Vulcan (, in archaically retained spelling also Volcanus, both pronounced ) is the god of fire including the fire of volcanoes, deserts, metalworking and the forge in ancient Roman religion and myth. He is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer.Corbishley, Mike "Ancient Rome" Warwick Press 1986 Toronto. 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 including Vulcan.Varro De Lingua Latina V, X: "...Et arae Sabinum linguam olent, quae Tati regis voto sunt Romae dedicatae: nam, ut annales dicunt, vovit Opi, Florae, Vediovi Saturnoque, Soli, Lunae, Volcano et Summano, itemque Larundae, Termino, Quirino, Vortumno, Laribus, Dianae Lucinaeque...".
Etymology
The origin of the name is unclear. Roman tradition maintained that it was related to Latin words connected to lightning (), which in turn was thought of as related to flames.Varro Lingua Latina V, 10: "Ignis a gnascendo, quod huic nascitur et omne quod nascitur ignis succendit; ideo calet ut qui denascitur cum amittit ac frigescit. Ab ignis iam maiore vi ac violentia Volcanus dictus. Ab eo quod ignis propter splendor." This interpretation is supported by Walter William Skeat in his etymological dictionary as meaning lustre.W. W. Skeat Etymological Dictionary of the English Language New York 1963 (first published in 1882) s.v. volcano: "cf. Sanskrit varchar-s: 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.Arthur B. Cook Zeus: a study in Ancient religion 1925 Vol. II, pp. 945 ff. Wolfgang Meid has disputed this identification as fantastic.W. Meid "Etrusc. Velkhans- Lat. Volcanus" Indogermanische Forschugungen, 66 1961. Meid and Vasily Abaev have proposed on their side a matching theonym in the Ossetic legendary smith of the Nart saga Kurd-Alä-Wärgon ("the Alan smith Wärgon"), and postulated an original PIE smith god named *wl̩kānos. But since the name in its normal form is stable and has a clear meaning—kurd ("smith") + Alaeg (the name of one of the Nartic families)+ on ("of the family")—this hypothesis has been considered unacceptable by Dumezil.G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaïque Paris, 1974, part II, chap. 2. It. tr. Milano 1977 p. 284 n. 12.
Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h has proposed the identification with the Irish name Olcan (Ogamic Ulccagni, in the genitive). Gérard Capdeville 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.Gérard Capdeville Volchanus. Rechérches comparatistes sur le culte de Vulcain Rome 1994.
According to Martin L. West, Volcanus may represent a god of the fire named *Volca and attached to the suffix -no-, the typical appendage indicating the god's domain in Indo-European languages. *Volca could therefore be a cognate of the Sanskrit words ulkā (उल्का) ("flame, meteor, firebrand") and/or várcas- ("brilliance, glare").
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,Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II.50.3; Varro V.74. 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,Vitruvius 1.7 ; see also Plutarch, Roman Questions 47 . 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.Livy, Ab urbe condita 24.10.9.
The Romans identified Vulcan with the Greek smith-god Hephaestus.Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. 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.
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.Sextus Pompeius Festus, On the Meaning of Words, s.v. "piscatorii ludi "; Varro, On the Latin Language 6.3 .
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.In Dumézil's interpretation the Vulturnalia were associated with the protection of riping grapes from a hot and dry southwestern wind named Vulturnus, not with the river Tiber, as Mommsen had supposed, or Vulturnus of Campania.
It is recorded that during the Vulcanalia people used to hang their clothes and fabrics under the sun.Paulinus of Nola Letters XXXII, 139. This habit might reflect a theological connection between Vulcan and the divinized Sun.G. Dumezil Fetes romaine d'étè et d'automne Paris Gallimard 1975; It. transl. Feste Romane Genova Il Melangolo 1979 pp. 60 ff.
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.Pliny the Younger Letters III, 5. 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.Ovid, Fasti 5.725–726.
The , 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 , named 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.Macrobius Saturnalia I 12,18; Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae XIII 23, 2.
Vulcan was among the gods placated after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64.Tacitus, Annals 15.44.1. 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.Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 4914, translated by
Theology
The nature of Vulcan is connected with religious ideas concerning fire; the Roman concept of Vulcan 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.Plutarch Questiones Romanae 47; Vitruvius De architectura I,7,1 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,Servius Ad Aeneidem VIII 562. as well as those of the surviving general in a devotion ritual to the god.Livy Ab Urbe Condita Libri VIII 10.
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.G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part 2, chap. 2; It. tr. Milan 1977 pp. 277–280. 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 (); 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,Cato Censor Origines fragment 65, cited in Scholia Veronensia ad Aeneidem VII 681 p. 438, 16 ff. Hagen. Cacus,Vergil Aeneis VIII 198. 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.Plutarch Romulus II 3–6
Some scholars think that Vulcan 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.Jacqueline Champeaux Fortuna, I, Fortuna dans la religion romaine archaique Rome, 1982; A. Mastrocinque Romolo. La fondazione di Roma tra storia e leggenda Este, 1993. This view, however, is in conflict with that which links the goddess to Jupiter, as his daughter () and his mother too, as , 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.Vergil Aeneis VII 680. Servius Tullius' 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' wife.Ovid Fasti VI 627. Pliny the Elder tells the same story, but states that the father was the Lar familiaris.Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia XXXVI 204. The divinity of the child was recognized when his head was surrounded by flames and he remained unharmed.Ovid Fasti VI 625–636.
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.