PREHISTORIC
PART
4 –
Ch.XXVII
Prehistoric
monuments of metallurgic art in
Ephaistos.
Volcanus – his country and his famous masterpieces
in
Romanian traditions
According to Homeric
traditions, the history of ancient metallurgical art was contained into the
most genial technician of heroic times, called by Greeks Hephaistos, by the Egyptians Opas
(Cicero, Nat. Deor. Lib. III. c. 22)
and by the Romans Volcanus and Vulcanus.
The country of
Vulcan had been in the blessed region from north of the Thracian peninsula,
where all the gods had been born, near Oceanos potamos, also called the father
of gods (Homer, Iliad, XIV. v. 201).
Vulcan, as Homer
tells us, thrown from
Vulcan’s smithy. Bas-relief from the
Vulcan hammers a piece of metal.
Near him two Cyclops (Bronte and
Sterope)
help him, while a third (Arges) uses
the bellows.
(After Muller, Manuel d’archeologie, Pl. 32,
fig. CV)
On the sculpture
monuments of the Roman epoch, Vulcan is shown wearing a Dacian cap on his head. The aspect of his workshop is generally as
that from north of the
In regard to the
country of Vulcan, we also find an important note with Pindar and with the author of the epic poem Danais. According to
what they say, Vulcan had emerged into the light from tera, ex geas (Harpocr.,
Homeri Carmina, Ed. Didot, p. 586). Here we have again the geographic folk name
of the region from between the southern Carpathians and the Istru: Tera (TN – read tsera, today tsara).
The classical
region of metal extraction at all times was that from the
A son of Vulcan was
known in ancient Greek traditions under the name of Ardalos /Ardalus (Pausanias, lib. II. 31. 3).
We have here an
ethnic name, which as we shall see later, corresponds to the eponym Ardelean, or from Ardel [1].
[1.The popular name of Ardel, hold by Transilvania, or the
central region of ancient
The eponyms were
very much used during ancient Greek times. This is how we have Aegyptos,
Thessallos, Istros, etc.
It was also told
about the son of Vulcan, called Ardalus, that he had been the one to invent the
flute (aulon). The flute appears as the most ancient and most pleasant
musical instrument of the Pelasgians. With the Latin and Roman peoples the
flute was present at all the religious and political ceremonies, at sacrifices,
at processions, at public games, feasts, wars, triumphs, weddings and burials (
The ridges and the
valleys of the Carpathians echo today, as they did in Pelasgian times, with the
sweet tunes of the pastoral flutes. The flute gives even today solemnity to the
feasts and to the popular celebrations in the mountainous parts of the
countries inhabited by Romanians. With the flute are accompanied the songs
about the strongmen Novac, Gruia and Iorgovan, which give the popular feasts a
traditional festive character. Finally, with the flute are accompanied the
lamentations of the women, for those who pass to another world [2].
[2. The traditional love of the
Romanian shepherds for the flute is expressed beautifully in the following folk
verses:
And
place at my head / little flute of oak / how lovely it plays!
Little
flute of bone / how sweetly it plays!
Little
flute of elder / how fiery it plays!
When the wind will blow
/ it will blow through them,
The sheep will gather / and will cry
for me / with tears of blood.
(Alecsandri,
Poesii pop. p. 2)
According to Romanian legends, the shepherd’s flute is “blessed”. It
is made by God (Dumnezeu), when he
shepherded the sheep on earth (Sezatoarea, Falticeni, An. I. 156). Here must be
understood Apollo, or the Sun. The figure of the Sun is even today represented as ornamentation on
the flutes of Romanian shepherds, under the form of circular discs].
Among the most
renowned masterpieces of Vulcan, the ancients mentioned a gold vine, laden with leaves and grapes, which he had fabricated
for his father Jove, and which this had given later to Laomedon, the king of
Vulcan, according
to Homer’s Iliad, had also made with particular craftsmanship, gilded chairs
for the gods of
[3. According to Diodorus Siculus (V. 74) Vulcan had not only discovered how to
work the iron, copper, gold and silver, but he had been the author of all the
technical industrial operations for which fire plays a principal role].
There existed
though another important religious legend about some sacred objects of the
Scythians, a tradition which is very tightly connected with the miraculous
works attributed by antiquity to Vulcan.
In the primitive
times, this legend tells us, when over the Scythians ruled the kings Lipoxais,
Arpoxais and Colaxais, fell from the sky on the land of Scythia the following gold objects: a plough, a yoke, a two
edged axe and a cup (Herodotus, lib. IV.
c. 5. 7). These precious objects represented the sacred gold of the Scythians,
which, as Herodotus writes, was preserved by the kings themselves with the
greatest care. Each year were enacted public assemblies and great sacrifices at
the place where these sacred gifts were deposited. These sacred objects, fallen
from the sky, appear therefore as ancient national emblems of the Scythians.
They had not only a religious importance, but at the same time political and
economic. The sacred plough symbolized certainly the beneficial introduction of
agriculture; the yoke, the domestication of the animals useful to the
cultivation of the land; the battle axe, defending against enemies, and the
cup, sacrifices and libations to the gods.
In regard to the
miraculous gold plough of the Scythians we have also to mention here another
ancient tradition, which we find with Apollonius
Rhodius.
Vulcan, as this
erudite Alexandrine poet tells us, had made for the king Aietes, the king of
Scythia and of the western parts of the Pontus, a plough of steel and two bulls
with the legs of copper. With this plough, king Aietes made a few furrows, one
fathom high, on the fallow field near his residence (lib. III. v. 230-233; Pindar, Pyth. IV). It is the same
tradition narrated by Herodotus, but under a different form. Vulcan is the
technical author of the sacred plough of the Scythians. To Vulcan were
attributed by ancient traditions, as Suidas tells us, the manufacturing of the
first agricultural tools, georgicha ergaleia.
Various
reminiscences of the gold vine and plough, still exist today with the Romanian
people [4].
[4. We find various notes about the
gold vine, with the authors from across the Carpathians. It was found in the
vineyards cultivated in the gold producing regions of Transilvania and
It is particularly
told though, on the subject of the gold plough, that the mythical hero Novac
Troian had drawn a huge furrow along the countryside, from west to east, with a
gold plough which he had pushed with his own hands, without the help of oxen.
Another tradition
tells us that a prince from Transilvania had started to plough with a golden
plough, but the enemies coming and having to abandon work, he buried the gold
plough and ran away (Muller,
Siebenburgische Sagen, p.75).
According to what
the folks say, a gold plough and various objects shaped as agricultural tools
might have been discovered in the village Romos from Transilvania (Ackner, Die romischen Alterthumer in
Siebenburgen, p. 13); in the village Cufoia and in Sardul-unguresc, two
miniature gold ploughs have been discovered, and in the village Gostoveti from
Romanati district a gold plough and various antique objects (Frunzescu, Dict. topogr. al Romaniei,
p. 221).
Drawing now a
general conclusion about these various folk traditions, we can consider as a
historical fact that the Scythians from the agricultural regions really
possessed a gold plough as sacred object of veneration, as a national emblem of
their political and economic existence.
Nevertheless, the
great number of traditions about the gold plough, found in the countries
inhabited by Romanians, on the one hand, and on the other the importance
attributed to this symbol of agriculture in the memories of our people, lead us
to suppose that the tradition of Herodotus referred to the countries of
In truth, the
Scythians of Olbia told Herodotus that the country where these sacred objects
were deposited was situated on the northern parts. But, according to the
ancient ideas and geographical knowledge, the region of
Even more, in folk
Romanian poetry from
But we find the
most important tradition about the famous masterpieces of Vulcan in a Romanian
carol from the western mountains of Transilvania. The workers of the gold mines
from these parts, once so blessed, of Transilvania, still celebrate even today
in their carols the master smith of antiquity, to whom they attribute the
finding of the gold vine, the manufacture of the gold plough, of the gold flute
and of the chairs for the selected group of the saints.
The text of this
memorable carol is in its essential part the following:
Happy this good God,
For the three sons he had ….
One goes with the plough,
One grazes the sheep,
One digs the
vineyards.
Digging and burying
He found the gold
vine
And learnt to be good
craftsman
And to work the gold.
And look, he also made
To that brother, little ploughman,
A little plough of
gold.
Wherever he went with it,
All the furrows turned …
And to that brother shepherd,
Also made a flute of
gold
Wherever with sheep he went,
All the hills echoed,
And forests swung ….
And look, he also made
High chairs for
parents (or priests?)
And chairs for saints,
So they could rest
At Easter and holy days
On holy Sundays
In the white
churches ….
(Francu-Candrea,
Romanii din muntii apuseni, p. 188) [5]
[5. In Romanian traditions the gold shepherd’s flute is the attribute
of “Good God” (Apollo), as shepherd of sheep (cf. Daul, Colinzi, p. 8).
As Pliny writes (VI. 35. 8), a son of Vulcan was called Aethiops.
He is very probably one and the same with Ardalus.
The inhabitants and workers of the mines from the western mountains of
Transilvania are also called Topi. Dionysius Periegetus mentions (v. 219)
the Aethiopii from near the river
Oceanos, near the valleys of Cerna. The same Aethiopi, according to Priscianus
(v. 570), dwelt in Erythia near
Atlas mountain. But we ask, which Erythia? Rusava
(Orsova), or the gold rich mines
from Rosia near Abrud?]
As we see, in this
carol are mentioned the most miraculous art objects of prehistoric antiquity,
the gold vine which Vulcan had given to Jove, the gold plough from the
traditions of Herodotus and Apollonius Rhodius, the gold flute, the invention
of which had been attributed to Ardalus, a son of Vulcan, the magnificent
thrones and chairs made by this unsurpassed master of Pelasgian art for his
parents (priests?) and for the gods of Olympus.
In this carol from
the region of the richest gold mines, Vulcan appears only under the name of
craftsman, “faur” (faber), who “worked the gold”, but he was described
as a “good” one. It is the same
epithet given by Homer to Vulcan
under the form chlutotechnes, famous master craftsman.
We have here
therefore a very precious fragment from a religious song honoring Vulcan, a
folk hymn which has sung continuously from the dark of times to our own days,
about the country and famous masterpieces of this immortal father of the arts.