Vulcan

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In the narrative of Canto XIV of the Inferno, Vulcan is identified as the smith of Jupiter, the one who forges the thunderbolts with which the king of the gods strikes his enemies. Capaneus, damned among the violent against God, invokes him with the cry "Good Vulcan, help, help!," imagining that the god, joining the Cyclopes who in the black forge of Mongibello take turns at the work in shifts, might produce a boundless number of thunderbolts to unleash Jupiter's vengeance against him. The exegetical note to the canto clarifies the meaning of this invocation: Capaneus challenges Jupiter to wear out his smith Vulcan and the entire workshop of the Cyclopes of Etna, knowing that not even such a rain of thunderbolts could subdue him. The Dantesque mention also recalls the mythological tradition of the battle against the giants at Phlegra, in which Jupiter asked Vulcan for help.