Volcanus

Roman destructive-fire god; the Volcanalia of August 23 was apotropaic — Romans threw small fish into the Vulcanal bonfire as substitute-life to ward off summer fires from granaries and farmsteads. The Vulcanal in the Comitium predates the Forum proper. Italic identity is independent of and predates the craftsman-god Hephaestus equation, which added metalworking iconography and mythology in the middle Republic. Per Wissowa 1912; Dumézil 1970; Coarelli, Il Foro Romano (1983-85).

Children

• Caeculus

Domains

• destructive fire
• metalworking post equation

Powers

• Forges divine armour and weapons at his furnace
• Forges Jupiter's thunderbolts

Epithets

• Mulciber
• Quietus

Relations

• interpretatio: Hephaestus

Sources

• Liv. 1.5, 24.10; Varro LL 6.20; Cic. Nat. D. 2.65, 3.55; Verg. Aen. 8.370-453; Macr. Sat. 1.12.18
• Wissowa 1912; Dumézil 1970