For the ancient Greeks, Hephaestus was the god of volcanoes. Hephaestus was a builder and architect, goldsmith and gunsmith, blacksmith and inventor of mechanical objects. He forged the weapons of Heracles and Achilles, two great heroes. His workshop, instead of together with the other Gods of Olympus, was located inside the volcanoes, where he would always be creating new rock.
His cult has its origins on a Greek island called Lemnos, whose ancient inhabitants believed that the volcanic fires visible from the mountain Moschilo came from the god’s underground forge. Hephaestus is the god who presides over the forces of nature that in the Aeolian Islands are manifested, in particular, in the island of Hiera, present-day Vulcano, dominated by the crater that was active at the time and made it uninhabitable, and Stromboli.
