Hephaestus&Vulcan
Fire, Smithcraft, & Technology
Hephaestus
The Lame Smith of Olympus
Hammer, anvil, tongs, quail, the forge
A pre-Greek fire and volcano god of Lemnos, absorbed as the divine craftsman.
Bitter, ingenious and long-suffering — mocked for his lameness, feared for his work.
The Hephaestia, with torch-races and burnt offerings of oxen.
The dignity of craft, and its resentment at being mocked.
Vulcan
Vulcanus, the Fire of the Forge
Hammer, anvil, tongs, the Volcanal
An ancient Italic fire-god, worshipped at Rome's oldest altar in the Forum.
A dangerous but necessary elemental force, calmed by ritual rather than love.
The Volcanalia: live fish cast into fire in place of human lives.
Fire as a controlled civic hazard — an engineering problem with a god attached.
Syncretism Analysis
Hephaestus is a sympathetic, cuckolded artist; Vulcan is a raw elemental threat whose festival involved substituting fish for people. Rome took the volcano seriously and the marriage comedy not at all.