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 thunderbolts, and armour for the other gods. Notwithstanding the deformity of his person, he had a passion for Minerva, and by Jupiter's consent paid his addresses to her, but without success. He was however more fortunate in his suit to Venus; but after their marriage she chose Mars for her gallant, and Vulcan exposed them to the ridicule of the other gods, by taking them in a net.