Funny little connection kept popping up when I was thumbing through a book about Roman gods: the Roman counterpart to the Greek smith-god Hephaestus is Vulcan, or 'Vulcanus' in Latin. He’s the god of fire, metalworking, volcanoes, and all the hot, noisy places where hammers strike anvils and sparks fly. In Roman religion he’s sometimes portrayed a bit more as the destructive side of fire — think volcanoes and wild, dangerous blazes — whereas Hephaestus gets more of the artisan, crippled-but-brilliant crafter vibe in Greek stories.
I like picturing Vulcan with tongs and a hammer down in his forge, but my favorite mental image is the celebration of the festival Vulcanalia (late August) when Romans offered sacrifices to keep fires from getting out of control. If you like reading primary sources, Virgil and Ovid sprinkle Romanized versions of these myths across their work — it’s cool to see how the same craft/fire deity shifts tone between cultures. Makes me want to go sketch a volcano and a blacksmith’s shop side-by-side.