VULCAN (Lat. l'u/conum, Voicanns; con nected with tilt. vlka, firolwand) , or HEMET:WM:S. In classical mythology, the god of fire. In Greek legend Ileplimstns was the situ of Zeus and Ilera. Deformed at birth, he was burled by his mother from Olympus. lie fell into the sea, and was cared for by Thetis and Enrynome. Another story represents him as hurled from heaven by Zeus for interfering in behalf of Hera. Ile fell on Lemnos and was eared for by the Sintians. In the Iliad his wife is Charis (Grace), but later legend united him with Aphrodite, apparently for the contrast between the lame, awkward, and grimy smith and the goddess of beauty. His de tection of her infidelity with Ares is told in the Odyssey. In spite of his prominence in legend, the cult of liepluestus was very limited. At Lemnos and in Sicily (both volcanic regions) he enjoyed honor, but in Greece proper his cult is scarcely known outside of Attica. Here he was the god of artisans. especially workers in metal, and was joined in worship with Athena Ergane. in a temple in the ceramiell. identified by some with the so-called Theseum. In the suburb of the Academy in the sacred precinct of Athena was a common shrine of Hephaestus and Prometheus (q.v.), a 'very similar personage.
The god seems to have developed from the con ception of divinity in fire conjoined with local demons or gnomes honored or feared by smiths and potters. In Rome we find among the early Roman gods Vole:Inns. with a festival on Au gust 23d, and a sacred place. the Voleanal, not far from the Comitium. He seems to have been a god of the destructive fire, who was appeased by the offering of living fishes, and in whose honor the captured weapons were burned. He certainly was especially invoked against danger front conflagration. and his worship became more prominent under Augustus, who had redistricted the city and provided special protection against fires. The poets of course identified hint with Hephaestus, and we find him paired with Vesta and otherwise honored by the Greek ritual as early as the third century B.G. This did not, however, penetrate deeply into the common cult, and he does not seem to have been held in special honor by Homan artificers.