Vulcan (mythology)

he origin of the name is unclear. Roman tradition maintained that it was related to Latin words connected to lightning (fulgur, fulgere, fulmen), which in turn was thought of as related to flames.[7] This interpretation is supported by Walter William Skeat in his etymological dictionary as meaning lustre.

It has been supposed that his name was not Latin but related to that of the Cretan god Velchanos, a god of nature and the nether world. Wolfgang Meid has disputed this identification as phantastic.[10] Meid and Vasily Abaev have proposed on their side a matching theonym in the Ossetic legendary smith of the Nart saga Kurd-Alä-Wärgon (“the Alan smith Wärgon”), and postulated an original PIE smith god named *wl̩kānos. But since the name in its normal form is stable and has a clear meaning—kurd (“smith”) + on (“of the family”) + Alaeg (the name of one of the Nartic families)—this hypothesis has been considered unacceptable by Dumezil.

Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc’h has proposed the identification with the Irish name Olcan (Ogamic Ulccagni, in the genitive).[citation needed] Gérard Capdeville finds a continuity between Cretan Minoan god Velchanos and Etruscan Velchans. The Minoan god’s identity would be that of a young deity, master of fire and companion of the Great Goddess.

According to Martin L. West, Volcanus may represent a god of the fire named *Volca and attached to the suffix -no-, the typical appendage indicating the god’s domain in Indo-European languages. *Volca could therefore be a cognate of the Sanskrit words ulkā (“darting flame”) and/or várcas- (“brilliance, glare”