Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, was linked with hot places such as volcanoes and deserts, and also metalworking and forges. He is considered the counterpart of the Greek god Hephaestus and was often depicted as a blacksmith with a hammer.
In some traditions Vulcan is considered the don of Jupiter and Juno, the husband of Maia, and the father of Venus.
Temples and Sacrifices for Vulcan
Vulcan seems to have been worshipped from ancient times in Rome. According to the Roman scholar Varro, the ancient king Titus Tatius erected altars to Vulcan in the 8th century BCE.
Before this time, the Etruscan haruspices (diviners) said that the Vulcanal should be located outside the limits of the city, but the king located it at the foot of the Capitoline in the Forum Romanum, at the center of civil life. He had another temple built in the Campus Martius in 214 BCE. Yet another latar was established to the god on the Quirinal Hill to appease him after the great fire of Rome in 64 CE.
The annual festival of Vulcan, the Vulcania, was held on August 23rd, and sacrifices were conducted at his shrine. The main concern of worshippers was to ask Vulcan to avoid dangerous fires in the heavily populated city. They built bonfires fir the god and threw live fish or small animals into the fire as offerings.
They would also hand their clothes in the sun to be cleansed and would start the day by the light oof a candle to engage in beneficial use of fire.
The priest of Vulcan was known as the flamen Vulcanalis and was also responsible for the cut of the goddess Maia, borrowed from reek mythology.
Roman Theology
The Romans believed that Vulcan could protect against dangerous fires. This is why his cult was conducted in August, when grain was stored and the summer sun was at its hottest. Fires in the tightly packed city would have happened most often during this period.
But it was also believed that Vulcan could direct fires against the enemies of Rome. There were three fires lit when discharging religious ceremonies. There was the hearth fire of the landlord associated with Vesta, the sacrificial fire that existed in all temples, and the defensive fire usually located at the south end of the sacred space. Vulcan was associated with the last of these fires.
Vulcan was also associated with fertility and fire was used to clear fertile land for planting. As an extension of that, sparks from a fire were believed to be able to impregnate women and lead to the birth of several heroes.
Vulcan was the patron of trades relating to fire. This included blacksmiths but also cooks, bakers, and confectioners.
Greek Mythology
It is mostly through his identification with Hephaestus from Greek mythology that Vulcan was considered the manufacturer of arms, iron, jewelry and armor for various gods and heroes. He created the lightning bolts of Jupiter.
According to the legend that he shared with Hephaestus, Vulcan was expected to be a beautiful baby as the son of Jupiter and Juno, but was born ugly with a red and bawling face. His mother threw him out of heaven.
After falling for a day and a night he hit the sea and broke his leg. Consequently, he sunk to the depths of the ocean where the sea nymph Thetis found him and took him to her underwater home to raise him as her own son.
Vulcan had a good childhood in the sea playing with dolphins and pearls. But eventually he found the remains of a fisherman’s fire on the beach and became fascinated by its unextinguished coal, which was still hot, red, and glowing. He gathered the goal in a clamshell and took it home to make a fire. On the first day, he stared into the fire. On the second, he realized that he could make it hotter with bellows and that certain stones sweated iron, silver, or gold. He started to make treasures for his foster mother and made a chariot for himself drawn by seahorses.
Thetis was invited to dine with the gods and wore a beautiful necklace that Vucan had made for her. Juno saw and admired the necklace and asked her where she got it. Thetis did not want to reveal her secret, but Juno discovered that her son was the blacksmith. Juno demanded that Vulcan return home, but he refused. He did send Juno a chair made from silver and gold and inlaid with mother of pearl, which delighted the goddess. But when she sat in the chair, it was revealed as a trap that imprisoned his unkind mother. Jupiter only convinced Vulcan to release Juno from the chair by promising him that he could marry Venus.
Later, whenever Venus was unfaithful, Vulcan grew angry and made his smith fires too hot. The sparks and smoke that rise up as a consequence manifested as a volcanic eruption.
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