In Roman religion, Vulcan is the god of beneficial and hindering fire,[1] including the fire of volcanoes. He is also called Mulciber ("smelter") in Roman mythology and Sethlans in Etruscan mythology. He was worshipped at an annual festival on August 23 known as the Volcanalia.
Vulcan was identified with the Greek god of fire Hephaestus.
Worship
| Vulcanalia |
| Observed by |
Ancient Romans |
| Type |
Pagan, Historical |
| Date |
August 23 |
| Celebrations |
Bonfires in honour of Vulcan |
| Observances |
Sacrifice of fish |
Vulcan's oldest shrine in Rome, called the "Volcanal", was situated at the foot of the Capitoline in the Forum Romanum, and was reputed to date to the archaic period of the kings of Rome,[2][3] and to have been established on the site by Titus Tatius,[4] the Sabine co-king, with a traditional date in the eighth century BC. It was the view of the Etruscan haruspices that a temple of Vulcan should be located outside the city,[5] and the Volcanal may originally have been on or outside the city limits before they expanded to include the Capitoline Hill.[1] The Volcanalia sacrifice was offered here to Vulcan, on August 23.[2] Vulcan also had a temple on the Campus Martius, which was in existence by 214 BC.[1][6]
The Romans identified Vulcan with the Greek smith-god Hephaestus, and he became associated like his Greek counterpart with the constructive use of fire in metalworking. A fragment of a Greek pot showing Hephaestus found at the Volcanal has been dated to the 6th century BC, suggesting that the two gods were already associated at this date.[3] However, Vulcan had a stronger association than Hephaestus with fire's destructive capacity, and a major concern of his worshippers was to encourage the god to avert harmful fires. His festival, the Vulcanalia, was celebrated on August 23 each year, when the summer heat placed crops and granaries most at risk of burning.[1][7] During the festival bonfires were created in honour of the god, into which live fish or small animals were thrown as a sacrifice, to be consumed in the place of humans.[8] Vulcan was among the gods placated after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64.[9] In response to the same fire, Domitian (emperor 81–96) established a new altar to Vulcan on the Quirinal Hill. At the same time a red bull-calf and red boar were added to the sacrifices made on the Vulcanalia, at least in that region of the city.[10]
In addition to the Volcanalia on August 23, the date May 23, which was the second of the two annual Tubilustria or ceremonies for the purification of trumpets, was sacred to Vulcan.[7][11]
Mythology
Vulcan was the son of Jupiter and Juno. As the son of the king and queen of gods Vulcan should have been very fine to look at but baby Vulcan was small and ugly with a red, bawling face. Juno was so horrified that she hurled the tiny baby off the top of Mount Olympus, the baby fell down for a day and a night, luckily he fell in the sea but his legs were badly damaged as they struck the water and they never properly developed. Baby Vulcan sunk like a pebble to the cool blue depths where the sea-nymph, Thetis, found him and took him to her home, an under water grotto, where she raised him as if he were her own. Vulcan had a happy childhood with dolphins as his playmates and pearls as his toys, then one day, when he was about 12 years old, he found the remains of a fisherman's fire on the beach, the young god stared in amazement at a single coal, still red-hot and glowing. After a world of cool, watery blues and greens, it was more lovely to him than any pearl. Vulcan carefully shut this precious coal in a clam and took it back to his underwater grotto and made a fire with it. On the first day Vulcan stared at this fire for hours on end, never leaving it, he fed the flames with seaweed driftwood coral and stones. On the second day he discovered that when he made the fire hotter with bellows, certain stones sweated iron or silver or gold. On the third day he beat the cooled metal into shapes: bracelets, chains, swords and shields. Vulcan made pearl-handled knives and spoons for his foster mother, he made a silver chariot for himself, and bridles so that seahorses could transport him quickly. He even made slave-girls of gold to wait on him and do his bidding. From that day onwards he and Thetis lived like royalty. One day Thetis left her underwater grotto to attend a dinner party on Mount Olympus. She wore a beautiful necklace of silver and sapphires, which Vulcan had made for her, Juno admired the necklace an asked where she could get one. Thetis became flustered and Juno grew suspicious and at last the queen god discovered the truth: the baby she had once rejected had grown into a talented blacksmith. Juno was furious and demanded that the smith god came home. The smith god refused. However he did send Juno the most beautiful chair. Made of silver and gold, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, it had a seat like a shell and arms like a dolphin. Juno was delighted when she received this gift but as soon as she sat down in it her weight triggered hidden springs and metal bands sprung forth to hold her fast. The more she shrieked and struggled the more firmly the mechanical throne gripped her; the chair was a cleverly designed trap. For three days Juno sat fuming, still trapped in Vulcan's chair, she couldn't sleep, she couldn't stretch, she couldn't eat. It was Jupiter who finally saved the day, he promised that if Vulcan released Juno he would give him a wife, but not just any wife, Venus the god of love and beauty. Vulcan agreed and married Venus. He later built a smithy under a huge mountain on the island of Sicily. It was said that whenever Venus is unfaithful, Vulcan grows angry and beats the red-hot metal with such a force that sparks and smoke rise up from the top of the mountain, to create a volcanic eruption.
Vulcan was the father of Caeculus.[12]
Through his identification with the Hephaestus of Greek mythology, he came to be considered as the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes, including the thunderbolts of Jupiter. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and husband of Maia and Venus. His smithy was believed to be situated underneath Mount Etna in Sicily.
To punish mankind for stealing the secrets of fire, Jupiter ordered the other gods to make a poisoned gift for man. Vulcan's contribution to the beautiful and foolish Pandora was to mould her from clay and to give her form. He also made the thrones for the other gods on Mount Olympus.
Reception
A statue of Vulcan located in Birmingham, Alabama is the largest cast iron statue in the world.[13]
References
- ^ a b c d Georges Dumézil [1966] (1996). Archaic Roman Religion: Volume One, trans. Philip Krapp, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 320–321. ISBN 0-8018-5482-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-8018-5480-6 (pbk.).
- ^ a b Samuel Ball Platner; and Thomas Ashby (1929). "Volcanal". A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 583–584. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
- ^ a b Beard, Mary; John North and Simon Price (1998). Religions of Rome Volume 2: A Sourcebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, no. 1.7c. ISBN 0-521-45015-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-521-45646-0 (pbk.).
- ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II.50.3; Varro V.74.
- ^ Vitruvius 1.7; see also Plutarch, Roman Questions 47.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe condita 24.10.9.
- ^ a b W. Warde Fowler (1899). The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: An Introduction to the Study of the Religion of the Romans. London: Macmillan and Co., pp. 123–124, 209–211. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
- ^ Sextus Pompeius Festus, On the Meaning of Words, s.v. "piscatorii ludi"; Varro, On the Latin Language 6.3.
- ^ Tacitus, Annals 15.44.1.
- ^ Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 4914, translated by Robert K. Sherk (1988). The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian, Translated Documents of Greece and Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, no. 99. ISBN 0-521-33887-5.
- ^ Ovid, Fasti 5.725–726.
- ^ Virgil, Aeneid 7.678–681; Servius on Aeneid 7.678.
- ^ "History of Vulcan Park". Vulcan Park. Retrieved on 2008-02-24.
External links
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