InGreek mythology,Cedalion (Ancient Greek:Κηδαλίων,romanized: Kēdalíōn) was a servant ofHephaestus inLemnos, an island in theAegean Sea. Cedalion is best known for his part in aiding the hunterOrion navigate the world after being blinded, and helping him to reachHelios who healed his eyesight.
One traditional etymology is fromkēdeuein "to take charge, to care for", and early nineteenth century scholars agreed.[1] Scholars sinceWilamowitz, however, support the other traditional interpretation, as "phallos", from a different sense of the same verb: "to marry" (said of the groom).[2]
According to one tradition, he was Hephaestus's tutor, with whomHera fostered her son onNaxos to teach him smithcraft.[3] Kerenyi compares him to theCabeiri, toChiron, and toPrometheus.[4]
The more common story of Cedalion tells of his part in the healing ofOrion, who came to Lemnos after he was blinded byOenopion. Orion took up Cedalion[5] and set the youth upon his shoulders[6] for a guide to the East.[7] There, the rays ofHelios restored Orion's sight.
Sophocles wrote asatyr playCedalion, of which a few words survive. Its plot is uncertain, whether the blinding of Orion by Oenopion and thesatyrs on Chios, probably with Cedalion offstage and prophesied, or the recovery of Orion's sight on Lemnos. It has also been suggested that the subject may be Hephaestus's fostering; or the instructions given to the blinded Orion by satyrs in Cedalion's service. One of the surviving lines suggests extreme drunkenness; Burkert reads this fragment as from a chorus ofCabeiri.[8]
Wilamowitz speculates that Cedalion is the dwarf in theLouvre relief showing Dionysius in Hephaestus' workplace.[9]
