Larry Miller, Tennessee Place Names: "The reference is to the Sicilian volcano Mount Etna. This place-name was often applied to sites where there were forges, hot springs, flour mills, or geological evidence of early volcanic activity."
In addition to its mythological status as the home of the god Hephaestus (Vulcan), Mt. Aetna (Etna) was - and still very much is - an active volcano on the island of Sicily. Aetna Mountain, Tennessee, on the other hand, is not a literal volcano, but it is the home of volcanic property disputes, going back at least until the early 1990s.
If you do a Google image search for Aetna Mountain, you’ll primarily find pictures of all-terrain vehicles covered in mud. Aetna has been a popular location for off-road recreational vehicles for years, a fact that does not sit well with private property owners on the mountain, who object to the noise, the trespassing, and the damage these vehicles cause to the environment. Thus, some of Aetna's property owners have tried erecting locked gates at various points on the mountain to restrict access, the legality of which has been tested in various lawsuits.
Concerned about the quality of the roads on Aetna Mountain - my Toyota was not equipped with four-wheel drive - and fearful of getting caught in the middle of a contentious property dispute, I decided not to attempt to drive to the top of mountain. I had considered driving around the mountain, but the state road that runs around the northern edge of it – Highway 41 – has suffered major maintenance problems in recent years, in large part because of landslides from Aetna. Just a couple of weeks before my trip, in fact, the Tennessee Department of Transportation announced a $16 million plan to repair the road . . . repairs which, I'm sure, were badly needed, but they would obviously not be completed in time for my trip.
I decided, therefore, to drive around Aetna on the other side of the Tennessee River, on Mullins Cove Road. A couple of miles in after turning off of Highway 27, however, the road abruptly turned to gravel, and a foreboding “WARNING: DANGEROUS ROAD” sign appeared. Remembering my harrowing - and ultimately unsuccessful - attempts to find the community of Ephesus in west Tennessee, I turned around. I would have to be satisfied with driving around Aetna Mountain on I-24.
Ancient Mt. Aetna
Sample Latin Text:
Aetna 29-35
This mountain inspired one Roman poet to compose an entire poem about it: Aetna, a 650-line didactic poem about Mt. Aetna (and volcanology in general). This poem was once attributed to Vergil, but today most scholars reject this idea and place authorship in the early years of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
Principio ne quem capiat fallacia vatum,
sedes esse dei tumidisque e faucibus ignem
Vulcani ruere et clausis resonare cavernis
festinantis opus. Non est tam sordida divis
cura, neque extremas ius est demittere in artes
sidera: subducto regnant sublimia caelo
illa, neque artificum curant tractare laborem.
Loeb Translation:
"First, let none be deceived by the fictions poets tell — that Aetna is the home of a god, that the fire gushing from her swollen jaws is Vulcan's fire, and that the echo in that cavernous prison comes from his restless work. No task so paltry have the gods. To meanest crafts one may not rightly lower the stars; their sway is royal, aloft in a remote heaven; they reck not to handle the toil of artisans."
sedes esse dei tumidisque e faucibus ignem
Vulcani ruere et clausis resonare cavernis
festinantis opus. Non est tam sordida divis
cura, neque extremas ius est demittere in artes
sidera: subducto regnant sublimia caelo
illa, neque artificum curant tractare laborem.
Loeb Translation:
"First, let none be deceived by the fictions poets tell — that Aetna is the home of a god, that the fire gushing from her swollen jaws is Vulcan's fire, and that the echo in that cavernous prison comes from his restless work. No task so paltry have the gods. To meanest crafts one may not rightly lower the stars; their sway is royal, aloft in a remote heaven; they reck not to handle the toil of artisans."
