VOLCANO. – Behind the figure fashioned on the conventional type of Hellenistic Hephaestus, traces of an archaic Roman deity can be discerned in the Roman VOLCANO.
SAINT VOLFGANG – St. V. builds the chapel by compelling the demon, according to legend, to assist him. Detail of a door of the altar of St. V., painted and sculpted by Michael Pacher, 1471–81) – St. Wolfgang.
Indeed, his cult in Rome is very ancient: his feast, the Volcanalia, appears in the most ancient calendar (23 Aug.); he had a special priest (flamen Volcanalis) from the time of the earliest Roman priestly organization; his uncovered sacred precinct, the Volcanal, was considered as founded by Romulus. His connections with fire seem very ancient; animals, particularly fish, were sacrificed to him, thrown alive into the fire. In myths of distinctly Italic character he appears as a divine ancestor present in the hearth (Servius Tullius) or at least in fire (Caeculus, founder of Palestrina); he also figures as the father of Cacus, known from Roman poetry as a fire-breathing monster, but more anciently corresponding to the male counterpart of the goddess Caca, whose connections with fire, in cult, are documented. In the collective lectisternium of 217 BC, VOLCANO forms a unity with Vesta. Other elements of his cult emphasize a connection with the sun: thus the place of worship chosen was one where objects struck by lightning were exposed to the sun’s rays. In the Volcanalia festival, which was so popular that it survived into full Christian times, there was the custom, as a Christian author, Paulinus of Nola, documents, of spreading out garments in honor of the Sun. Another sanctuary of VOLCANO, mentioned from 214 BC onwards, was located in the Circus Flaminius, outside the pomerium, just as the Volcanal itself was outside the Palatine pomerium. The cult of the goddess Maia (eponym of the month Maius, May?) is linked to VOLCANO, to whom the flamen Volcanalis offered a sacrifice on 19 May. The name of VOLCANO seems to be connected with a Cretan epithet of Zeus, Velchanos.