Vulcan (Myth)

Vulcan
	;
Other Names	Hephaestus, Vulcanus, Volcanus, Sethlans, Mulciber Vulcan
First Appearance	Roman Myth
Created by	Unknown

Origin[]

Vulcan 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. 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.

In Roman myth Vulcan was the father of Caeculus, founder of Praeneste (now Palestrina, Italy). His story is told by Servius, the 4th-century-ad commentator on Virgil. Vulcan was also father of the monster Cacus, who was killed by Hercules for stealing his cattle, as Virgil relates in Book VIII of the Aeneid. 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 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. This view, however, is in conflict with that which links the goddess to Jupiter, as his daughter (puer Jovis) and his mother too, as primigenia, meaning "primordial".

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.

Vulcan 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 Latin Anthology about the litigation between a cook and a baker.

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

Ace[]

The hero Vulcan (Ace) was a descendant of the Roman god of fire.

Quality[]

Vulcan was summoned by Kid Eternity to help him with the Sackville Rebellion.

Lev Gleason[]

This version of the Roman god of fire met by Yankee Longago was the creator of a comic book called Ungodly Comics.

Charlton[]

Vulcan is responsible for giving crippled reporter Johnny Mann the power of the Roman gods transforming the man into Son of Vulcan.

Public Domain Appearances[]

All published appearances of Vulcan from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.

Some notable appearances are listed below:

Public Domain Literary Appearances[]

Latin Anthology
Fabulae

Public Domain Comic Appearances[]

Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46-48
Whiz Comics #125
Boy Comics #10
Kid Eternity #3
Hit Comics #55
Humdinger vol. 1 #4
Man in Black #3

Public Domain Comic Appearances Inspired by Vulcan[]

Public Domain Comic Appearances of Vulcan (Ace)[]

Super-Mystery Comics vol. 1 #1-6
- vol. 2 #1-6
  - vol. 3 #1-2
Four Favorites #1-3

Public Domain Comic Appearances of Vulcan (Prize)[]

Prize Comics #7-9

Public Domain Comic Appearances of Son of Vulcan[]

Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46-48
Son of Vulcan #49-50

Notes[]

In 2013, Reuters reported that the name "Vulcan" was being 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, which was theorized by Urbain Le Verrier to orbit the Sun closer in than Mercury. The planet Vulcan in the Star Trek franchise, for instance, is specified as orbiting 40 Eridani A.
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.