| Free Indeed - Part 4 : Vulcan In Antiquity There is more to come in this report about Minerva and her images in America, but the next several parts will focus on her half brother Vulcan. Known in Greek as Hephaestus, Vulcan is the Roman false god of blacksmithing. Stories of his origin vary, but according to one prevalent version he was born of Juno (Hera) by parthenogenesis, with no participation by Jupiter (Zeus). In this way his birth parallels Minerva's, as she is said to have been born with no mother despite the technical existence of Metis. These two births pervert the necessity of the participation of both male and female for reproduction, and they specifically indicate Satan's jealousy of the incarnation of Jesus. Vulcan's conception without the participation of Jupiter also mirrors the lie of Horus' birth, in which Isis impregnated herself with a false phallus, in turn a mirror of the birth of Tammuz whose mother, Semiramis, became magically pregnant after Nimrod's death. Juno conceived Vulcan out of anger and rebellion at Jupiter for reproducing with someone else. Thus a false god is born out of rebellion against authority, rebellion against the father. Vulcan was very ugly in appearance, however, and according to one story his mother was so disgusted by his ugliness that she threw him from Olympus. According to another version, Vulcan took Juno's side in an argument with Jupiter and it was Jupiter who threw him down. In this version, Vulcan's fall mirrors that of Satan's, exiled from heaven as a result of his own rebellion. After being rescued from the sea and raised in secret caves by the Nereids, Vulcan was eventually restored to Olympus. He became the false god of all crafts, including forging, mining, engineering, and architecture. In this important way the area of his domain overlaps with Minerva's, false goddess of science and crafts. In general the two of them reign over the various domains of technology and civilization as it involves human kind using technology to overcome the constraints of nature. Vulcan also had a role in Minerva's birth, serving as a kind of midwife as he wielded the ax that split Jupiter's head open and allowed her to emerge fully formed. Vulcan was known to make beautiful things, such as the thrones of the other false gods, and also useful things, like locks that will never break, or, especially, the weapons that the false gods use when they go to war. Jupiter was displeased with Venus because she would not accept any suitor to be her husband. As a kind of punishment he gave her to Vulcan, thinking that it would temper her pride to be married to such an ugly creature. Although Vulcan was kind and good to Venus, she was repulsed by him and humiliated him by being repeatedly unfaithful to him. Vulcan crafted a net out of invisible silver and used it to lay a trap for her. In it he caught her being unfaithful with Mars, false god of war. As Venus is often strongly identified with Satan, it is especially interesting that the fallen one, Vulcan, would be married to her. In his masquerade as the Queen of Heaven and the Sun god, Satan is often seen to represent himself as both male and female. One of the central lies in many false religions is the union of both male and female in the deity, often with accompanying imagery of a divine (blasphemous) sex act. This lie represents Satan as containing both elements of the mystery that we are called to participate in as the Bride of Christ. Although it is a mystery and we cannot comprehend it, we know that WE, redeemed humankind, in our role as the Bride, are the female element of the divine marriage. Although married to Venus, Vulcan was attracted to Minerva. Minerva, especially in her Greek version Athena Parthenos, is known as a perpetual virgin. Vulcan attempted to rape her, but she held him off and his seed fell onto the earth. From the combination of Vulcan's seed and the earth itself the child Erichthonius was born. Variously described as having a human form with some serpentine characteristics or as being totally in the form of a serpent, the earth goddess Gaia gave him to Minerva and she raised him. This is a striking perversion of the real story of the creation of man, by the Creator God who used the dust of the earth to form Adam. In this perversion, it is an attempted rape of a false goddess by a false god which results not in the formation of a human, but of a serpent. This is yet another example of Satan's jealousy of the story of the Redeemed. One can only imagine him wishing that he had the power to create life from the dust of the earth. This snake child Erichthonius is the serpentine companion of Minerva, counterfeit of the Virgin Birth and of Mary's relationship with Jesus. Jesus is replaced by the serpent. In this way it is also a counterfeit of the incarnation, in which instead of the Holy Spirit conceiving Jesus in Mary's body, the spilled sperm of a demon attempting to rape another demon spills on the earth itself and conceives a hybrid serpent/man. Some stories state that the snakes on Minerva's shield represent Ericthonius, but in others the snakes there come from the Medusa's head. Minerva is often depicted with a large snake by her side or wrapped around something near her. Several of these images appear in the links in Part 3 of this report. Ericthonius is also the legendary first king of the City of Athens, sometimes called by an alternate name, Cecrops, or sometimes said to be the son in law of Cecrops. In the mapping of Western Civilization, the origins of Athens, birthplace of philosophy, of the ideals of Western education, and of democracy itself, must be examined closely. That its first king would be represented by a serpent god would seem to warrant serious consideration. In Rome, Vulcan was worshipped at the vulcanalia at the base of the Capitoline hill. In some periods human sacrifices were made to him; in later periods the sacrifices were usually animals, especially live fish. Vulcan lived in his workshop under ground, in the bowels of Olympus. He is thus identified with volcanos, and the science of studying them is known as vulcanology. As the fire god, he is also identified with Mollech and Chemosh, to whom children were sacrificed, or made to "pass through the fire." In Washington, D.C., Vulcan is represented in the Capitol Dome in Brumidi's fresco "The Apotheosis of George Washington." In the grouping representing "Mechanics," he is shown with his foot on a cannon, alongside the person in charge of the ironworks for the Capitol Dome. http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/rotunda/apotheosis/apoth_mech.htm ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Free Indeed - Part 5 : Vulcan in Birmingham, Alabama Free Indeed - Home |