In Greek and Roman mythology, Aitna or Aetna (Ancient Greek: Αἴτνη) is the goddess of the volcanic mount known as Mount Etna in Sicily. She was an Ouros (singular of Ourea, the mountain gods), and along with her brothers and sisters they were the offspring of Gaia
In Roman accounts, Aetna with either Jupiter or Vulcan, she was the mother of the Palikoi (Palici), which were the twin gods of thermal geysers. Either the giant Enceladus, the monster Typhoeus, or Briareus the Hecatoncheir was buried beneath her bulk, where their restless turnings caused earthquakes and fiery lava-flows of the mountain.
Mythology[]
According to the ancient Greek writer Simonides of Ceos, he said that Aitna acted as an arbitrator between Hephaestus and Demeter respecting the possession of Sicily.
According to the ancient Roman writer Servius in his Commentaries on Virgil's Aeneid, he states that either Jupiter or Vulcan was the father of the Palici with Aetna.
The mountain itself was believed to be the place in which Hephaestus and the Cyclopes made the thunderbolts for Zeus.
Notes[]
According to the medieval writer Stephanus of Byzantium, in his dictionary called the Ethnica in the section about the town Paliki in Sicily, he quotes a writer called Silenus that said Aetna was a daughter of Oceanus and she consorted with Hephaestus and birthed the Palici.[1][2][3]
According to the Theocritean Scholia by Alcimus, He states that she is either the daughter of Gaia and Ouranos or Briareus. He also states that she is a nymph[3], which is not contradictory to her nature being a goddess as Amphitrite is considered a nymph and a goddess.
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