Efesto

Efesto (in greco antico: Ἥφαιστος, Hēphaistos) nella mitologia greca è il dio del fuoco, delle fucine, dell'ingegneria, della scultura e della metallurgia.
Era adorato in tutte le città della Grecia in cui si trovassero attività artigianali, ma specialmente ad Atene. Nell'Iliade, Omero racconta di come Efesto fosse brutto e di cattivo carattere, ma con una grande forza nei muscoli delle braccia e delle spalle, per cui tutto ciò che faceva era di un'impareggiabile perfezione. La sua grande fucina si trova nelle viscere dell'Etna, lavora insieme ai suoi ciclopi, dove i colpi delle loro incudini e il loro ansimare fa brontolare i vulcani della zona e il fuoco della loro fucina arrossa la cima dell'Etna. I suoi simboli sono il martello da fabbro, l'incudine e le tenaglie. In qualche rappresentazione è ritratto con una scure accanto. Nella mitologia romana vi era una figura divina simile ad Efesto ed era il dio Vulcano.

Etimologia

Efesto è probabilmente associato all'iscrizione in lineare B (lingua micenea) A-pa-i-ti-jo trovata a Cnosso. L'iscrizione attesta indirettamente il suo culto in quel periodo, in quanto si pensa che rappresenti il nome teoforico di Haphaistios oppure Haphaistion.Il nome della divinità in greco antico (Hēphaistos) ha una radice che si presenta nei toponimi di origine pre-greca, come ad esempio Phaistos (Pa-i-to in lineare B).

Il mito di Efesto

Efesto fu concepito da sua madre Era solo per vendetta nei confronti del marito Zeus per tutte le sue amanti avute nel corso dei millenni. Appena lo vide Era lo lanciò dall'Olimpo, facendolo cadere giù. Efesto era piuttosto brutto ed era zoppo e deforme dalla nascita (sebbene alcune leggende dicono che questo fosse il risultato della sua caduta dall'Olimpo) e riusciva a camminare solo grazie all'aiuto di un bastone, (infatti le opere d'arte che lo ritraggono lo presentano spesso mentre fatica a reggersi e si appoggia sulla sua incudine). Nell'Iliade Efesto stesso racconta come continuò a cadere per molti giorni e molte notti per poi finire nell'oceano, dove venne allevato dalle Nereidi, in particolare da Teti ed Eurinome e che gli abbiano dato una grotta come fucina.Efesto si prese la sua vendetta su Era costruendo e donandole un magico trono d'oro che, non appena ella vi si sedette, la tenne imprigionata, non permettendole più di alzarsi. Gli altri dei pregarono Efesto di tornare sull'Olimpo e liberarla, ma egli si rifiutò più volte di farlo. Allora Dioniso fece in modo di ubriacarlo e lo riportò indietro legato sul dorso di un mulo. Efesto acconsentì a liberare Era, solo se lo avessero riconosciuto come dio. Tra Efesto ed Afrodite fu un matrimonio combinato e alla dea della bellezza, l'idea di essere sposata con il bruttissimo Efesto non piaceva affatto, quindi la dea, segretamente innamorata di Ares dio della guerra, più volte ha tradito il marito che, stanco di essere deriso dalla dea della bellezza, se ne tornò nella Terra, nelle viscere del monte Etna, e decise di lasciare l'Olimpo per sempre.

Genealogia (Esiodo)

Urano

Gea

Genitali di Urano

CRONO

Rea

Zeus

Era

Poseidone

Ade

Demetra

Estia

Ares

Efesto

Meti

Atena

Latona

Apollo

Artemide

Maia

Ermes

Semele

Dioniso

Dione

Afrodite

L'arte di Efesto (invenzioni, creazioni, costruzioni, oggetti forgiati)

Efesto realizzò la maggior parte dei magnifici oggetti di cui si servivano gli dei, nonché quasi tutte le splendide armi dotate di poteri magici che nei miti greci compaiono in mano agli eroi. Tra le sue realizzazioni ci sono:

La sua intera fucina
I suoi automi (robot) di metallo, suoi aiutanti
Il suo bastone a forma di martello dal manico allungato
I magnifici gioielli di Teti ed Eurinome
Il trono dorato in cui restò imprigionata Era
Gli edifici (le abitazioni) di tutti gli olimpi (costruiti sull'Olimpo)
L'arco e le frecce d'oro di Apollo e l'arco e le frecce d'argento della sua gemella Artemide
Le opere artistiche a Lemno
La catena o rete, con cui immobilizzò Ares e Afrodite a letto
L'elmo e i sandali alati di Ermes
Lo scettro e l'Egida, il fenomenale scudo di Zeus
La cintura di Afrodite
Il bastone di Agamennone
L'armatura, le armi e lo scudo di Achille
I battacchi di bronzo di Eracle
Il carro di Helios
La corazza e l'elmo di Enea
La spalla di Pelope
L'arco e le frecce di Eros
L'intera armatura di Memnone
Pandora, la prima donna, e il suo vaso
Talo, il gigante di bronzo guardiano di Creta
La delimitazione in due parti del suo martello per volere di Zeus per non fare avere ad Ares la stessa potenza delle sue armi

I suoi assistenti all'interno della fucina erano i Ciclopi.

Efesto dona a Teti la corazza che ha forgiato per Achille (Iliade, XVIII, 617). Kylix, 490-480 a.C.

Pittore della Fonderia - User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work

Vulcano

Vulcano (latino Vulcanus, Volcanus o arcaico Volkanus) è il dio romano del fuoco terrestre e distruttore. Appartiene alla fase più antica della religione romana; infatti Varrone riferisce, citando gli annales pontificum, che re Tito Tazio aveva dedicato altari ad una serie di divinità tra le quali era anche Vulcano. Spesso è erroneamente indicato come figlio di Giove e Giunone, in realtà è stato generato per partenogenesi da quest'ultima.

Etimologia

L'etimologia del nome non è chiara: la tradizione romana sosteneva che il dio derivasse il proprio nome da alcuni termini latini collegati alla folgore (fulgere, fulgur, fulmen), la quale è in qualche modo collegata al fuoco. Al dio sono attribuiti due epiteti: Mulciber (qui ignem mulcet), cioè "che addolcisce", Quietus e Mitis, entrambi col significato di "tranquillo"; tutti questi epiteti servono a scongiurare l'azione distruttiva del dio (per esempio negli incendi). In seguito all'identificazione di Vulcano con il greco Efesto, l'epiteto Mulciber fu interpretato come "colui che addolcisce i metalli nella forgia".
Fino alla metà del XX secolo si pensava che il suo nome non fosse latino ma fosse correlato foneticamente al nome del dio cretese Velkhanos che però ha funzioni molto diverse da quelle del dio romano.
Secondo Wolfgang Meid il nome del dio romano non è correlato a quello di Velkhanos e Christian Guyonvarc'h ha invece proposto di collegarlo al nome di persona irlandese Olcán (ogamico Ulccagni, al genitivo). Un'altra ipotesi, avanzata da Vasilij Abaev, prende in esame una possibile relazione tra Volcanus e l'osseto -waergon variante del nome di Kurdalaegon, il fabbro mitico dell'epopea nartica. Come fa notare Dumézil, la forma Kurdalaegon è stabile e ha un significato chiaro (kurd, "fabbro" + -on "della famiglia" + Alaeg, nome di una delle famiglie nartiche). La variante che si avvicina al nome di Vulcano, invece, è stata attestata una sola volta per cui, sempre secondo Dumézil, si tratta di un accostamento da respingere.

Natura del dio

A Creta era venerato Velkhanos, un dio della natura e degli Inferi e in passato si è ipotizzato che Vulcano provenisse dal Mediterraneo orientale tramite l'Etruria.
Secondo Georges Dumézil, la reale natura di Vulcano si spiega con la teoria dei tre fuochi vedici. Secondo questa teoria per celebrare un sacrificio si devono accendere sul terreno tre fuochi: il primo, chiamato "fuoco del padrone di casa", rappresenta il sacrificante stesso e serve ad accendere gli altri, il secondo, "fuoco delle offerte", porta il sacrificio agli dèi per mezzo del fumo, il terzo, "fuoco di destra o del sud", è situato al limite dell'area sacrificale e serve da sentinella contro l'attacco degli spiriti maligni. Questa teoria si sarebbe conservata anche a Roma, dove i primi due fuochi sono rappresentati da Vesta mentre il terzo è Vulcano. Il dio è quindi il fuoco che divora e distrugge, rivolto verso le potenze ostili e questo spiega ciò che si era chiesto anche Plutarco, cioè perché i suoi templi dovevano essere costruiti fuori o al limite esterno delle mura, come già il Volcanal alle origini di Roma. Questo spiega anche perché a Vulcano si consegnassero bruciandole per annientarle le armi e le spoglie del nemico prese sul campo di battaglia, come anche le armi del sopravvissuto alla devotio.

Vulcano nella tradizione latina e romana

A Vulcano viene attribuita la paternità di alcuni personaggi della tradizione romana e latina: Ceculo, il fondatore di Preneste, Caco, un essere primordiale e mostruoso che abitava nel sito di Roma e Servio Tullio, il penultimo re di Roma.
Catone nelle Origini dice che alcune vergini andate ad attingere acqua trovarono Ceculo in mezzo al fuoco e perciò si pensò che egli fosse figlio di Vulcano. Anche Virgilio ricorda nell'Eneide la discendenza da Vulcano di Ceculo e di Caco. Ovidio racconta nei Fasti che Servio Tullio era stato concepito dalla schiava Ocresia sedutasi sopra un fallo eretto apparso nel focolare; la divina paternità fu riconosciuta quando un fuoco circondò la testa del piccolo senza procurargli danno. Anche Plinio il vecchio racconta la medesima storia, ma attribuisce la paternità al Lar familiaris, piuttosto che a Vulcano.
Jacqueline Champeaux e Attilio Mastrocinque hanno avanzato l'ipotesi che sia identificabile con Vulcano il dio ignoto che nella più antica mitologia latina avrebbe fecondato una dea vergine e madre corrispondente alla Rea greca (la dea Fortuna a Praeneste e Feronia ad Anxur). In tal caso Vulcano sarebbe stato il padre di Giove.
Confrontando i diversi racconti mitologici, l'archeologo Andrea Carandini ritiene che Caco e Caca fossero figli di Vulcano e di una divinità o di una vergine locale così come lo è Ceculo; Caco e Caca rappresenterebbero l'uno il fuoco metallurgico e l'altra il fuoco domestico, proiezioni di Vulcano e Vesta. Questi racconti mitologici risalirebbero al periodo pre-urbano del Lazio e il loro significato appare abbastanza chiaro: sul piano divino Vulcano feconda una dea vergine e genera Giove, il sovrano divino; sul piano umano Vulcano feconda una vergine locale (probabilmente una "principessa") e genera un capo. La prima attestazione di un'associazione rituale fra Vulcano e Vesta risale al lettisternio del 217 a.C.. Altri indizi che sembrano confermare questo legame sembrano essere la vicinanza tra i due santuari e l'affermazione fatta da Dionigi di Alicarnasso, secondo il quale entrambi i culti sarebbero stati introdotti a Roma da Tito Tazio per esaudire un voto fatto in battaglia.
A Vulcano sono collegate due divinità femminili ugualmente antiche, Stata Mater, che è probabilmente la dea che ferma gli incendi, e Maia, il cui nome secondo H. J. Rose deriva dalla radice MAG, per cui va interpretata come la dea che presiede alla crescita, forse a quella dei raccolti. Macrobio riferisce l'opinione di Cincio secondo il quale la compagna di Vulcano sarebbe Maia, giustificando questa affermazione con il fatto che il flamine di Vulcano sacrificava a questa dea alle calende di maggio, mentre secondo Pisone la compagna del dio sarebbe Maiesta. Anche secondo Gellio Maia era associata a Vulcano, citando i libri di preghiere in uso ai suoi tempi. Il dio è il patrono dei mestieri legati ai forni (cuochi, fornai, pasticceri) e se ne trova attestazione in Plauto, Apuleio (dove fa il cuoco alle nozze di Amore e Psiche e nel poemetto di Vespa contenuto nell'Anthologia Latina e incentrato sulla contesa tra un fornaio e un cuoco.

Santuari

Il principale e più antico santuario di Vulcano a Roma era il Volcanal, situato nell'area Volcani, un'area all'aperto ai piedi del Campidoglio, nell'angolo nord-occidentale del Foro Romano, con un'ara dedicata al dio e un fuoco perenne. Secondo la tradizione romana, il santuario era stato dedicato da Romolo, il quale vi aveva anche posto una quadriga di bronzo dedicata al dio, preda di guerra dopo la sconfitta dei Fidenati (ma secondo Plutarco la guerra in questione fu quella contro Cameria, sedici anni dopo la fondazione di Roma), e una propria statua con una iscrizione contenente una lista dei suoi successi redatta in caratteri greci; secondo Plutarco Romolo era rappresentato incoronato dalla Vittoria. Inoltre il re avrebbe piantato nel santuario un albero di loto sacro, che esisteva ancora ai tempi di Plinio il vecchio e si diceva che fosse tanto antico quanto la città stessa. Si è ipotizzato che il santuario risalisse all'epoca in cui il Foro era ancora fuori della città. Il Volcanal è menzionato due volte da Tito Livio in merito al prodigium di una pioggia di sangue avvenuto nel 183 a.C. e nel 181 a.C..
L'area Volcani, probabilmente un locus substructus, era circa 5 metri più alta del Comitium e da essa i re e i magistrati della prima repubblica, prima che fossero costruiti i rostra, si rivolgevano al popolo. Sul Volcanal c'era anche una statua in bronzo di Orazio Coclite, che era stata qui spostata dal Comizio, un locus inferior, dopo essere stata colpita da un fulmine. Aulo Gellio racconta che furono chiamati alcuni aruspici per espiare il prodigio, ma questi mossi dal malanimo fecero spostare la statua in un luogo più basso dove non batteva mai il sole. L'inganno fu però scoperto e gli aruspici giustiziati; in seguito si scoprì che la statua doveva essere posta in un luogo più alto e così fu fatto sistemandola nell'area Volcani. Già nel 304 a.C. nell'area Volcani fu costruito un tempio alla Concordia dedicato dall'edile curule Gneo Flavio. Stando a Samuel Ball Platner nel corso del tempo il Volcanale sarebbe stato sempre più ristretto dagli edifici circostanti fino ad essere ricoperto del tutto. Il culto era comunque vivo ancora nella prima metà età imperiale, come testimonia il ritrovamento di una dedica di Augusto nell'anno 9 a.C..
Agli inizi del XX secolo furono ritrovate, dietro l'Arco di Settimio Severo, alcune antiche fondazioni in tufo che probabilmente appartenevano al Volcanale e tracce di una specie di piattaforma rocciosa, lunga 3,95 metri e larga 2,80, che era stata ricoperta di cemento e dipinta di rosso. La sua superficie superiore è scavata da varie canaline e di fronte ci sono i resti di una canale di drenaggio fatto di lastre di tufo. Si avanzò l'ipotesi che si trattasse dell'ara stessa di Vulcano. La roccia mostra segni di danni e di riparazioni e nella superficie ci sono alcune cavità, rotonde e squadrate, che hanno una qualche rassomiglianza con le tombe e sono perciò state considerate tali da alcuni autori in passato, specialmente von Duhn, il quale, dopo la scoperta di antiche tombe a cremazione nel Foro, ha sostenuto che in origine il Volcanale fosse il luogo dove venivano bruciati i corpi.
Un altro tempio gli fu eretto prima del 215 a.C. nel Campo Marzio, presso il Circo Flaminio dove si tenevano giochi in suo onore in occasione della festività dei Volcanalia. Vitruvio afferma che anche gli aruspici etruschi prescrivono nei loro libri di costruire i templi di Vulcano fuori delle mura cittadine, per evitare che il fuoco si rivolga contro le abitazioni.

Festività

Al culto di Vulcano era preposto un flamine minore, denominato flamine vulcanale; al dio era dedicata la festività dei Volcanalia, celebrata il 23 agosto (ovvero il X alle calende di settembre), in occasione della quale si svolgevano i Ludi Piscatorii, giochi in onore dei pescatori del Tevere sull'altra riva del fiume rispetto alla città e si sacrificavano nel fuoco del Volcanal piccoli pesci vivi, pescati nel fiume, al posto di anime umane.. Pare che durante questa festa la gente usasse appendere abiti o stoffe al sole; secondo Dumézil questa pratica rituale potrebbe riflettere un legame teologico tra Vulcano e il dio Sole. Un'altra usanza praticata in questo giorno era di iniziare a lavorare con la luce di una candela, probabilmente per auspicare un uso benefico del fuoco legato al dio.

Vulcano fuori di Roma

A Ostia il culto di Vulcano era il più importante della città, così come lo era il suo sacerdote, denominato pontifex Volcani et aedium sacrarum, il quale aveva il controllo su tutti gli edifici sacri della città e concedeva (o negava) l'autorizzazione all'erezione di statue dedicate alle divinità orientali. Il pontefice di Vulcano era nominato a vita probabilmente dal consiglio dei decurioni e la sua posizione corrispondeva a quella del pontefice massimo a Roma ed era il vertice della carriera amministrativa della città di Ostia; veniva scelto, quindi, tra le persone che aveva già ricoperto cariche pubbliche in città o anche a livello imperiale. Il pontefice di Vulcano era l'unica autorità che disponesse di un certo numero di aiutanti e precisamente di tre pretori e due o tre edili, cariche religiose diverse da quelle civili omonime. In base ad una iscrizione frammentaria ritrovata ad Annaba (antica Hippo Regius), si ritiene probabile che lo scrittore Svetonio abbia ricoperto questa carica.
Da Strabone sappiamo che a Pozzuoli vi era una zona denominata in greco "agorà di Efesto" (Forum Vulcani in latino), una pianura caratterizzata da numerosi sbocchi di vapore vulcanico (odierna località "La Solfatara").
Plinio il vecchio riferisce inoltre che nelle vicinanze di Modena il fuoco usciva dalla terra statis Volcano diebus.

Identificazione con il dio greco Efesto

Assimilato al dio greco Efesto, in età classica ne assunse anche la mitologia ritrovandosi così ad essere considerato figlio di Giove e di Giunone e sposo di Venere. Già il poeta Lucio Accio nel Filottete chiama Lemno, l'isola di Efesto, con l'appellativo di Vulcania.
Nell'Eneide Virgilio mescola temi arcaici e temi ellenizzanti: se da una parte Vulcano viene identificato con la furia del fuoco che brucia le navi o con le faville che sprizzano dalle torce, dall'altra Vulcano viene identificato con il dio greco Efesto quando viene chiamato "il dio di Lemno" o nell'episodio in cui la dea Venere seduce il dio nel talamo divino per convincerlo a fornire armi a Enea. Il dio acconsente e corre all'isola di Lipari sotto la quale vi è un antro nel quale i ciclopi forgiano le armi per gli dèi. Vulcano ordina loro di interrompere il lavoro e di dedicarsi alla fabbricazioni delle armi per Enea, tra le quali uno scudo sul quale vengono effigiati i principali eventi della storia romana da Romolo ad Augusto. Anche in Ovidio c'è una simile mescolanza: nelle Metamorfosi Vulcano è associato alla violenza del fuoco e alle fiamme soffiate dalle narici dei tori prodigiosi che Giasone deve affrontare per avere il vello d'oro, ma poi gli viene attribuita la paternità del brigante Perifete, figlio di Efesto.
Nella letteratura latina del III secolo Vulcano è completamente identificato con Efesto nel De concubitu Martis et Veneris di Reposiano, un poemetto contenuto nell'Anthologia Latina, nel quale si racconta l'episodio omerico della scoperta del tradimento di Venere con Marte; in pratica di romano qui c'è solo il nome dei divini protagonisti che sostituisce l'originale greco^. L'identità di Vulcano con Efesto permane nei secoli successivi. È riconoscibile, per esempio, nelle numerose rappresentazioni di Vulcano nell'arte rinascimentale e moderna quali:

La fucina di Vulcano - Dipinto di Diego Velázquez (1630)
Marte e Venere sorpresi da Vulcano di François Boucher (1754)

e in alcune opere eroicomiche della letteratura italiana:

Francesco Bracciolini, Scherno agli dèi (1618-1626)
Ferrante Pallavicino, La rete di Vulcano (1640)
Domenico Luigi Batacchi, La rete di Vulcano (1812, postumo)

ove la divinità rappresentata mostra esclusivamente le caratteristiche del dio greco.

Vulcano in Alabama

Nel XX secolo Vulcano è stato assunto come simbolo dalla città statunitense di Birmingham, che ha dedicato al dio una statua in ghisa sulla cima della Red Mountain ("Montagna Rossa"), all'interno del Vulcan Park, dalla quale guarda la città. Alta 56 piedi (17 metri) e posta su un piedistallo di 124 piedi (38 metri), è la più grande statua di ghisa del mondo.
La statua fu costruita dallo scultore di origine italiana Giuseppe Moretti (1857-1935) per essere presentata alla Esposizione di St. Louis del 1904 come simbolo dell'attività industriale della città e in seguito fu riportata a Birmingham per essere posta nel 1938 sulla cima della Red Mountain. Con il trascorrere degli anni la statua cominciò a presentare segni di deterioramento e soprattutto di formazione di ruggine, cosicché da ottobre a novembre 1999 fu smontata in vari pezzi e messa in restauro a spese della comunità; lo smontaggio fu reso difficoltoso dalla presenza del cemento messo in origine nelle gambe della statua per stabilizzarla. Dopo il restauro la statua fu rimontata e rimessa al suo posto nel 2003 e nel 2004, anno del centenario, il Vulcan Park fu riaperto al pubblico.

La fucina di Vulcano di Diego Velázquez. Il Prado, Madrid

La obra representa al dios Vulcano en su fragua y recibiendo la visita del dios Apolo, que fue a comunicarle que Venus, la esposa de Vulcano, tenía una relación amorosa con Marte.

1630

Hephaestus

Hephaestus (/hɪˈfiːstəs, hɪˈfɛstəs/; eight spellings; Greek: Ἥφαιστος Hēphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire, and volcanoes. Hephaestus' Roman equivalent is Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods. In another version, he was Hera's parthenogenous child, rejected by his mother because of his deformity and thrown off Mount Olympus and down to earth.
As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus' symbols are a smith's hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs.

Etymology

Hephaestus is probably associated with the Linear B (Mycenean Greek) inscription 𐀀𐀞𐀂𐀴𐀍, A-pa-i-ti-jo, found at Knossos; the inscription indirectly attests his worship at that time because it is believed that it reads the theophoric name Haphaistios or Haphaistion The name of the god in Greek (Hēphaistos) has a root which can be observed in names of places of Pre-Greek origin, like Phaistos (Pa-i-to in Linear B).

Epithets

Hephaestus is given many epithets. The meaning of each epithet is:

Amphigúeis "the lame one" (Ἀμφιγύεις)
Kullopodíōn "the halting" (Κυλλοποδίων)
Khalkeús "coppersmith" (Χαλκεύς)
Klutotékhnēs "renowned artificer" (Κλυτοτέχνης)
Polúmētis "shrewd, crafty" or "of many devices" (Πολύμητις)
Aitnaîos "Aetnaean" (Αἰτναῖος), owing to his workshop being supposedly located below Mount Aetna.

Mythology

Craft of Hephaestus

Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with anvil and twenty bellows that worked at his bidding. Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, and almost any finely wrought metalwork imbued with powers that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus. He designed Hermes' winged helmet and sandals, the Aegis breastplate, Aphrodite's famed girdle, Agamemnon's staff of office, Achilles' armor, Heracles' bronze clappers, Helios's chariot, the shoulder of Pelops, and Eros's bow and arrows. In later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes—among them his assistants in the forge, Brontes, Steropes and Pyracmon.
Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him. This included tripods that walked to and from Mount Olympus. He gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide. In some versions of the myth, Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestus's forge. Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to man, the woman Pandora and her pithos. Being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus.
The Greek myths and the Homeric poems sanctified in stories that Hephaestus had a special power to produce motion. He made the golden and silver lions and dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders. The Greeks maintained in their civilization an animistic idea that statues are in some sense alive. This kind of art and the animistic belief goes back to the Minoan period, when Daedalus, the builder of the labyrinth, made images which moved of their own accord. A statue of the god was somehow the god himself, and the image on a man's tomb indicated somehow his presence.

Parentage

According to Hesiod (Theogony, 927-928) Hera gave birth to Hephaestus on her own as revenge for Zeus giving birth to Athena without her (Zeus lay with Metis).

According to Homer (Iliad, I 571-577]) Hera is mentioned as the mother of Hephaestus but there is not sufficient evidence to say that Zeus was his father (although he refers to him in such way).

According to Homer (Odyssey, VIII 306) there is not sufficient evidence to say that Zeus was the father of Hephaestus (although he refers to him in such way). Hera is not mentioned as the mother.

According to Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheca, 1.3.6) Hera gave birth to Hephaestus alone. Pseudo-Apollodorus also relates that, according to Homer, Hephaestus is one of the children of Zeus and Hera (consciously contradicting Hesiod and Homer).

Several later texts follow Hesiod's account, including Hyginus and the preface to Fabulae.

In the account of Attic vase painters, Hephaestus was present at the birth of Athena and wields the axe with which he split Zeus' head to free her. In the latter account, Hephaestus is there represented as older than Athena, so the mythology of Hephaestus is inconsistent in this respect.

Fall from Olympus

In one branch of Greek mythology, Hera ejected Hephaestus from the heavens because he was "shrivelled of foot". He fell into the ocean and was raised by Thetis (mother of Achilles and one of the 50 Nereids) and the Oceanid Eurynome.
In another account, Hephaestus, attempting to rescue his mother from Zeus' advances, was flung down from the heavens by Zeus. He fell for an entire day and landed on the island of Lemnos, where he was cared for and taught to be a master craftsman by the Sintians – an ancient tribe native to that island. Later writers describe his lameness as the consequence of his second fall, while Homer makes him lame and weak from his birth.

Return to Olympus

Hephaestus was one of the Olympians to have returned to Olympus after being exiled. In an archaic story, Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical golden throne, which, when she sat on it, did not allow her to stand up. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he refused, saying "I have no mother".

At last, Dionysus fetched him, intoxicated him with wine, and took the subdued smith back to Olympus on the back of a mule accompanied by revelers – a scene that sometimes appears on painted pottery of Attica and of Corinth. In the painted scenes, the padded dancers and phallic figures of the Dionysan throng leading the mule show that the procession was a part of the dithyrambic celebrations that were the forerunners of the satyr plays of fifth century Athens.
The theme of the return of Hephaestus, popular among the Attic vase-painters whose wares were favored among the Etruscans, may have introduced this theme to Etruria. In the vase-painters' portrayal of the procession, Hephaestus was mounted on a mule or a horse, with Dionysus holding the bridle and carrying Hephaestus' tools (including a double-headed axe).
The traveller Pausanias reported seeing a painting in the temple of Dionysus in Athens, which had been built in the 5th century but may have been decorated at any time before the 2nd century CE. When Pausanias saw it, he said:

There are paintings here – Dionysus bringing Hephaestus up to heaven. One of the Greek legends is that Hephaestus, when he was born, was thrown down by Hera. In revenge he sent as a gift a golden chair with invisible fetters. When Hera sat down she was held fast, and Hephaestus refused to listen to any other of the gods except Dionysus – in him he reposed the fullest trust – and after making him drunk Dionysus brought him to heaven.

— Pausanias, 1.20.3

Consorts and children

According to most versions, Hephaestus's consort is Aphrodite, who is unfaithful to Hephaestus with a number of gods and mortals, including Ares. However, in Book XVIII of Homer's Iliad, the consort of Hephaestus is a lesser Aphrodite, Charis ("the grace") or Aglaia ("the glorious") – the youngest of the Graces, as Hesiod calls her.

In Athens, there is a Temple of Hephaestus, the Hephaesteum (miscalled the "Theseum") near the agora. An Athenian founding myth tells that the city's patron goddess, Athena, refused a union with Hephaestus. Pseudo-Apollodorus records an archaic legend, which claims that Hephaestus once attempted to rape Athena, but she pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh. Athena wiped the semen off using a tuft of wool, which she tossed into the dust, impregnating Gaia and causing her to give birth to Erichthonius, whom Athena adopted as her own child. The Roman mythographer Hyginus records a similar story in which Hephaestus demanded Zeus to let him marry Athena since he was the one who had smashed open Zeus's skull, allowing Athena to be born. Zeus agreed to this and Hephaestus and Athena were married, but, when Hephaestus was about to consummate the union, Athena vanished from the bridal bed, causing him to ejaculate on the floor, thus impregnating Gaia with Erichthonius.
On the island of Lemnos, Hephaestus' consort was the sea nymph Cabeiro, by whom he was the father of two metalworking gods named the Cabeiri. In Sicily, his consort was the nymph Aetna, and his sons were two gods of Sicilian geysers called Palici. With Thalia, Hephaestus was sometimes considered the father of the Palici.
Hephaestus fathered several children with mortals and immortals alike. One of those children was the robber Periphetes.
This is the full list of his consorts and children according to the various accounts:

Aphrodite
Aglaea
1. Eucleia
2. Euthenia
3. Eupheme
4. Philophrosyne
Aetna
1. The Palici
Cabeiro
1. The Cabeiri
Gaia
1. Erichthonius
Anticleia
1. Periphetes
by unknown mothers
1. Ardalus
2. Cercyon (possibly)
3. Olenus
4. Palaemonius, Argonauts
5. Philottus
6. Pylius
7. Spinter

In addition, the Romans claim their equivalent god, Vulcan, to have produced the following children:

Cacus
Caeculus

Hephaestus and Aphrodite

Though married to Hephaestus, Aphrodite had an affair with Ares, the god of war. Eventually, Hephaestus discovered Aphrodite’s affair through Helios, the all-seeing Sun, and planned a trap during one of their trysts. While Aphrodite and Ares lay together in bed, Hephaestus ensnared them in an unbreakable chain-link net so small as to be invisible and dragged them to Mount Olympus to shame them in front of the other gods for retribution.
The gods laughed at the sight of these naked lovers, and Poseidon persuaded Hephaestus to free them in return for a guarantee that Ares would pay the adulterer's fine. Hephaestus states in The Odyssey that he would return Aphrodite to her father and demand back his bride price.
The Thebans told that the union of Ares and Aphrodite produced Harmonia. However, of the union of Hephaestus with Aphrodite, there was no issue unless Virgil was serious when he said that Eros was their child. Later authors explain this statement by saying that Eros was sired by Ares but passed off to Hephaestus as his own son.
Hephaestus was somehow connected with the archaic, pre-Greek Phrygian and Thracian mystery cult of the Kabeiroi, who were also called the Hephaistoi, "the Hephaestus-men", in Lemnos. One of the three Lemnian tribes also called themselves Hephaestion and claimed direct descent from the god.

Hephaestus and Athena

Hephaestus is to the male gods as Athena is to the females, for he gives skill to mortal artists and was believed to have taught men the arts alongside Athena. He was nevertheless believed to be far inferior to the sublime character of Athena. At Athens they had temples and festivals in common. Both were believed to have great healing powers, and Lemnian earth (terra Lemnia) from the spot on which Hephaestus had fallen was believed to cure madness, the bites of snakes, and haemorrhage, and priests of Hephaestus knew how to cure wounds inflicted by snakes.
He was represented in the temple of Athena Chalcioecus (Athena of the Bronze House) at Sparta, in the act of delivering his mother; on the chest of Cypselus, giving Achilles's armour to Thetis; and at Athens there was the famous statue of Hephaestus by Alcamenes, in which his lameness was only subtly portrayed. The Greeks frequently placed small dwarf-like statues of Hephaestus near their hearths, and these figures are the oldest of all his representations. During the best period of Grecian art he was represented as a vigorous man with a beard, and is characterized by his hammer or some other crafting tool, his oval cap, and the chiton.
Athena is sometimes thought to be "the ‘soul-mate’ of [Hephaestus]. Yet a kind of cloudy mysteriousness shrouds their relationship; no single tradition was ever clearly established on this subject, and so what confronts us is a blurred image based on rumors and conflicting reports." Nonetheless, he "seeks impetuously and passionately to make love to Athena: at the moment of climax she pushes him aside, and his semen falls to the earth where it impregnates Gaia."

Volcano god

Hephaestus was associated by Greek colonists in southern Italy with the volcano gods Adranus (of Mount Etna) and Vulcanus of the Lipari islands. The first-century sage Apollonius of Tyana is said to have observed, "there are many other mountains all over the earth that are on fire, and yet we should never be done with it if we assigned to them giants and gods like Hephaestus".

Other mythology

In the Trojan war, Hephaestus sided with the Greeks, but was also worshiped by the Trojans and saved one of their men from being killed by Diomedes. Hephaestus’ favourite place in the mortal world was the island of Lemnos, where he liked to dwell among the Sintians, but he also frequented other volcanic islands such as Lipara, Hiera, Imbros and Sicily, which were called his abodes or workshops.
The epithets and surnames by which Hephaestus is known by the poets generally allude to his skill in the plastic arts or to his figure or lameness. The Greeks frequently placed small dwarf-like statues of Hephaestus near their hearths, and these figures are the oldest of all his representations.

Symbolism

Hephaestus was sometimes portrayed as a vigorous man with a beard and was characterized by his hammer or some other crafting tool, his oval cap, and the chiton.
Hephaestus is described in mythological sources as "lame" (cholōs), and "halting" (ēpedanos). He was depicted with crippled feet and as misshapen, either from birth or as a result of his fall from Olympus. In vase paintings, Hephaestus is usually shown lame and bent over his anvil, hard at work on a metal creation, and sometimes with his feet back-to-front: Hephaistos amphigyēeis. He walked with the aid of a stick. The Argonaut Palaimonius, "son of Hephaestus" (i.e. a bronze-smith) was also lame.
Other "sons of Hephaestus" were the Cabeiri on the island of Samothrace, who were identified with the crab (karkinos) by the lexicographer Hesychius. The adjective karkinopous ("crab-footed") signified "lame", according to Detienne and Vernant. The Cabeiri were also lame.
In some myths, Hephaestus built himself a "wheeled chair" or chariot with which to move around, thus helping him overcome his lameness while demonstrating his skill to the other gods. In the Iliad 18.371, it is stated that Hephaestus built twenty bronze wheeled tripods in order assist him in moving around.
Hephaestus’s ugly appearance and lameness is taken by some to represent arsenicosis, an effect of high levels of arsenic exposure that would result in lameness and skin cancers. In place of less easily available tin, arsenic was added to copper in the Bronze Age to harden it; like the hatters, crazed by their exposure to mercury, who inspired Lewis Carroll's famous character of the Mad Hatter, most smiths of the Bronze Age would have suffered from chronic poisoning as a result of their livelihood. Consequently, the mythic image of the lame smith is widespread. As Hephaestus was an iron-age smith, not a bronze-age smith, the connection is one from ancient folk memory.

Comparative mythology

Parallels in other mythological systems for Hephaestus's symbolism include:

The Ugarit craftsman-god Kothar-wa-Khasis, who is identified from afar by his distinctive walk – possibly suggesting that he limps.
As Herodotus was given to understand, the Egyptian craftsman-god Ptah was a dwarf, naked, and deformed.
In Norse mythology, Weyland the Smith was a lame bronzeworker.
In Hinduism the artificer god Tvastr fills a similar role, albeit more positively portrayed.
The Ossetian god Kurdalagon may share a similar origin.

Minor planet

The minor planet 2212 Hephaistos discovered in 1978 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh was named in Hephaestus' honour.

Vulcan. Marble, reception piece for the French Royal Academy, 1742.

Guillaume Coustou the Younger - Jastrow (2006)

Hephaestus in popular culture

Hephaestus makes many appearances in popular culture.

Hephaestus participates in a story science fiction duology Ilium/Olympos by Dan Simmons.
Hephaestus crafts a mechanical replica of the owl Bubo in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans.
Hephaestus plays a role in the 2010 video game God of War III and is voiced by actor Rip Torn; he assists protagonist Kratos by providing him with new weapons, the electrically based Nemesis Whip, but betrays Kratos and in turn is killed by him in an attempt to keep him away from his created daughter Pandora. He also created the weapon, the Gauntlet of Zeus, that appears in the 2008 video game God of War: Chains of Olympus. In the God of War novel (2010), it is revealed that he created Kratos' Blades of Chaos in Tartarus (the original video game only said that Ares had them forged in Tartarus but did not state who forged them).
In Diablo II, the player has to kill Hephasto the Armorer in order to complete a quest.
Hephaestus appears in several episodes of the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Young Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess. He is portrayed by the actors Julian Garner and Jason Hoyte.
Hephaestus appears in the Pastoral Symphony segment of the 1940 Disney film Fantasia. He is shown forging thunderbolts for Zeus to throw at Dionysus. However, while Zeus kept his Greek name, the animators referred to Hephaestus and Dionysus by their Roman names, Vulcan and Bacchus.
Hephaestus appeared in the 1997 Disney movie, Hercules and the animated series based on it, as one of the gods upon Mount Olympus and the brother of Hercules. He is shown to be engaged to Aphrodite and hates it when Hades flirts with her.
Hephaestus appears in Justice League Unlimited voiced by Ed Asner.
Hephaestus appears in the fourth book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Battle of the Labyrinth and in the Heroes of Olympus series, "The Lost Hero" as the father of Leo Valdez. In these series, his workshop is shown to have moved from Mount Aetna to Mount St. Helens.
In John C. Wright's Titans of Chaos, Hephaestus (Mulciber) is one of the powerful gods who attends the conference on what to do with the children; he offers Amelia a job as part of their plan to split the children up.
Vulcan appears in The Apotheosis of Washington, producing a cannon and a steam engine.
Hephaestus was also visited by German adventurer Baron Munchausen. This visit was also pictured in 1988 film "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" by Terry Gilliam.
In the 2012 film "Wrath of the Titans", Hephaestus is played by Bill Nighy. He is, in the film, credited with the creation of Tartarus and the forging of the weapons of the gods.
In Homestuck Hephaestus is the denizen, a sort of final boss, in Land of Heat and Clockwork. It is assumed that he is the denizen of all time-players.
In the video game Smite Hephaestus appears in-game under his Roman name Vulcan, he is a playable god whose role is a mage. He also has a prosthetic left leg and right hand, in reference to both his lameness from mythology and his own ingenuity and peerless craftsmanship.
In David Weber's Honorverse, Hephaestus is the name of the Star Kingdom of Manticore's primary orbital warship construction and repair platform.
In its 2013 Expansion (based on Greek and Roman Mythology) entitled Theros, Magic, The Gathering paralleled Hephaestus with the creature card "Purphoros, God of the Forge" mimicking his hammer as well.
Hephaestus is a main character in the novel The Automation by the anonymous author "B.L.A. and G.B. Gabbler." The other characters also call him Vulcan on occasion.
Hephaestus is an important god in the light novel Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and is the leader of the smith familia. This incarnation has been gender swapped.
Hephaestus, as Vulcan, appears on episode 6 in the first season of the "American Gods" played by Corbin Bernsen.
In the 2017 role playing game "Horizon Zero Dawn" Hephaestus is the name given to one of the AIs used to terraform a future Earth. It is responsible for the creation of robots and machines. It also serves as a minor antagonist.
Champ in Uchu Sentai Kyuranger is based on Hephaestus due to him being made of metal.

Vulcan Presenting the Arms of Achilles to Thetis by Peter Paul Rubens.

Peter Paul Rubens - collectie.boijmans.nl

Created: between 1630 and 1635

Vulcan

Vulcan (Latin: Volcānus or Vulcānus; pronounced [wɔlˈkaːnʊs], [wʊlˈkaːnʊs]) is the god of fire including the fire of volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in ancient Roman religion and myth. Vulcan is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer. The Vulcanalia was the annual festival held August 23 in his honor. His Greek counterpart is Hephaestus, the god of fire and smithery. In Etruscan religion, he is identified with Sethlans.
Vulcan belongs to the most ancient stage of Roman religion: Varro, the ancient Roman scholar and writer, citing the Annales Maximi, records that king Titus Tatius dedicated altars to a series of deities among which Vulcan is mentioned.

Etymology

The origin of the name is unclear. Roman tradition maintained that it was related to Latin words connected to lightning (fulgur, fulgere, fulmen), which in turn was thought of as related to flames. This interpretation is supported by Walter William Skeat in his etymological dictionary as meaning lustre.
It has been supposed that his name was not Latin but related to that of the Cretan god Velchanos, a god of nature and the nether world. Wolfgang Meid has refuted this identification as phantastic. More recently this etymology has been taken up by Gérard Capdeville who finds a continuity between Cretan Minoan god Velchanos and Etruscan Velchans. The Minoan god's identity would be that of a young deity, master of fire and companion of the Great Goddess.
Christian Guyonvarc'h has proposed the identification with the Irish name Olcan (Ogamic Ulccagni, in the genitive). Vasily Abaev compares it with the Ossetic Wærgon, a variant of the name of Kurdalægon, the smith of the Nart saga. Since the name in its normal form Kurdalægon is stable and has a clear meaning (kurd smith+ on of the family+ Alaeg name of one of the Nartic families), this hypothesis has been considered unacceptable by Dumezil.

Worship

Vulcan's oldest shrine in Rome, called the Vulcanal, 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, and to have been established on the site by Titus Tatius, the Sabine co-king, with a traditional date in the 8th century BC. It was the view of the Etruscan haruspices that a temple of Vulcan should be located outside the city, and the Vulcanal may originally have been on or outside the city limits before they expanded to include the Capitoline Hill. The Volcanalia sacrifice was offered here to Vulcan, on August 23. Vulcan also had a temple on the Campus Martius, which was in existence by 214 BC.
The Romans identified Vulcan with the Greek smith-god Hephaestus. Vulcan 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. 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.

Vulcanalia

The festival of Vulcan, the Vulcanalia, was celebrated on August 23 each year, when the summer heat placed crops and granaries most at risk of burning. 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.
The Vulcanalia was part of the cycle of the four festivities of the second half of August (Consualia on August 21, Vulcanalia on 23, Opiconsivia on 25 and Vulturnalia on 27) related to the agrarian activities of that month and in symmetric correlation with those of the second half of July (Lucaria on July 19 and 21, Neptunalia on 23 and Furrinalia on 25). While the festivals of July dealt with untamed nature (woods) and waters (superficial waters the Neptunalia and underground waters the Furrinalia) at a time of danger caused by their relative deficiency, those of August were devoted to the results of human endeavour on nature with the storing of harvested grain (Consualia) and their relationship to human society and regality (Opiconsivia) which at that time were at risk and required protection from the dangers of the excessive strength of the two elements of fire (Vulcanalia) and wind (Vulturnalia) reinforced by dryness.
It is recorded that during the Vulcanalia people used to hang their clothes and fabrics under the sun. This habit might reflect a theological connection between Vulcan and the divinized Sun.
Another custom observed on this day required that one should start working by the light of a candle, probably to propitiate a beneficial use of fire by the god. In addition to the Vulcanalia of August 23, the date of May 23, which was the second of the two annual Tubilustria or ceremonies for the purification of trumpets, was sacred to Vulcan.
The Ludi Vulcanalici, were held just once on August 23, 20 BC, within the temple precinct of Vulcan, and used by Augustus to mark the treaty with Parthia and the return of the legionary standards that had been lost at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC.
A flamen, one of the flamines minors, named flamen Vulcanalis was in charge of the cult of the god. The flamen Vulcanalis officiated at a sacrifice to the goddess Maia, held every year at the Kalendae of May.
Vulcan was among the gods placated after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. 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.

Theology

The nature of the god is connected with religious ideas concerning fire.
The Roman concept of the god seems to associate him to both the destructive and the fertilizing powers of fire.
In the first aspect he is worshipped in the Volcanalia to avert its potential danger to harvested wheat. His cult is located outside the boundaries of the original city to avoid the risk of fires caused by the god in the city itself.
This power is, however, considered useful if directed against enemies and such a choice for the location of the god's cult could be interpreted in this way too. The same idea underlies the dedication of the arms of the defeated enemies, as well as those of the surviving general in a devotion ritual to the god.
Through comparative interpretation this aspect has been connected by Dumézil to the third or defensive fire in the theory of the three Vedic sacrificial fires. In such theory three fires are necessary to the discharge of a religious ceremony: the hearth of the landlord, which has the function of establishing a referential on Earth in that precise location connecting it with Heaven; the sacrificial fire, which conveys the offer to Heaven; and the defensive fire, which is usually located on the southern boundary of the sacred space and has a protective function against evil influences. Since the territory of the city of Rome was seen as a magnified temple in itself, the three fires should be identified as the hearth of the landlord in the temple of Vesta (aedes Vestae); the sacrificial fires of each temple, shrine or altar; and the defensive fire in the temple of Vulcan.
Another meaning of Vulcan is related to male fertilizing power. In various Latin and Roman legends he is the father of famous characters, such as the founder of Praeneste Caeculus, Cacus, a primordial being or king, later transformed into a monster that inhabited the site of the Aventine in Rome, and Roman king Servius Tullius. In a variant of the story of the birth of Romulus the details are identical even though Vulcan is not explicitly mentioned.
Some scholars think that he might be the unknown god who impregnated goddesses Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste and Feronia at Anxur. In this case he would be the father of Jupiter. This view is though in conflict with that which links the goddess to Jupiter, as his daughter (puer Jovis) and his mother too, as primigenia, meaning "primordial".
In all of the above-mentioned stories the god's fertilizing power is related to that of the fire of the house hearth.
In the case of Caeculus, his mother was impregnated by a spark that dropped on her womb from the hearth while she was sitting nearby. Servius Tullius's mother Ocresia was impregnated by a male sex organ that miraculously appeared in the ashes of the sacrificial ara, at the order of Tanaquil, Tarquinius Priscus's wife. Pliny the Elder tells the same story, but states that the father was the Lar familiaris. The divinity of the child was recognized when his head was surrounded by flames and he remained unharmed.
Through the comparative analysis of these myths archaeologist Andrea Carandini opines that Cacus and Caca were the sons of Vulcan and of a local divine being or a virgin as in the case of Caeculus. Cacus and Caca would represent the metallurgic and the domestic fire, projections of Vulcan and of Vesta.
These legends date back to the time of preurban Latium. Their meaning is quite clear: at the divine level Vulcan impregnates a virgin goddess and generates Jupiter, the king of the gods; at the human level he impregnates a local virgin (perhaps of royal descent) and generates a king.
The first mention of a ritual connection between Vulcan and Vesta is the lectisternium of 217 BC. Other facts that seem to hint at this connection are the relative proximity of the two sanctuaries and Dionysius of Halicarnassus's testimony that both cults had been introduced to Rome by Titus Tatius to comply with a vow he had made in battle. Varro confirms the fact.
Vulcan is related to two equally ancient female goddesses Stata Mater, perhaps the goddess who stops fires and Maia.
Herbert Jennings Rose interprets Maia as a goddess related to growth by connecting her name with IE root *MAG. Macrobius relates Cincius's opinion that Vulcan's female companion is Maia. Cincius justifies his view on the grounds that the flamen Volcanalis sacrificed to her at the Kalendae of May. In Piso's view the companion of the god is Maiestas.
According to Gellius as well, Maia was associated with Vulcan; and he backs up his view by quoting the ritual prayers in use by Roman priests.

The god is the patron of trades related to ovens (cooks, bakers, confectioners) as attested in the works of Plautus, Apuleius (the god is the cook at the wedding of Amor and Psyche) and in Vespa's short poem in the Anthologia Latina about the litigation between a cook and a baker.

Sons of Vulcan

According to Hyginus' Fabulae, the sons of Vulcan are Philammon, Cecrops, Erichthonius, Corynetes, Cercyon, Philottus, and Spinther.

Hypothesis on the origins of Vulcan

The origin of the Roman god of fire Vulcan has been traced back to the Cretan god Velchanos by Gérard Capdeville, primarily under the suggestion of the close similarity of their names. Cretan Velchanos is a young god of Mediterranean or Near Eastern origin who has mastership of fire and is the companion of the Great Goddess. These traits are preserved in Latium only in his sons Cacus, Caeculus, Romulus and Servius Tullius. At Praeneste the uncles of Caeculus are known as Digiti, noun that connects them to the Cretan Dactyli.^{[incomprehensible]}
His theology would be reflected in the Greek myths of Theseus and the Minotaur and in those concerning the childhood of Zeus on Mount Ida. The Mediterranean Pregreek conception is apparent in the depiction of Velchanos as a young man sitting upon a fork of a tree on coins from Phaistos dating from 322 to 300 BC, showing him as a god of vegetation and springtime: the tree is the symbol of the union of Heaven and Earth and their generative power, i. e. the site of the union of the god and the goddess. Otherwise Earth would be symbolised in the tree and Heaven in the double axe of the god. Later Velchanos was depicted as a bull as testified in the myths of Pasiphae and Europa. The Greeks misunderstood the meaning of the bull as for them the symbol of Zeus was a bird: the cock, the cuckoo or the eagle. Theseus brought to Delos the dance named géranos (literally the dance of the crane) which Capdeville connects with Garanos, a variant of the Recaranus of Italic myths. B. Sergent remarks that such an inquiry needs to include the Tarvos Trigaranos (the bull of the three horns) of Gaul.
In Crete Velchanos was the god of initiatory practices of youngsters.
Another reflection of the tradition of the Cretan Velchanos-Zeus would be found in Argolid in the mysteries of Zeus Lykaios, which contemplated anthropophagy and may have inspired the Italic Lupercalia.
The theological profile of Velchanos looks identical to that of Jupiter Dolichenus, a god of primarily Hittite ascendence in his identification with the bull, who has Sumero-Accadic, Aramaic and Hittito-Hurrite features as a god of tempest, according for example to the researches conducted in Syria by French scholar Paul Merlat. His cult enjoyed a period of popularity in the Roman Empire during the 2nd and 3rd centuries and the god had a temple in Rome on the Aventine.

Vulcan and the foundation of Rome

Velchanos was the supreme god of early Cretan religion, where the festival of the βελχάνια (Velchania) as well as a month Ϝελχάνιοσ (Welchanios) are attested: a gloss by Hesychius states that "Velchanos is Zeus among the Cretan". He was the first god of the cavern of Mount Ida, where he had an oracle, and was honoured also in Cyprus.
His name is very similar to that of Latin god Volcanus, who himself was considered to be the father of Caeculus and Servius Tullius, not to mention Romulus in the version transmitted by Promathion, which is very similar to the legend of Servius.
The founder of Rome has a close relationship with this god as he founded the Volcanal and there he dedicated a quadriga with his own statue after his first victory. It is there too that a part of the tradition locates the place of his death: the site was marked by the Lapis Niger: Festus writes "Niger lapis in Comitio locum funestum significat, ut ali, Romuli morti destinatum...". On the day of the Volcanalia (August 23) a sacrifice was offered to Hora Quirini, paredra of Quirinus with whom the deified Romulus was identified. As the Consualia were mentioned first in connection with the founding of Rome in the episode of the abduction of the Sabine women, as the Volcanalia are celebrated two days later and two days before the Opiconsivia, and as the name Volcanus resembles that of the ancient Cretan god honoured in the Βελχ?νια who presided over initiation rites, the Consualia must have a meaning of integration into the citizenship. This provides an explanation for the choice of the festival of the Parilia as the date of the foundation of Rome, since these are first of all the festival of the iuniores. Festus writes: "Parilibus Romulus Vrbem condidit, quem diem festum praecipue habebant iuniores." The date of April 21 marked the starting point of the process of initiation of the future new citizens which concluded four months later on the ceremony of the Consualia, which involves athletic games and marriages.

Greek myths of Hephaestus

Through his identification with the Hephaestus of Greek mythology, Vulcan came to be considered as the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, jewelry, and armor for various gods and heroes, including the lightning bolts of Jupiter. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and the husband of Maia and Aphrodite (Venus). His smithy was believed to be situated underneath Mount Etna in Sicily.
As the son of Jupiter, the king of the gods, and Juno, the queen of the gods, Vulcan should have been quite handsome, 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.
Vulcan fell down for a day and a night, landing in the sea. Unfortunately, one of his legs broke as he hit the water, and never developed properly. Vulcan sank to the depths of the ocean, where the sea-nymph Thetis found him and took him to her underwater grotto, wanting to raise him as her own son.
Vulcan had a happy childhood with dolphins as his playmates and pearls as his toys. Late in his childhood, he found the remains of a fisherman's fire on the beach and became fascinated with an unextinguished coal, still red-hot and glowing.
Vulcan carefully shut this precious coal in a clamshell, took it back to his underwater grotto, and made a fire with it. On the first day after that, Vulcan stared at this fire for hours on end. On the second day, he discovered that when he made the fire hotter with bellows, certain stones sweated iron, 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, and for himself he made a silver chariot with bridles so that seahorses could transport him quickly. He even made slave-girls of gold to wait on him and do his bidding.
Later, Thetis left her underwater grotto to attend a dinner party on Mount Olympus wearing a beautiful necklace of silver and sapphires that Vulcan had made for her. Juno admired the necklace and asked where she could get one. Thetis became flustered, causing Juno to become 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 Vulcan return home, a demand that he refused. However, he did send Juno a beautifully constructed chair made of silver and gold, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Juno was delighted with this gift but, as soon as she sat 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 could not sleep, she could not stretch, she could not eat. It was Jupiter who finally saved the day: he promised that if Vulcan released Juno he would give him a wife, Venus the goddess of love and beauty. Vulcan agreed and married Venus. He later built a smithy under Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. It was said that whenever Venus was unfaithful, Vulcan grew angry and beat the red-hot metal with such a force that sparks and smoke rose up from the top of the mountain, creating a volcanic eruption.
According to Virgil, Vulcan was the father of Caeculus.
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.

Sanctuaries

The main and most ancient sanctuary of Vulcan in Rome was the Volcanal, located in the area Volcani, an open-air space at the foot of the Capitolium, in the northwestern corner of the Roman Forum, with an area dedicated to the god and a perennial fire. It was one of the most ancient Roman shrines. According to Roman tradititon the sanctuary had been dedicated by Romulus. He had placed on the site a bronze quadriga dedicated to the god, a war trophy from the Fidenates. According to Plutarch, though, the war in question was that against Cameria, that occurred sixteen years after the foundation of Rome. There Romulus would have also dedicated to Vulcan a statue of himself and an inscription in Greek characters listing his successes. Plutarch states that Romulus was represented crowned by Victory. Moreover, he would have planted a sacred lotus tree in the sanctuary that was still living at the time of Pliny the Elder and was said to be as old as the city. The hypothesis has been presented that the Volcanal was founded when the Forum was still outside the town walls.
The Volcanal was perhaps used as a cremation site, as suggested by the early use of the Forum as a burial site. Livy mentions it twice, in 189 and 181 BC, for the prodigies of a rain of blood.
The area Volcani was probably a locus substructus. It was five meters higher than the Comitium and from it the kings and the magistrates of the beginnings of the republic addressed the people, before the building of the rostra.
On the Volcanal there was also a statue of Horatius Cocles that had been moved here from the Comitium, locus inferior, after it had been struck by lightning. Aulus Gellius writes that some haruspices were summoned to expiate the prodigy and they had it moved to a lower site, where sunlight never reached, out of their hatred for the Romans. The fraud was revealed, however, and the haruspices were executed. Later it was found that the statue should be placed on a higher site, thus it was placed in the area Volcani.
In 304 BC a sacellum to Concordia was built in the area Volcani: it was dedicated by aedilis curulis Cnaeus Flavius.
According to Samuel Ball Platner, in the course of time the Volcanal would have been more and more encroached upon by the surrounding buildings until it was totally covered over. Nonetheless the cult was still alive in the first half of the imperial era, as is testified by the finding of a dedica of Augustus's dating from 9 BC.
At the beginning of the 20th century, behind the Arch of Septimius Severus were found some ancient tufaceous foundations that probably belonged to the Volcanal and traces of a rocky platform, 3.95 meters long and 2.80 meters wide, that had been covered with concrete and painted in red. Into its upper surface are dug several narrow channels and in front of it are the remains of a draining channel made of tufaceous slabs. The hypothesis has been suggested that this was Vulcan's area itself. The rock shows signs of damages and repairs. On the surface there are some hollows, either round or square, that bear resemblance to graves and were interpreted as such in the past, particularly by Von Duhn. After the discovery of cremation tombs in the Forum the latter scholar maintained that the Volcanal was originally the site where corpses were cremated.
Another temple was erected to the god before 215 BC in the Campus Martius, near the Circus Flaminius, where games in his honour were held during the festival of the Volcanalia.

Vulcan outside Rome

At Ostia the cult of the god, as well as his sacerdos, was the most important of the town. The sacerdos was named pontifex Vulcani et aedium sacrarum: he had under his jurisdiction all the sacred buildings in town and could give or withhold the authorisation to erect new statues to Eastern divinities. He was chosen for life, perhaps by the council of the decuriones, and his position was the equivalent of the pontifex maximus in Rome. It was the highest administrative position in the town of Ostia.
He was selected from among people who had already held public office in Ostia or in the imperial administration. The pontifex was the sole authority who had a number of subordinate officials to help discharge his duties, namely three praetores and two or three aediles. These were religious offices, different from civil offices of similar name.
On the grounds of a fragmentary inscription found at Annaba (ancient Hippo Regius), it is considered possible that the writer Suetonius had held this office.
From Strabon we know that at Pozzuoli there was an area called in Greek agora' of Hephaistos (Lat. Forum Vulcani). The place is a plain where many sulphurous vapour outlets are located (currently Solfatara).
Pliny the Elder records that near Modena fire came out from soil statis Vulcano diebus, on fixed days devoted to Vulcan.

Legacy

Vulcan is the patron god of the English steel-making city of Sheffield. His statue stands on top of Sheffield Town Hall.^{[citation needed]}
The Vulcan statue located in Birmingham, Alabama is the largest cast iron statue in the world.
The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, a volcanic island in the Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name in turn originates from Vulcan.^{[citation needed]}
A 12-foot-tall and 1200-pound Vulcan statue at California University of Pennsylvania serves as the school’s mascot.
In 2013, Reuters reported that the name "Vulcan" was being been promoted as a name for "newly discovered" moons of Pluto. The moons had been discovered in 2011 and 2012, bringing the count of known moons of Pluto to five. Though the name Vulcan won a popular vote, the International Astronomical Union decided in June 2013 to finalize the names as Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra.
The name "Vulcan" has been used for various other fictional planets, in and out of the Solar System, that do not correspond to the hypothetical planet Vulcan. The planet Vulcan in the Star Trek franchise, for instance, is specified as orbiting 40 Eridani A.
Vulcan is a playable character in Smite, an online MOBA where Gods fight each other.
Vulcan is a main character in the novel The Automation by B.L.A. and G.B. Gabbler. His role is often a "deus ex machina" one, but he and his wife (called Venus) are still essential to the overall plot.
Vulcan is the main character Tatsuya Suou's starting Persona in Persona 2: Innocent Sin.^{[citation needed]}
The Avro Vulcan (later Hawker Siddeley Vulcan) was a high-altitude strategic bomber operated by the Royal Air Force from 1956 until 1984.^{[citation needed]}
Son of Vulcan is a superhero who appeared in both Charlton and DC Comics.
Vulcan is a character in the Starz TV series American Gods, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. He is not a character in the novel and is now the "god of guns" in this version, using the forge at his ammunition factory as a symbolic representation of a volcano.

Vulcan. Bronze statuette, Roman work, 1st century AD?

Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow), 2008-12-26

Teti attende le armi di Achille nella fucina di Efesto - Affresco romano della Casa del Triclinio a Pompei - Museo archeologico - Napoli

Marie-Lan Nguyen

Vulcano forgia le folgori per Giove di Rubens (XVII secolo)

Pieter Paul Rubens - Photo by Dodo

Creato: tra il 1636 e il 1638 circa

Thetis Receiving the Weapons of Achilles from Hephaestus by Anthony van Dyck (1630-1632)

Anthony van Dyck - Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Bilddatenbank.

Andrea Mantegna: Parnas, Vulcan, god of fire 1497

The western face of the Doric temple of Hephaestus, Agora of Athens.

Giorces - Opera propria

Fucina. Mosaico pavimentale romano al Museo del Bardo a Tunisi. III secolo d.C.

Athena Scorning the Advances of Hephaestus by Paris Bordone (between c. 1555 and c. 1560)

Punishment of Ixion: in the center is Mercury holding the caduceus and on the right Juno sits on her throne. Behind her Iris stands and gestures. On the left is Vulcanus (blond figure) standing behind the wheel, manning it, with Ixion already tied to it. Nephele sits at Mercury's feet; a Roman fresco from the eastern wall of the triclinium in the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Fourth Style (60-79 AD).

WolfgangRieger - Marisa Ranieri Panetta (ed.)

La statua di Vulcano a Birmingham.

(Earthsound) / (flickr profile) e un altro autore - Opera propria

Image of the front of Vulcan, the largest cast iron statue in the world, located in Birmingham, AL, lightly dusted with the first day of snow, January 19, 2008.

Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan by Alexandre Charles Guillemot (1827)

Giulio Romano - The Old Woman and Vulcan, Tribute to Apollo

Created: between 1526 and 1528

(Iliad XVIII, 368–616)

Maarten van Heemskerck

Vulcan hands Thetis the shield for Achilles1536 By Maerten van Heemskerck born 1498.

Prometheus chained by Vulcan.

Dirck van Baburen (circa 1594/1595–1624)

1623

Bartholomeus Spranger - Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Bilddatenbank.

Created: circa 1585 date

Bartholomäus Spranger
circa 1610 date

Überraschung der Venus bei Mars durch Vulkan. Hinterglasgemälde. Zürich 1631.

Luca Giordano

Created: 1670s date

Venus and Mars Surprised by Vulcan - Hendrick van Balen (1606)

Venus and Mars Surprised by Vulcan - Il padovanino (1631)

Venus, Roman goddess of love, was married to the blacksmith-god Vulcan. This plate shows him forging an arrow for Venus's son Cupid, god of love, who targets the hearts of both gods and humans. Gold-tipped arrows make them fall madly in love, while lead-tipped ones make them reject all advances. This is a fine example of Xanto Avelli's ability to compose the scene in graceful accommodation with the shape of the plate

.Francesco Xanto Avelli - Walters Art Museum: Created: between circa 1528 and circa 1532 (Renaissance)

Il moderno, vulcano che forgia l'arco di cupido, 1490 circa

I, Sailko

Ngv, francesco xanto avelli (attr.), piatto con venere, vulcano e cupido, 1528 circa

I, Sailko

Vulcan Forging the Arrows of Cupid, Andrea Briosco (Riccio), Ulocrino, and circle, Padua, early 16th century AD, bronze - Bode-Museum

Piero di cosimo, ritrovamento di vulcano a lemno

Created: between 1495 and 1505

Bassano Forge of Vulcan

Francesco Bassano the Younger

Created: second half of 16th century date

Giorgio Vasari - Volcano's forge

Frans Floris - Venus at Vulcan's Forge
Created: between 1560 and 1564

Jacopo Tintoretto - Vulcan's Forge
Created: between 1576 and 1577

La fragua de Vulcano, de Jacopo Bassano (Museo del Prado).
Created: circa 1577 date

Die Schmiede des Vulkan, Öl auf Leinwand, 133,1 x 208 cm

Francesco Bassano the Younger 1592

Felice Brusasorci - Venus in the Forge of Vulcan
Created: 1600s date

Palma il Giovane - Venus and Cupid at Vulcan's Forge
Created: circa 1610 date

Francesco Albani - Summer (Venus in Vulcan's Forge)
Created: between 1616 and 1617

Teniers the Elder Venus Visiting Vulcans Forge 1638

Venus at the Forge of Vulcan, Le Nain

Le Nain Brothers 1641

Cornelis Schut - Vulcan's forge
Created: from 1617 until 1655

Grafik aus dem Klebeband Nr. 15 der Fürstlich Waldeckschen Hofbibliothek Arolsen Feuerwerksdrama Medea vendicativa von Pietro Baolo Bissari mit Musik von Johann Kaspar Kerll, aufgeführt zum "Churfürstlich Bayerischen Frewden-Fest" auf einer schwimmenden Bühne unter freiem Himmel an einem Nebenarm der Isar; Bühnenbild von Francesco Santurini I. Bild, Die Grotte Vulkans mit frei Feuerschmieden

1662