Hera And Hephaestus

I've heard Hera kicked off Hephaestus, her son, 'cause he was ugly. I want to hear more about this.

There are several versions of this story. Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, but when he was born, his mother saw he was very ugly and threw him from Mount Olympus. He fell for nine days and nine nights and landed into the ocean and then he was brought up by Thetis, who was Achilles' mother. Because of this fall, he was rendered lame.
He wanted revenge for this, so he made a magic gold throne that he send as a gift to Hera. When she sat on it, she was magically tied and she couldn't go away. The other gods begged Hephaestus to come back to Olympus and free her, but he declared he had no mother. Greek god Dionysus got him drunk and brought him to mount Olympus on a mule. He finally freed Hera when he was given Aphrodite as a wife.
Another story says that it was Zeus who threw him from mount Olympus, either because he was ugly, or because the little child tried to defend his mother, Hera, when she had an argument with Zeus. In this version, he only fell for one day. And, of course, he remained crippled forever because of this fall. He landed in the island of Lemnos, where he learned to be a blacksmith.
Poor Hephaestus, I guess you can say he was a child who was abused by his parents. I guess these gods didn't have an easy life, after all!