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{{LanguageBar|{{PAGENAME}}}} [[Image:vulcan-birmingham-ltsnow.jpg|frame|Photo of Vulcan dusted with light snow at Vulcan Park, Birmingham, Alabama, USA, by David Gunnells]] ==Overview== '''Volcanus''', the God of the fire of the sky, the lightning and the fires caused by it, he is the raging fire (opposed to the domestic fire, ''Vesta''). He was equated to the Greek ''Haephestus'', God of the fire, forge and volcanos. As a Nature God, he was married to ''Maia'', Goddess of Spring. Equated to ''Haephestus'', he made Iuppiter's thunderbolts and married to ''Venus''. At his festival, the ''Volcanalia'' on August 23, fishes were throuwn into the hearth fires. The eruption of mount Vesuvius in 79 AD took place in the day of His festival. As God of metal workers, He also has a festival on May 23. As God of conflagration, His temples were built outside the pomerium, on the Campus Martius. But ''Volcanus'' has many aspects, attributes, names and epithets... ==Background== Vulcan's oldest shrine in Rome, called the Vulcanal, was situated at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in the Forum Romanum, and was reputed to date to the archaic period of the kings of Rome,<ref>Samuel Ball Platner & Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome; Beard, Mary, John North and Simon Price, Religions of Rome Volume 2: A Sourcebook, 1998, Cambridge University Press</ref>and to have been established on the site by Titus Tatius,<ref>Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II.50.3; Varro V.74.</ref>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,<ref>Vitruvius [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/1*.html#7 1.7]; see also Plutarch, ''Roman Questions'' [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Roman_Questions*/C.html#47 47].</ref>and the Vulcanal may originally have been on or outside the Pomerium (city limits) before they expanded to include the Capitoline Hill.<ref>Dumezil</ref>The Volcanalia sacrifice was offered here to Vulcan, on August 23.<ref>Platner</ref>Vulcan also had a temple on the Campus Martius, which was in existence by 214 BC.<Dumezil><ref>Livy, ''Ab Urbe condita'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0144:book=24:chapter=10 24.10.9].</ref> The Romans identified Vulcan with the Greek black-god Hephaestus,<ref>Lar, ''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.</ref>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. 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 23rd each year, when the summer heat placed crops and granaries most at risk of burning.<ref name=dumezil/><ref name=fowler>{{cite book |author=W. Warde Fowler |authorlink=William Warde Fowler |title=The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: An Introduction to the Study of the Religion of the Romans |url=http://www.archive.org/details/romanfestivalsof00fowluoft |accessdate=2007-07-28 |year=1899 |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |location=London |pages=123&ndash;124, 209&ndash;211 |isbn=0-548-15022-2 }}</ref>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.<ref>Sextus Pompeius Festus, ''On the Meaning of Words'', s.v. "''[http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/erudits/Festus/p.htm piscatorii ludi]''"; Marcus Terentius Varro, ''On the Latin Language'' [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/varro.ll6.html 6.3].</ref> The Volcanalia were part of the cycle of the four festivities of the second half of August (Consualia on August 21, Volcanalia on 23, Opiconsivia on 25 and Volturnalia 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 (Volcanalia) and wind (Volturnalia) reinforced by dryness.<ref>In Dumézil's interpretation the Volturnalia were associated with the protection of riping grapes from a hot and dry southwestern wind named Volturnus, not with the river Tiber, as Mommsen had supposed, or Volturnus of Campania.</ref> It is recorded that during the Vulcanalia people used to hang their cloths and fabrics under the sun.<ref>Paulinus of Nola, ''Letters'' XXXII, 139.</ref>This habit might reflect a theological connection between Vulcan and the divinized Sun.<ref>G. Dumezil ''Fetes romaines d'étè et d'automne'' Paris Gallimard 1975; It. transl. ''Feste Romane'' Genova Il Melangolo 1979 pp. 60 ff.</ref> 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.<ref>Pliny the Younger ''Letters'' III, 5.</ref>In addition to the Volcanalia of August 23rd, 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.<ref name=fowler/><ref>Ovid, ''Fasti'' [http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFive.htm#_Toc69367933 5.725&ndash;726].</ref> The ''Ludi Volcanalici'', was 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 minores'', named ''flamen Volcanalis'' was in charge of the cult of the god. The flamen Volcanalis officiated at a sacrifice to the goddess Maia, held every year on the Kalends of May.<ref>Macrobius ''Saturnalia'' I 12,18; Aulus Gellius ''Noctes Atticae'' XIII 23, 2.</ref> Vulcan was among the gods placated after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64.<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078:book=15:chapter=44 15.44.1].</ref>In response to the same fire, Domitian 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.<ref>''Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae'' 4914, translated by Robert K. Sheark; The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian, Translated Documents of Greece and Rome, 1988, Cambridge University Press, p. 99</ref> ==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.<ref>Plutarch ''Questiones Romanae'' 47; Vitruvius ''De architectura'' I,7,1</ref> 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,<ref>Servius ''Ad Aeneidem'' VIII 562.</ref>as well as those of the surviving general in a devotion ritual to the god.<ref>Livy ''Ab Urbe Condita Libri'' VIII 10.</ref> 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.<ref>G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique'' Paris, 1974, part 2, chap. 2; It. tr. Milan 1977 pp. 277-280.</ref>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,<ref>Cato Censor ''Origines'' fragment 65, cited in ''Scholia Veronensia ad Aeneidem'' VII 681 p. 438, 16 ff. Hagen.</ref>Cacus,<ref>Vergil ''Aeneis'' VIII 198.</ref>a primordial being or king, later transformed into a monster that inhabited the site of the Aventine Hill 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.<ref>Plutarch ''Romulus'' II 3-6</ref> 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 Iuppiter.<ref>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.</ref>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.<ref>Vergil ''Aeneis'' VII 680.</ref>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.<ref>Ovid ''Fasti'' VI 627.</ref>Pliny the Elder tells the same story, but states that the father was the Lar familiaris.<ref>Pliny the Elder ''Naturalis Historia'' XXXVI 204.</ref>The divinity of the child was recognized when his head was surrounded by flames and he remained unharmed.<ref>Ovid ''Fasti'' VI 625-636.</ref> 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.<ref>Andrea Carandini ''La nascita di Roma'' Turin, 1997, p. 52.</ref> 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.<ref>Dionysius Halicarnasseus ''Antiquitates Romanae'' II 50, 3.</ref>Varro confirms the fact.<ref>Varro ''Lingua Latina '' V 73: see above.</ref> Vulcan is related to two equally ancient female goddesses Stata Mater,<ref>CIL VI, 00802, found in Rome.</ref>perhaps the goddess who stops fires and Maia.<ref>Aulus Gellius ''Noctes Atticae'' XII 23, 2: "Maiam Volcani".</ref> Herbert Jennings Rose interprets Maia as a goddess related to growth by connecting her name with IE root *MAG.<ref>H. J. Rose ''A dictionary of classical antiquities'' It. transl., Turin, 1995.</ref>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.<ref>Macrobius ''Saturnalia'' I 12, 18.</ref> 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.<ref>A. Gell. ''Noct. Att.'' XIII, 23, 2</ref><ref>Maiestas and Maia, though, are possibly the same divine person: compare Ovid's explanations of the meaning of the name of the month May in his ''Fasti'': V 1-52 Maiestas; 81-106 Maia both as possible eponyms of May.</ref> The god is the patron of trades related to ovens (cooks, bakers, confectioners) as attested in the works of Plautus,<ref>Plautus ''Aulularia'' 359.</ref>Apuleius (the god is the cook at the wedding of Amor and Psyche)<ref>Apuleius ''Metamorphoses'' VI 24, 2.</ref>and in Vespa's short poem in the Anthologia Latina about the litigation between a cook and a baker.<ref>''Iudicium coci et pistoris iudice Vulcano''.</ref> ==Sons of Vulcan== According to Hyginus' Fabulae, the sons of Vulcan are Philammon, Cecrops, Erichthonius of Athens, Corynetes, Cercyon, Philottus and Spinther.<ref>Hyginus Fabulae 158.</ref> ==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.<ref>G. Capdeville ''Volcanus. Rechérches comparatistes sur le cult de Vulcain'' Rome 1994. Reviewed by Bernard Sergent in ''Revue de l'histoire des religions'' '''216''' 1999 4 p. 475-481; Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge in ''Kernos'' 1996 '''9''' p. 434-436.</ref>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,<ref>Solinus II 9; Arnobius ''Adversus Nationes'' III 41, 1; 43, 3.</ref>noun that connects them to the Cretan ''Dactyli''. 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.<ref>G. Capdeville "Jeux athletiques et rituels de fondation" Publications de L' École Française de Rome 1993 p. 141-187.</ref> 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 Roman 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 Hill.<ref>Paul Merlat ''Jupiter Dolichenus, Essai d'intérpretation et de synthèse'' Paris PUF 1960 reviewed by Alfred Merlin "Jupiter Dolichenus" in ''Journal des savants'' 1960 '''4''' p. 160-166.</ref> ==Vulcan and the foundation of Rome== Vulcan was the supreme god of early Cretan religion, where the festival of the βελχάνια as well as a month Γ(digamma)ελχάνιοσ are attested: a gloss by Hesychius states that "Velchanos is Zeus among the Cretan".<ref>Hesychius Γ 315 Latte.</ref>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.<ref>G. Capdeville "Jeux athlétiques et rituels de fondation" ''Publications de l'École Française de Rome'' 1993 p. 182-186.</ref> ==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 thunderbolts of Jupiter. He was the son of Iuppiter and Iuno, and the husband of Maia and Venus. His forge 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 like a pebble to the cool blue depths where the sea-nymph, Thetis, found him and took him to her underwater grotto, and raised 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. Iuno was furious and demanded that Vulcan return home, a demand that he refused. However he did send Iuno a beautifully constructed chair made of silver and gold, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Iuno 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.<ref>https://archive.org/details/livesnecromance04godwgoog, Lives of the Necromancers, William Godwin, 1876, p. 37</ref> For three days Iuno sat fuming, still trapped in Vulcan's chair; she could not sleep, she could not stretch, she could not eat. It was Iuppiter 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 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. According to Virgil, Vulcan was the father of Caeculus.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Verg.+A.+7.678 7.678&ndash;681]; Maurus Servius Honoratus on ''Aeneid'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Serv.+A.+7.678&fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0053 7.678].</ref> To punish mankind for stealing the secrets of fire, Iuppiter 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.<ref>Cf. above note 10, 11 and 12.</ref> According to Roman tradition 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.<ref>Plutarch ''Romulus'' 24.</ref>There Romulus would have also dedicated to Vulcan a statue of himself and an inscription in Greek characters listing his successes.<ref>Dionysius of Halicarnassus ''Roman Antitquitites'' II 54, 2.</ref>Plutarch states that Romulus was represented crowned by Victory.<ref>Plutarch ''Romulus'' 24.</ref>Moreover he would have planted a sacred lotus tree<ref>The Italic lotus, ''diospyrus lotus'', or ''melilotus'', Columella ''De Re Rustica'' VII 9; Galen.</ref>in the sanctuary that was still living at the time of Pliny the Elder and was said to be as old as the city.<ref>Pliny the Elder ''Naturalis Historia'' XVI 236.</ref>The hypothesis has been presented that the ''Volcanal'' was founded when the Forum was still outside the town walls.<ref>G. Dumézil ''La religione romana arcaica'' Milano Rizzoli 1977 p. 285.</ref> The ''Volcanal'' was perhaps used as a cremation site as suggested by the early use of the Forum as a burial site.<ref>Von Duhn ''Altitalische Gräberkunde'' as cited by Samuel Ball Platner & Thomas Ashby, ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' London 1928 p. 583-4.</ref>Livy mentions it twice, in 189 and 181 BC, for the prodigies of a rain of blood.<ref>Livy Ab Urbe Condita Libri XL 19, 2.</ref> The ''area Volcani'' was probably a ''locus substructus''. It was five meters higher than the Comitium<ref>Dionysius of Halicarnassus ''Antiquitates Romanae'' II 50, 2.</ref>and from it the kings and the magistrates of the beginnings of the republic addressed the people, before the building of the rostra.<ref>Dionysius of Halicarnassus ''Antiquitates Romanae'' XI 39, 1.</ref> On the Volcanal there was also a statue of Horatius Cocles<ref>Plutarch ''Publicola'', 16</ref>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''.<ref>Aulus Gellius ''Noct. Att.'' IV, 5; Gellius writes that the episode was recorded in the XI book of the Annales Maximi and by Verrius Flaccus, ''Memorabilia'' I.</ref> In 304 BC a sacellum to Concordia was built in the ''area Volcani'': it was dedicated by Aedilis curulis, Cnaeus Flavius.<ref>Livy ''Ab Urbe Condita Libri'' IX 46.</ref> 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.<ref>CIL VI 457.</ref> 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,<ref>Richter BRT iv 15-16.</ref>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.<ref>Von Duhn ''Italische Gräberkunde'' i. 413 sqq.</ref> 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.<ref>G. Dumézil ''La religione romana arcaica'' Milano Rizzoli 1977 p. 285.</ref> ==Vulcan outside Rome== At Ostia Antica 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.<ref>C. Pavolini ''La vita quotidiana a Ostia'' Roma-Bari ,1986</ref> On the grounds of a fragmentary inscrption found at Annaba (ancient Hippo Regius), it is considered possible that the writer Suetonius had held this office.<ref>AE 1953, 00073; G. Gaggero Introduction to Suetonius's ''Life of the twelve Caesars'' Milan 1994</ref> From Strabone<ref>Strabone ''Geografia. L'Italia'' V,4,6, Milan 1988</ref>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.<ref>Pliny the Elder ''Nat. Hist.'' II, 240</ref> ==Legacy== Vulcan is the patron god of the English steel-making city of Sheffield. His statue sits on top of Sheffield Town Hall. A Vulcan statue located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the largest cast iron statue in the world.<ref>http://www.visitvulcan.com/history.html, History of Vulcan Park, 2008-02-24; [http://web.archive.org/web/20080215192202/http://www.visitvulcan.com/history.html]</ref> 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. A 12 foot tall and 1200 pound [http://sai.calu.edu/caltimes/index.php/2009/10/21/new-vulcan-statue-unveiled Vulcan statue] at California University of Pennsylvania (CAL U) serves as the school’s mascot. Photograph of the CAL U [http://www.flickr.com/photos/greg-buretz/5940097720/ statue of Vulcan]. In 2013, Reuters reported that name "Vulcan" was being been promoted as a name for "newly discovered" moons of Pluto<ref>Gray, Kevin, "Vulcan has big lead in bid to name Pluto's newly discovered moons," [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/21/entertainment-us-space-pluto-moon-idUSBRE91K00620130221], 25 February 2013, 20 February 2013</ref>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.<ref>[http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/international-astronomical-union-decides-against-naming-pluto-moon-vulcan/277484/ International Astronomical Union Decides Against Naming Pluto Moon 'Vulcan'], [http://www.theatlantic.com theatlantic.com].</ref> Vulcan is a playable character in Smite, an online MOBA where Gods fight each other. ==Prayers to Volcanus== ===PRAYER I=== '''"Holy Vulcanus, foremost of those who cherish this place, to You we pray for peace. Grant Your ultimate assistance to the tired and worn, and, if no one here merits punishment for some noxious crime, may You have mercy on all their souls and allow them to reach Your purifying fountains. Three times they invoke Your name, three times they pour rich incense upon the focal fire, and strew the altar with auspicious boughs in Your honor."'''<ref>Grattius Faliscus Gynegetica 437-42</ref> ===PRAYER II=== Soon, I pray, Vulcan, memories of whispered rumors of disgrace and loud quarrels of complaint You will no longer hold against the children of Mars; we are also the children of Your sweet wife Venus, spare us, Father.<ref>Martial Epigrammata 5.7.5 To Vulcan</ref> ==References== <references/> [[Category:Roman Gods]]

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