Vulcan's Fire

Everybody loves Vulcan, the Roman god of blacksmiths and fire. A catalogue from The Spice House found its way to my mailbox.  Flipping through the artistic pages, I almost dropped the booklet outside the post office, for there under the category of Best-Selling Blends was Vulcan’s Fire Salt:

This fiery salt is named for Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. Vulcan’s Fire Salt owes its

spicy, deep flavor to a secret ingredient discovered by The Spice House’s founder

many decades ago.

Hmmm…did the founder visit one of Vulcan’s workshops in Sicily? Is Vulcan really the god of alchemy? Or is this fanciful description another example of the enduring legacy of the ancient Romans?

In this blog readers have encountered many products—wrenches, garden tools, motorcycles, cars—named for the multi-talented creative god, but this may be the first edible. If you want to breathe a little fire as you dine, Vulcan’s Fire Salt may be the spice for you.

 

On Track with Vulcan

We still love this Roman god of fire, Vulcan. He continues to surface in technological arenas of all kinds, and I will continue to write about him. Today's entry is a ridiculously limited edition Aston Martin track-only automobile; only twenty-four will be made. As I look at the lines, the facets, the details, I cannot envision the god Vulcan behind the wheel, but I do believe he would be proud of the lines/engineering.

He Gets Around

When my husband stopped the car in the parking lot of Mahone Marine in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia recently, I stayed in the car and looked around. Parked next to our car was a small motorcycle, and I was amused to note that it was a Kawasaki Vulcan model. Vulcan was the Roman god of blacksmiths, the handyman, the craftsman of deities, known to the Greeks as Hephaestus or Hephaistos. I remembered also that a few days earlier, as I waited for my husband outside the Lunenburg Hardware store, I saw another incarnation of Vulcan in the form of a plastic lawn spreader.

And why not? Both the motorcycle and the fertilizer spreader are creations of mechanical inspiration. I'm sure the god would be delighted to see that his name lives on.