Our story begins in Ancient Rome. Juno, the Queen of the Gods and protectress of hearth and home, had just welcomed another son into the world.
His name was Vulcan.
Juno’s other children (Mars, Bellona, and Juventas, to name a few) were beautiful, so she and her husband, Jupiter, had no reason to think this one would be any different.
But when they laid eyes on their newborn son for the very first time, they were appalled.
An ugly God! A divine child, one that was more unsightly, more unappealing than the average mortal? How could that be?
Not wanting Vulcan’s hideousness to rub off on her, Juno did something drastic:
She tossed him out the window.
The child fell for days. Or at least it felt that way. He spun, twirled, tumbled, and eventually landed in the ocean. The child howled in pain, partially from his mother’s rejection, but also because the fall had broken one of his legs.
Alas, not even the newborn’s cries were enough to convince Juno to rescue her son, and instead, it was a group of Sea Nymphs that saved the boy. They took him to see Thetis, Goddess of the Sea, who quickly fell in love with the boy’s strangeness (because the sea is full of strange, beautiful things). Without a second thought, she adopted Vulcan as one of her own.
And despite Vulcan’s deformities (both from birth and the ones he sustained from his fall), he lived well. Rather than residing atop the mountains with the rest of the Gods, he set up shop in a cave beneath his beloved Mt. Etna. His lessons didn’t come from instructors or tutors but from the earth, specifically, the volcanoes for which he was named.
Beneath Mt. Etna, Vulcan dug for precious metals and tested their strength against his own. He learned that steel softened when plunged into molten lava and stiffened when quenched in seawater. When he uncovered a lump of coal, he built a forge and learned to make magick with fire. By the time Vulcan traded boyhood for manhood, he was known as the greatest blacksmith around.
As Vulcan’s success grew among mortals and Gods, he never forgot the woman who saved him. To thank her, he crafted Thetis a special necklace made from the most precious metals and pearls from the sea.
His adopted mother loved the necklace so much that she couldn’t wait to wear it to the upcoming party on Mt. Olympus. When she arrived, it didn’t take long before the other Gods started inquiring where the Sea Nymph had found such a unique treasure.
Was it a family heirloom? Did she find it within a chest of sunken treasure?
Thetis beamed with pride, explaining that it was made by hand.
But who could make something so special, so unique, so strange?
Only one man. Her son, Vulcan.
Upon hearing this name, Juno (who was also at the party) materialized by the woman’s side. She did everything imaginable to convince Thetis to hand over the necklace, for she was Vulcan’s true mother.
Thetis refused, of course, but to keep the Queen of Gods happy (which, as we know, is not an easy task), Vulcan agreed to make something special for Juno. He spent hours, days, then weeks handcrafting the perfect gift—an elaborate throne fit for royalty. Like the necklace, the chair shimmered thanks to the finest metals and pearls from the sea. And when he presented it to Juno, she was thrilled. She marveled at the throne’s craftsmanship, secretly wondering how someone as plain as Vulcan could create such masterpieces.
Vulcan stood in front of the queen as she gushed over his latest creation. Although the blacksmith was relieved to finally receive the approval he’d been searching for his entire life, he never forgot that this was the same woman who had rejected him at first sight.
So when Juno went to stand from her chair, it was Vulcan’s turn to laugh. No matter how much the queen struggled, an invisible steel web kept her bound to the chair. You see, thanks to his years spent underground playing with fire and steel, Vulcan had acquired a unique skill—he could hammer metal so fine, so slight, that it was thinner than the most delicate of threads (and therefore, invisible to the untrained eye). The more Juno struggled, the more she became ensnared within the net.
With his revenge complete, Vulcan returned to his cave beneath Mt. Etna. The blacksmith went on about his business while Juno was left to think about what she’d done to deserve such a gift.
Three days later, Jupiter appeared in front of his son’s forge.
Vulcan anticipated a fight, but the King of Gods said he arrived in peace. He was hoping to strike an agreement and wanted two things:
His first request was to release Juno from the throne. In exchange, Jupiter would arrange a meeting between the blacksmith and Venus. If love was in the cards, Jupiter explained that he would give his blessing and arrange a grand wedding for the pair. Vulcan agreed to the terms (because who could turn down a date with Venus?) and asked about the second request.
Jupiter cleared his throat. For what might have been the first time in his life, the king looked bashful, dare we say…embarrassed?
The king said that he too would like something made from Vulcan’s hands, which is how Jupiter acquired his most famous weapon—the lightning bolt.
As the story goes, Vulcan released Juno and began forging a relationship with his estranged father. The gods made a spot for him atop Mt. Olympus and he married Venus, an arrangement full of fire and jealousy, and of course, some drama.
But that’s a story for another day.
