VULCAN, in Pagan worship, the god of subterraneous fire and metals, was the son of Jupiter and Juno; and was said to be so remarkably deformed, that his father threw him down from heaven to the isle of Lemnos, in which fall he broke his leg, and there he set up his forge, and taught men how to soften and polish brass and iron. Thence he removed to the Liparian isles, near Sicily, where, by the assistance of the Cyclops, he made Jupiter's thunder-bolts, and armour for the other gods. Notwithstanding the deformity of his person, he had a passion for Minerva, and by Jupiter's consent made his addresses to her, but without success. He was, however, more fortunate in his suit to Venus; who, after her marriage, chose Mars for her gallant; when Vulcan exposed them to the ridicule of the other gods, by taking them in a net.
He had several names: that of Lernius, from the isle of Lemnos; Mulciber, or Mulcifer, from his art of softening steel and iron; and (among the Greeks) Herphaistor, from his delighting in flames. In the ancient medals of the Greeks and Romans, he is represented as a lame, deformed, and squalid man, working at the anvil, and attended by the Cyclops, or by some other god or goddess who comes to his assistance. But the Egyptians represented him as proceeding out of an egg placed in the mouth of Jupiter, to express the radical and natural heat diffused through all created beings.
It was customary with many nations after a victory, to gather the enemies arms in a heap, and offer them to Vulcan. His principal temple was in a consecrated grove, at the foot of mount Aetna, guarded by dogs, who are said to have had such sagacity as to distinguish his votaries, to fawn upon the virtuous, and to tear the vicious to pieces.