In the myth of Hera and Hephaistos, Hephaistos is held dearly by his mother because of his talents, which increase her social status, which makes him a commodity for his own mother. The House of Atreus shows the theory of exchange value as Tantalus values the gods' favor as much as that of his son, so he tried to exchange his son's life and meat for the gods' favor, which turned his son into nothing but a commodity. In his economic manuscripts, Marx wrote: "The valid exchange values of a given commodity express something equal" (Marx par. 6). This only means that Tantalus' son was only as valuable to Tantalus as the favor of the gods, so he attempted to exchange one for the other, leading to many unintended consequences all down his family
In the myth of Hera and Hephaistos, Hephaistos is held dearly by his mother because of his talents, which increase her social status, which makes him a commodity for his own mother. The House of Atreus shows the theory of exchange value as Tantalus values the gods' favor as much as that of his son, so he tried to exchange his son's life and meat for the gods' favor, which turned his son into nothing but a commodity. In his economic manuscripts, Marx wrote: "The valid exchange values of a given commodity express something equal" (Marx par. 6). This only means that Tantalus' son was only as valuable to Tantalus as the favor of the gods, so he attempted to exchange one for the other, leading to many unintended consequences all down his family