Vulcan (mythology): Difference between revisions
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The origin of the name is unclear and debated. Roman tradition maintained that it was related to Latin words connected to lightning (fulgur, fulgere), which in turn was thought of as related to fire.<ref> Varr. ''Ling. Lat.'' 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 splendoorem fulget, fulgur et fulmen, et fulguritum quod fulmine ictum."</ref>This interpretation is supported by William W. Skeat in his etimological dictionary.<ref>W. W. Skeat ''Etimological dictionary of the English language'' New York 1963 (first published 1882) s.v. ''volcano'': "Skr. varchar-s |
The origin of the name is unclear and debated. Roman tradition maintained that it was related to Latin words connected to lightning (fulgur, fulgere), which in turn was thought of as related to fire.<ref> Varr. ''Ling. Lat.'' 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 splendoorem fulget, fulgur et fulmen, et fulguritum quod fulmine ictum."</ref>This interpretation is supported by William W. Skeat in his etimological dictionary.<ref>W. W. Skeat ''Etimological dictionary of the English language'' New York 1963 (first published 1882) s.v. ''volcano'': "Skr. varchar-s |
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Revision as of 18:40, 21 January 2010
| Religion in ancient Rome |
|---|
 |
| Practices and beliefs |
| Priesthoods |
| Deities |
| Related topics |
| Vulcanalia | |
|---|---|
| Observed by | Ancient Romans |
| Type | Pagan, Historical |
| Celebrations | Bonfires in honour of Vulcan |
| Observances | Sacrifice of fish |
| Date | August 23 |
In ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism, Vulcan is the god of beneficial and hindering fire,[1] including the fire of volcanoes. He is also called Mulciber ("smelter") in Roman mythology and Sethlans in Etruscan mythology. He was worshipped at an annual festival on August 23 known as the Volcanalia.
Vulcan was identified with the Greek god of fire and smithery, Hephaestus.
Etymology
The origin of the name is unclear and debated. Roman tradition maintained that it was related to Latin words connected to lightning (fulgur, fulgere), which in turn was thought of as related to fire.[2]This interpretation is supported by William W. Skeat in his etimological dictionary.[3]
It has been supposed that his name was not Latin but related to that of the Cretean god Velchanos a god of the nether world.[4] Wolfgang Meid has refused this identification as phantastic.[5]
Christian Guyonvarc'h has proposed the identification with the Irish name Olcan(Ogamic Ulccagni, in the genitive). Vassilij Abaev compares it with the Ossetic -waergon, a variant of the name of Kurdalaegon, the smith of the Nartic epopea. Since the name in its normal form Kurdalaegon 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[6]
Theology
The nature of the god is certainly connected to the religious theologems concerning fire in Indoeuropean religion.
The Roman concept of the god seems to be connected to the destructive power of fire: he is worshipped to avert its potential danger to harvested wheat in the Vulcanalia and his cult is located outside the boundaries of the original city to avoid it causing fires in the city itself. This power is however considered useful if directed against enemies and such choice of location 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 survived general in a devotion ritual to the god. Another meaning of Vulcan is to related to male fertilising power. In various Latin and Roman legends he is the father of famous charachters, such as the founder of Praeneste Caeculus, of Cacus, a primordial monstrous being that inhabited the site of the Aventine in Rome, of Roman king Servius Tullius and even of the founders of Rome Romulus and Remus themselves in one of the traditons. He is also considered and to possibly be the unknown god who impregnated goddesses Fortuna Primigenia of Praeneste and Feronia at Anxur. In this case he would be the father of Jupiter.[7] In all the above mentioned stories the fertilising power of the god is related to that of the fire of the hearth. Eg in the case of Caeculus his mother was impregnated by a spark that dropped on her from the hearth while she was sitting nearby[8]. Servius Tullius's mother Ocresia was impregnated by a male sex organ miracolously appeared in the ashes of the sacrificial ara Tarquinius Priscus[9]Pliny the elder recounts the same story, but he states that the father was the Lar familiaris.[10] Through the comparative analysis of these myths archeologist Andrea Carandini opinates that Cacus and Caca were the sons of of Vulcan and of a local divine being or a virgin as in the case of Caeculus. Caus and Caca shlud represnet the metallurgic and the domestic fire, projections of Vulcan and of Vesta.
These legends date back to the preurban time of Latium. Thier meaning is quite clear: at the divine level Vulcan impregnates a virgin goddess and generates Jupiter, the king of gods; at the human level he impregnates a local virgin (perhaps of royal descent) and generates a king[11]
The first mention of a ritual connexion between Vulcan and Vesta is the lectisternium of 217 BC. Other facts hinting to this connexion seem to be the relative proximity of the two sanctuaries and Dioysius of Halicarnassus's testimony that both cults had been introduced to Rome by Titus Tatius in accord with a vow he had made in battle.[12] Varron confirms the fact[13]
Vulcan is related to two equally ancient female goddesses Stata mater[14], perhaps the goddess who stops fires and Maia.[15]Herbert J. Rose interprets Maia as a goddess related to growth by connecting her name with IE root MAG.[16]
Macrobius relates Cincius's opinion that Vulcan's female companion is Maia. Cincius justifies his view on the grounds that the Flamen Vulcanalis sacrificed to her at the Kalendae of May. In Piso's view the companion of the god is Maiestas.[17]
According to Gellius too Maia was associated to Vulcan and he backs his view by quoting the ritual prayers in use.[18]
However Maiestas and Maia are possibly the same divine person: see Ovid's explantions of the meaning of the name of the month.[19]
The god is the patron of tyrades related to ovens (cooks, bakers, confectioners) as it is attested in the works of Plautus,[20] Apuleius (the god is the cook at the wedding of Amor and Psyche[21] and in Vespa 's the short poem in the Anthologia Latina about the litigation between a cook and a baker[22]
Worship
Vulcan's oldest shrine in Rome, called the "Volcanal", 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,[23][24] and to have been established on the site by Titus Tatius,[25] the Sabine co-king, with a traditional date in the eighth century BC. It was the view of the Etruscan haruspices that a temple of Vulcan should be located outside the city,[26] and the Volcanal may originally have been on or outside the city limits before they expanded to include the Capitoline Hill.[1] The Volcanalia sacrifice was offered here to Vulcan, on August 23.[23] Vulcan also had a temple on the Campus Martius, which was in existence by 214 BC.[1][27]
The Romans identified Vulcan with the Greek smith-god Hephaestus, 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.[24] 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. His festival, the Vulcanalia, was celebrated on August 23 each year, when the summer heat placed crops and granaries most at risk of burning.[1][28] 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.[29] Vulcan was among the gods placated after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64.[30] 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.[31]
It is recorded that during the Vulcanalia people used to hang their cloths and fabrics under the sun.[32] This habit might reflect a theologic connexion between Vulcan and the divinized sun[33]
In addition to the Volcanalia on August 23, the date May 23, which was the second of the two annual Tubilustria or ceremonies for the purification of trumpets, was sacred to Vulcan.[28][34]
Mythology
Through his identification with the Hephaestus of Greek mythology, he came to be considered as the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, jewellery and armor for various gods and heroes, including the thunderbolts of Jupiter. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and husband of Maia and 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. From the surface, Vulcan sunk 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 and took it back to his underwater grotto and made a fire with it. On the first day after, 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, he made a silver chariot for himself, and 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, which Vulcan had made for her. Juno admired the necklace and asked as to 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 couldn't sleep, she couldn't stretch, she couldn't 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 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.[35]
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.
Vulcan outside Rome
At Ostia the cult of the god, as weel 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 withold the erection of new statues to eastern divinities. He was chose 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 chosen among people who ha d already held public offices in Ostia or in the imperial administration. The pontifex was the sole authority who had a number of subordinate official to help discharge his duties, namely three praetores and two or three aediles. These offices were religious only and not the omonymous civil ones.[36]
On the grounds of a fragmentary inscrption found at Annaba (ancient Hippo Regius) it is deemed possible that writer Suetonius had held this office.[37]
From Strabon[38] we know that at Pozzuoli there was an area called in Greek agora' of Hephaistos (Lat. Forum Vulcani) It was a plain where many solphurous vapour outlets are located (cur Solfatara).
Legacy
A Vulcan Statue located in Birmingham, Alabama is the largest cast iron statue in the world.[39]
See also
Vulcan of the alchemists
Note
This article uses in part material from the corresponding article of the Italian Wikipedia.
References
- ^ a b c d Georges Dumézil (1996) [1966]. Archaic Roman Religion: Volume One. trans. Philip Krapp. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. pp. 320–321. ISBN 0-8018-5482-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-8018-5480-6 (pbk.).
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ Varr. Ling. Lat. 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 splendoorem fulget, fulgur et fulmen, et fulguritum quod fulmine ictum."
- ^ W. W. Skeat Etimological dictionary of the English language New York 1963 (first published 1882) s.v. volcano: "Skr. varchar-s lustre"
- ^ A. B. Cook Zeus: a study in Ancient religion 1925 Vol. II, pp. 945 ff.
- ^ W. Meid "Etr. Velkhans- Lat. Volcaanus" Indogermanische Forschugungen, 66 (1961)
- ^ G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part I, chap.
- ^ J. Champeux Fortuna, I, Fortuna dans la religion romaine archaique Rome, 1982; A. Mastrocinque Romolo. La fondazione di Roma tra storia e leggenda Este, 1993
- ^ verg. Aen. VII, 680
- ^ Ovid Fas. VI, 627-636
- ^ Pl.the Elder Nat. Hist. XXXVI, 204
- ^ A. Carandini La nascita di RomaTurin, 1997,p. 52
- ^ Dion. Ant. Rom. II, 50, 3
- ^ Varr. Ling. Lat. V, X
- ^ CIL VI, 00802, found in Rome
- ^ A. Gell. Noct. Att. XII, 23, 2: "Maiam Volcani"
- ^ H. J. Rose A dictionary of classical antiquities It. transl., Turin, 1995
- ^ Macr. sat. I, XII, 18
- ^ A. Gell. Noct. Att. XIII, 23, 2
- ^ Ovid Fas. V, 1 ff.
- ^ Plaut. Aulularia 359,
- ^ Apul. Metamorph.VI, 24,2
- ^ Iudicium coci et pistoris iudice Vulcano
- ^ a b Samuel Ball Platner (1929). "Volcanal". A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press. pp. pp. 583–584. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
{{cite encyclopedia}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b Beard, Mary (1998). Religions of Rome Volume 2: A Sourcebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. no. 1.7c. ISBN 0-521-45015-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-521-45646-0 (pbk.).
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II.50.3; Varro V.74.
- ^ Vitruvius 1.7; see also Plutarch, Roman Questions 47.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe condita 24.10.9.
- ^ a b W. Warde Fowler (1899). The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: An Introduction to the Study of the Religion of the Romans. London: Macmillan and Co. pp. pp. 123–124, 209–211. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ Sextus Pompeius Festus, On the Meaning of Words, s.v. "piscatorii ludi"; Varro, On the Latin Language 6.3.
- ^ Tacitus, Annals 15.44.1.
- ^ Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 4914, translated by Robert K. Sherk (1988). The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian. Translated Documents of Greece and Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. no. 99. ISBN 0-521-33887-5.
- ^ Paulin of NolaLetters XXXII, 139
- ^ G. Dumezil Fetes romaines d'ete' et d'automne It. transl. p. 70
- ^ Ovid, Fasti 5.725–726.
- ^ Virgil, Aeneid 7.678–681; Servius on Aeneid 7.678.
- ^ C. pavolini La vita quotidiana a Ostia Roma-bari ,1986
- ^ AE 1953, 00073</ref; G. Gaggero Introduction to Suetonius's Life of the twelf Caesars Milan 1994
- ^ Strabone Geografia. L'Italia V,4,6, Milan 1988
- ^ "History of Vulcan Park". Vulcan Park. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
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