Starling Hunter © 2011 1 Virgo 17: A volcano in eruption The word volcano descends from the Italian vulcano "burning mountain", itself from the Latin Vulcanus meaning "Vulcan," Roman god of fire, also "fire, flames, volcano.” 1 The word eruption descends from the Indo-European (IE) root reup-, to snatch. Its paronyms include reave, bereave, rover ( a pirate or pirate vessel), rob, robbery, robe, ruble, usurp, rout, disrupt, abrupt, corrupt , and erupt . THEMES: The integrating theme here concerns USURPATION . A s indicated above, the verb usurp is one of the paronyms of eruption . Definitions of usurp include “to seize and hold (a position, office, power, etc.) by force or without legal right” 2 and “to seize, take over, or appropriate (land, a throne, etc) without authority” 3 and “to seize and hold (as office, place, or powers) in possession by force or without right.” 4 Vulcan is one of the paronyms of volcano . In mythology he was t h e Roman God of fire and metalworking and the son of Jupiter, the king of the gods, and Juno, the principal goddess or queen of the gods. Despite his noble lineage, Vulcan’s was rejected by his mother and deprived of his birthright: As the son of Jupiter, the king of the gods, and Juno, the queen of the gods, Vulcan should have been quite handsome, but, baby Vulcan was small and ugly with a red, bawling face. Juno was so horrified that she hurled the tiny bab y off the top of Mount Olympus. Vulcan fell down for a day and a night, landing in t he 1 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=volcano 2 http://dictionary.reference.com/cite.html?qh=usurp&ia=luna 3 http://dictionary.reference.com/cite.html?qh=usurp&ia=ced 4 http://dictionary.reference.com/cite.html?qh=usurp&ia=mwlaw
