Who threw Hephaestus from Mount Olympus?

The story behind the answer

Hera is the correct answer: in one major myth, she was ashamed that her son Hephaestus was born lame and hurled him from Mount Olympus. He fell to earth (or the sea), became crippled, and was raised by sea nymphs. He later returned as the master smith of the gods.

An ironic twist makes this memorable: the child Hera rejected became the divine craftsman who forged wonders—Zeus’s thunderbolts, Achilles’ armor, and Pandora. He even sent Hera a golden throne that trapped her, forcing the gods to negotiate his return; Dionysus famously got him drunk and led him back on a donkey. Memory hook: “Hera hurled Hephaestus”—the H-H alliteration ties mother and son to the fall that shaped his myth.