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Vulcan
The Greek god Hephaestus, also known as Vulcan by the Romans, was the god of fire and craftsmen. He was known as the god of fire and given his name Vulcan because it stands for volcanic fire. The name Hephaestus traveled from Asia Minor, where the Greeks lived, and the name became the god’s name. Hephaestus’s parents were Zeus and Hera. According to Homer’s Iliad, it is said that when they were quarreling once, and Hephaestus sided with his mother, Zeus flung Hephaestus from Mount Olympus onto the island Lemnos. That made him lame so he is also known as the lame god. Homer gave another account of his lameness. Hera flung Hephaestus from Mt. Olympus because he was born lame and ugly. To take his revenge on Hera, he made a golden throne and when Hera sat in it she was bound to it. The golden throne was not the only thing he made. Vulcan was known as the craftsman god. By mixing fire and metal working, he was involved in metallurgy. He made a shield and armor for Achilles, a shield for Hercules and an invisible net that captured his wife Aphrodite and her lover Ares. When Aphrodite, the goddess of love, started loving Hephaestus again, he built mechanical marvels and beautiful works of art to represent his love of Aphrodite. In art, Hephaestus appears as a bearded man with a sleeveless tunic and having powerful arms and leg muscles having one shortened leg because of his lameness. Hephaestus’s festival, known as Vulvanilia, was celebrated on August 23 to protect people from destructive fire. My myth on Hephaestus is how Hephaestus made Pandora for Zeus and he didn’t know what is was for. Anyway, here it is: When Prometheus (a Spartan) crossed Zeus for the second time, Zeus decided to punish all mankind. So he went to Hephaestus and asked him to make the most beautiful woman he could. This woman must be as beautiful as a goddess and the most beautiful woman on earth. Hephaestus did as he was told and since he was the blacksmith and craftsman god he made a very beautiful woman. The most beautiful there was. This woman was Pandora, who would open a box which would release all the bad things in the world.
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