Vulcan

“ Each had but a single eye, placed in the middle of the forehead, but they were using their great strength in the smithy of Vulcan to forge thunderbolts for Jupiter, to make a trident for Neptune and a quiver of arrows for Apollo. Beside Vulcan stood two wonderful hand-maidens of gold, who, like living creatures, moved about and helped the lame smith as he worked.
Vulcan, the despised of the gods, had chained fire and conquered the metals of the earth that he might make gifts for the gods and for the heroes. ”

“ Vulcan (Hephæstus) , son of Jupiter and Juno, was the god of fire, especially of terrestrial fire,—volcanic eruption, incendiary flame, the glow of the forge or the hearth. But as the fires of earth are derived from that of heaven, perhaps the name Hephæstus (burning, shining, flaming) referred originally to the marvelous brilliance of the lightning. Vulcan was the blacksmith of the gods, the finest artificer in metal among them. ”

“ When Jupiter, the king of the gods, fared no better than the rest, he declared that she should be punished for her pride and must marry Vulcan, the lame blacksmith god who lived in the volcano, Mount Etna. Vulcan was delighted with her grace and beauty, and made for her a magic girdle, and the wonderful arrows of Cupid.
Joy and mirth always attend the goddess of beauty. Cupid, her son, the roguish god of love, is her constant companion, and he sends his arrows wherever she directs. Venus drives in a chariot drawn by graceful swans. ”

“ Vulcan fell and fell, spinning through space, till he lost his senses, and then—
The anvil had fallen upon the island of Lemnos, and the islanders, rushing out of their houses to see what the crash and clatter could be about, were amazed to see what looked like a confused bundle of legs and arms tumbling and whirling through the air. As it came nearer, it seemed to be a human figure. So the people made a sort of network of their arms, to catch it and prevent its being dashed to pieces. ”

“ And for five years they wandered through the earth, until they reached the fearful realm where Vulcan forged his weapons in the fire.
The secret of all poisonous herbs they learned, the use of every charm that spoils men’s lives and drives them to despair; they learned to raise a magic stormy sea upon dry land, in which men might be drowned; and out of forest twigs and fluttering leaves they learned to form a host of fighting-men and armed them with the spiked thorn of the thistle leaves or with the blackthorn’s barb. ”

“ Vulcan.
“The Crippled Artist God.”
“He made the gods their golden shoes,
And shod their steeds with brass.” STORY.
THE GOD OF FIRE.
“Those who labor
The sweaty forge, who edge the crooked scythe,
Bend stubborn steel, and harden gleaming armor,
Acknowledge Vulcan’s aid.”
—Prior.
Vulcan, the son of Jupiter, was born lame. He was flung from Olympus by his mother, Juno, who hated him for his deformity, and he fell into the sea, where the mother of Achilles found him. He made for her son a shield, which was a wonderfully clever piece of handiwork. ”

“ It must have been rather painful being dragged up while the anvil dragged her down; but she found herself on firm sky at last, and sighed with relief when Vulcan, whipping out his knife, cut the cord at her feet, and let the anvil go thundering down upon the earth below.
You can fancy what a clatter it made. People started out of their sleep—not that that mattered. But it did matter that Jupiter started out of his. He sprang from his throne, and saw at once what had happened. The next moment, with a tremendous kick, he sent Vulcan flying after the anvil. ”

“ Vulcan, the smallest and innermost of the planets, circles the sun with great rapidity at a mean distance of twenty million miles. Its periods of rotation and revolution are equal, so that it always presents the same face toward the solar system's great center of heat and light—for which reason one side is terrifically hot and the other, that facing into outer space, unbearably cold.
There is no life native to the body, and mankind has found it possible to exist only in the narrow belt immediately on the dark side of the terminator, the line of demarcation between night and day. ”

“ We reade that Vulcan, that is, a combustible Sulphur, took Venus to Wife, by which is meant the incombustible Oil of Sulphur; now whilst Vulcan was busie at his work in the Caves of the Earth, for he was a Miner and a Black-smith, Venus betakes her self to Mars, who lies with her; now when Vulcan found his Wife in the embraces of another Man, he calls all the Gods to his help, who appearing, cast an Iron Net over Mars and Venus that they might not escape, but with great shame be exposed to the derision of the Gods. ”

“ Vulcan built the magnificent palaces of the gods on Mount Olympus, Juno’s golden throne, and the chariot of Apollo. The delicate girdle of Venus, the wife of Vulcan, was also made in his workshop. This was a magic girdle; for whoever wore it inspired love in all she met, and sometimes the goddesses would beg Venus to lend it to them.
The armor of Mars, god of war, and the shield of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, were the work of Vulcan. Sometimes he even manufactured armor for mortals, and Homer tells us of the marvelous shield he wrought for Achilles, the bravest of the Greeks. ”

“ Some of the gods were skilled in the art of healing; but no one could relieve Jupiter's suffering, nor tell what might be the cause of his pain. The trouble grew worse and worse until it was too severe for even a god to endure; so Jupiter bade his son Vulcan take an ax and split open his head. Not daring to thwart the divine will, Vulcan tremblingly obeyed; and at the first blow a marvelous thing occurred, for out of Jupiter's head sprang a maiden clad in armor and bearing a spear in her hand. ”

“ Willingly, at the request of the sea-goddess, Vulcan plies his immortal art. Helmet with crest of gold, breastplate “brighter than the flash of fire,” and the pliant greaves that mould themselves to the limb, are soon completed. ”

“ CHAPTER XXI
“Now, look you here, Sir,” the old philosopher began, taking me by a tassel on my satin doublet, and working himself up until his eyes shone with pleasure, as he unfolded his mad visions to me. “Look you here, Sir! this bare and dingy dungeon that you rightly frown at is a cell more pregnant with ingenuity than ever was the forge of the lame smith of Lemnos. Vulcan! Vulcan never had such teeming fancies as I have harbored in my head for twenty years. Vulcan never coaxed into being such a lovely monster as I have hidden yonder. ”

“ Of course we might expect Vulcan - 241 - to write a rather vigorous hand—Vulcan, forger of thunderbolts for Jove. The ancients thought volcanoes belonged to the kingdom of Vulcan, so in scientific language everything connected with volcanic action comes under the head of "Vulcanism." These queer letters we are talking about are called "dikes." They are made of lava that was driven into cracks in the rocks and afterward cooled into rock that is as hard as iron. Lava is often largely made of iron.
MR. VULCAN'S FAMOUS CASTLE ON THE HUDSON ”

“ Vulcan was architect, smith, armorer, chariot builder, and artist of all work in Olympus. He built of brass the houses of the gods; he made for them the golden shoes with which they trod the air or the water, and moved from place to place with the speed of the wind, or even of thought. He also shod with brass the celestial steeds, which whirled the chariots of the gods through the air, or along the surface of the sea. He was able to bestow on his workmanship self-motion, so that the tripods (chairs and tables) could move of themselves in and out of the celestial hall. ”

“ Vulcan was always trying his skill, and he made many wonderful and beautiful things. One day he invited the gods to see his latest creation. Here stood a beautiful figure, resembling Venus in beauty. The gods were delighted with his work, and decided each to bestow upon the woman some excellent gift.
Minerva gave skill in handicraft, Mercury gave wit in conversation, Venus the power to please, the Graces added charm to her beauty, and Jupiter at last gave life and immortality. ”

“ When the strongest buildings rock
To the awful earthquake’s shock
The trembling millions all confess my might!”
The lightning flashed, the thunder crashed, and over all the storm was heard a voice calling: “Vul-can! Vul-can!” [99]
Vulcan stopped work while his imps crept stealthily toward the door to listen.
“Is Vulcan at his forge?” was shouted in the wind and rain outside, with the accompaniment of a terrific knock on the door.
“Who dares disturb me on my busy night?” cried Vulcan, in a towering passion.
“It is I, Dragonfel, the enchanter,” said the voice placatingly. ”

“ Each day was spent in the sunshine and flowers, then, when evening came and my fair playmate was gone to bed, I descended into old Faulkener’s crypt, and, adding one more character to the many already played, turned Vulcan. Hard and long we worked. Had you looked upon us, you would have seen, by the sullen furnace glow, two men, bare-armed and leather-aproned, toiling in that black gallery until the sweat ran trickling from them; forging, riveting, and hammering bars of iron, plying the creaking bellows until the white heart of the fire-heap was whiter than a glowworm-lamp ”

“ The most powerful weapons that Vulcan made at his forges were the dread thunderbolts of Jove and the arrows of mischievous Cupid, the winged god of love.
Vulcan is represented as rather short and thickset, lame in one foot, with a cap on his curly head, and a hammer in his hand. His workmen are the Cyclops, powerful giants, who excel in all work in metals.
[Pg 113]
Gamba le Preydour (modern) .
Blossoms.
[Pg 114]
WORK.
Sweet wind, fair wind, where have you been? ”

“ Since Henrietta's oration, I am more than ever afraid of a Vulcan. It is very plain that our most fashionably cut suits and most delicately perfumed billets are not all powerful,—that the dear creatures are either waking or we have been asleep. ”

“ Mars made Venus many presents, and defiled King Vulcan's marriage bed, so the sun, who saw what they were about, told Vulcan. Vulcan was very angry when he heard such dreadful news, so he went to his smithy brooding mischief, got his great anvil into its place, and began to forge some chains which none could either unloose or break, so that they might stay there in that place. ”

“ When Vulcan had finished it, he forged a corselet brighter than fire, and greaves of tin, and a helmet with crest of gold. Then he laid the magnificent armor at the feet of Thetis, and the goddess bore it away and carried it down to the Grecian camp in the early morning to present it to her son.
Like a falcon in her flight,
Down plunging from Olympus capped with snow,
She bore the shining armor Vulcan gave.
Bryant, Iliad, Book XVIII.
Great was the delight of Achilles on seeing the beautiful armor and the marvelous workmanship of its various parts. ”

“ At the north, there were high mountains and ice and snow, which they thought prevented access to this ocean from civilized regions. Vulcan was the presiding deity who navigated those wastes of waters, and to him was intrusted the responsible duty of saving the sun from extinction. He had a great boat ready, so that when the sun was just dropping into49 the ocean at sunset he caught it, and during all the night he paddled with his glorious cargo round by the north. The glow of the sun during the voyage could even be sometimes traced in summer over the great highlands to the north. ”

“ Inside was a forge with bellows such as any country blacksmith has, and here Vulcan manufactured earthquakes and volcanos at will.
He could create seismic disturbances all over the world, in a trice throw Vesuvius into hysterical contraptions, or make [97] things suddenly red-hot in Mexico or the British Honduras. His wares were known in every quarter of the globe, and he didn’t even so much as advertise. ”

“ In the diagram (Fig. 40) we show the sun at the centre; the internal dotted circle denotes the orbit of the unknown planet, which has received the name of Vulcan before even its very existence has been at all satisfactorily established. The outer circle denotes the orbit of the earth. As Vulcan moves more rapidly than the earth, it will frequently happen that the planet will overtake the earth, so that the three bodies will have the positions represented in the diagram. It would not, however, necessarily follow that Vulcan was exactly between the earth and the luminary. ”

“ The anvil, hammer, and tongs, and Vulcan's cap wreathed with laurel, is not unfrequently met with on classical monuments, as the annexed illustration from Montfauçon will show (fig. 138) .
But the northern nations always associated something mysterious with the functions and character of their Vulcan, whether in the fabrication of arms or in shoeing their horses: reminding one of the secret arts of the Druids and their weird-like haunts. ”

“ So Vulcan and the rest lost their terrors; they even fell into oblivion like the beast-gods before, save as the chaff of concepts caught in the meshes of scripture. Most of the mythic monsters are gone utterly; yet Vulcan dies hard—and now and then the nature power for which he stands rises above all human might, and tempts men to return to that early stage of thought marked by the personification of powers. ”

“ Here they feasted on ambrosia and nectar, discoursed upon the affairs of heaven and earth, and were delighted at intervals by the music of Apollo’s lyre, and the songs of the Muses.
Vulcan was smith, architect and chariot builder to the gods. He built their dwellings on Olympus, and constructed the furniture in so wonderful a manner, that the tripods and tables were endowed with motion, and ranged themselves in order without the aid of hands. The robes of the different divinities were wrought by Minerva and the Graces. Everything of a solid nature was constructed of metal. ”