer, highest of all, all-consuming; ether, sun, stars, moon, pure light: for these show mortals the limbs of Hephaestus.

Stoicheion, "element," is a philosophers' word. Greek thinkers counted fire as one of the four elements, with earth, water and air, and the Stoics spoke of a "craftsman fire" that runs through the whole world and shapes it. The hymn's Hephaestus is very close to that fire: a workman and a part of the cosmos at once, whose limbs are the bright upper air, the sun, the stars and the moon. Pandamatōr, "all-subduer," is the title Homer gives to Sleep.