Etruscan mythology

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Etruscan mural of the God Typhon.
Etruscan mural of the God Typhon.

The Etruscans were a people of unknown origin living in Northern Italy, who were eventually integrated into Roman culture and politically became part of the Roman Republic. The Etruscans had both a religion and a supporting mythology. Many Etruscan beliefs, customs and divinities became part of Roman culture, including the Roman pantheon.

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[edit] Polytheistic belief system

The Etruscan system of belief was an immanent polytheism; that is, all visible phenomena were considered to be a manifestation of divine power and that power was subdivided into deities that acted continually on the world of man and could be dissuaded or persuaded in favor of human affairs. Three layers are evident in the extensive Etruscan art motifs. One appears to be divinities of an indigenous nature: Catha and Usil, the sun, Tivr, the moon, Selvans, a civil god, Turan, the goddess of love, Laran, the god of war, Leinth, the goddess of death, Maris, Thalna, Turms and the ever-popular Fufluns, whose name is related in some unknown way to the city of Populonia and the populus Romanus. Perhaps he was the god of the people.

Ruling over this pantheon of lesser deities were higher ones that seem to reflect the Indo-European system: Tin or Tinia, the sky, Uni his wife (Juno), and Cel, the earth goddess. In addition the Greek gods were taken into the Etruscan system: Aritimi (Artemis), Menrva (Minerva;Latin name for Athena), and Pacha (Bacchus;Latin name for Dionysus). The heroes taken from Homer also appear extensively in art motifs.

[edit] Religious practices

Rare Etruscan fanu.
Rare Etruscan fanu.

The Etruscans believed in intimate contact with divinity.[citation needed] They did nothing without proper consultation with the gods and signs from them.[citation needed] These practices were taken over in total by the Romans. A god was called an ais (later eis) which in the plural is aisar. Where they were was a fanu or luth, a sacred place, such as a favi, a grave or temple. There one would need to make a fler (plural flerchva) "offering".

Around the mun or muni, the tombs[citation needed], were the man or mani (Latin Manes), the souls of the ancestors. A deceased person travels to the underworld called Aita "Hades" and thus may be referred to as a hinthial (literally "(one who is) underneath"). A special magistrate, the cechase, looked after the cecha, or rath, sacred things. Every man, however, had his religious responsibilities, which were expressed in an alumnathe or slecaches, a sacred society. No public event was conducted without the netsvis, the haruspex, or his female equivalent, the nethsra. They read the bumps on the liver of a properly sacrificed sheep. We have a model of a liver made of bronze, whose religious significance is still a matter of heated debate, marked into sections which perhaps are meant to explain what the bump in that region should mean. Divination through haruspicy is a tradition originating from the Fertile Crescent.

[edit] Beliefs of the hereafter

Like the Egyptians, the Etruscans believed in eternal life, but prosperity there was linked to funereal prosperity here. The tombs in many cases were better than many houses, with spacious chambers, wall frescoes and grave furniture. Most Etruscan tombs have been plundered. In the tomb, especially on the sarcophagus (examples shown below), was a representation of the dead person in his or her prime, probably as they wanted to be in the hereafter. Some of the statuary is the finest and most realistic of any. We have no problem visualizing the appearance of the Etruscans. They wanted us to see them smiling and intimate with their kith and kin around them, as we do.

[edit] Mythology

The mythology is attested by a number of sources.[1]

[edit] Mythological systems

The primary trinity included Tinia, Uni and Menrva.

[edit] List of Etruscan mythological figures

Main article: List of Etruscan mythological figures

The names below were taken mainly from Etruscan "picture bilinguals", which are Etruscan call-outs on art depicting mythological scenes or motifs. Several different media provide names. Variants of the names are given, reflecting differences in language in different localities and times.

Many of the names are Etruscan spellings (and pronunciations) of Greek names. The themes may or may not be entirely Greek. Etruscans frequently added their own themes to Greek myths. The same may be said of native Italic names rendered into Etruscan. Some names are entirely Etruscan. Which is which is often a topic of debate in the international forum of scholarship.

Apulu, Aplu
The god, Apollo.[2]
Aritimi, Artumes
The goddess Artemis.[2]
Bella Luna
A lunatic, derived from luna; moon.
Fufluns
Etruscan god of wine, identified with Dionysus. The name is used in the expressions Fufluns Pacha (Bacchus) and Fufluns Pachie.[3][4] Puplona (Populonia) was named from Fufluns.[5]
Laran
Etruscan God of war.[6]
Lasa
One of a class of deities, plural Lasas, mainly female, but sometimes male, from which the Roman Lares came. Where the latter were the guardians of the dead, the Etruscan originals formed the court of Turan. Lasa often precedes an epithet referring to a particular deity: Lasa Sitmica, Lasa Achununa, Lasa Racuneta, Lasa Thimrae, Lasa Vecuvia.[6]
Man, Mani
Etruscan class of spirits representing "the dead"[7] and yet not the same as a hinthial, "ghost." From the Mani came the Latin Manes, which are both "the good" and the deified spirits of the dead.[8]
Menerva, Menrva
The Etruscan original to the Roman Minerva, made into Greek Athena.[9]
Nethuns
Italic divinity, probably Umbrian, of springs and water,[10] identified with Greek Poseidon and Roman Neptune, from which the name comes.[11] It occurs in the expression flere Nethuns, "the divinity of Nethuns."[12]
Selvans
God who appears in the expression Selvansl Tularias, "Selvans of the boundaries", which identifies him as a god of boundaries. The name is borrowed from the Roman god, Silvanus.[13]
Tarchon
An Etruscan culture hero who, with his brother, Tyrrhenus, founded the Etruscan Federation of twelve cities.
Tinia, Tina, Tin
Chief Etruscan god, the ruler of the skies, husband of Uni, and father of Hercle, identified with the Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter well within the Etruscan window of ascendance, as the Etruscan kings built the first temple of Jupiter at Rome. Called apa, "father" in inscriptions (parallel to the -piter in Ju-piter), he has most of the attributes of his Indo-European counterpart, with whom some have postulated a more remote linguistic connection.[14] The name means "day" in Etruscan. He is the god of boundaries and justice. He is depicted as a young, bearded male, seated or standing at the center of the scene, grasping a stock of thunderbolts. According to Latin literature, the bolts are of three types: for warning, good or bad interventions, and drastic catastrophes.[15] Unlike Zeus, Tin needs the permission of the Dii Consentes (consultant gods) and Dii Involuti (hidden gods) to wield the last two categories. A further epithet, Calusna (of Calu), hints at a connection to wolves or dogs and the underworld.[15] In post-classical Tuscan folklore he became an evil spirit, Tigna, who causes lightning strikes, hail, rain, whirlwinds and mildew.[16]
Turan
Etruscan goddess identified with Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus. She appears in the expression, Turan ati, "Mother Turan", equivalent to Venus Genetrix.[17] Her name is a noun meaning "the act of giving" in Etruscan, based on the verb stem tur- 'to give.'
Turms, Turmś
Etruscan god identified with Greek Hermes and Roman Mercurius. In his capacity as guide to the ghost of Tiresias, who has been summoned by Odysseus, he is Turms Aitas, "Turms Hades."[17]
Uni
Supreme goddess of the Etruscan pantheon, wife of Tinia, mother of Hercle, and patroness of Perugia. With Tinia and Menrva, she was a member of the ruling triad of Etruscan deities. Uni was the equivalent of the Roman Juno, whose name Uni may be derived from, and the Greek Hera.
Vanth
Etruscan winged demon of the underworld often depicted in the company of Charun. She could be present at the moment of death, and frequently acted as a guide of the deceased to the underworld.[18][19][20]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ For example, inscriptions and engraved scenes on the Praenestine cistae (see under Etruscan language), and on the specula. Currently some two dozen fascicles of the Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum have been published. Specifically Etruscan mythological and cult figures appear in the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. Etruscan inscriptions have recently been given a more authoritative presentation by Helmut Rix, Etruskische Texte.
  2. ^ a b The Bonfantes (2002), page 194.
  3. ^ The Bonfantes (2002), page 198.
  4. ^ Leland, Chapter IV, Faflon.
  5. ^ Pallottino page 248.
  6. ^ a b The Bonfantes (2002), page 200.
  7. ^ Bonfante 2000 page 60.
  8. ^ Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology gives a good summary of the ancient sources on Manes, which can be read at [1], the ancientlibrary.com site.
  9. ^ The Bonfantes (2002), page 201.
  10. ^ The Bonfantes (2002), page 202.
  11. ^ De Grummond page 59.
  12. ^ Bonnefoy page 30.
  13. ^ The Bonfantes (2002), page 205.
  14. ^ The Nostratic Macrofamily: a Study in Distant Linguistic Relationships, (1994) Allan R. Bornhard and John C. Kerns, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 3110139006, page 304, previewed on Google Books.
  15. ^ a b De Grummond, Chapter IV.
  16. ^ Leland Part I Chapter I.
  17. ^ a b The Bonfantes (2002), page 208.
  18. ^ The Bonfantes (2002), page 210.
  19. ^ de Grummond, pages 220-225.
  20. ^ Swaddling & Bonfante page 78.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Adams, J. N. (2003). Bilingualism and the Latin Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521817714.  Available for preview on Google Books.
  • Bonfante, Giuliano; Bonfante, Larissa (2002). The Etruscan Language: an Introduction. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. ISBN 0-7190-5540-7.  Preview available on Google Books.
  • Bonnefoy, Yves (1992). Roman and European Mythologies. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226064557.  Translated by Wendy Doniger, Gerald Honigsblum. Preview Google Books.
  • De Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2006). Etruscan Mythology, Sacred History and Legend: An Introduction. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. ISBN 1931707863.  Preview available on Google Books.
  • Dennis, George (1848). The Cities and Cemetaries of Etruria. London: John Murray.  Available in the Gazeteer of Bill Thayer's Website at [2]
  • Harmon, Daniel P. (1986), “Religion in the Latin Elegists”, in Haase, Wolfgang, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischenwelt, Walter de Gruyter, pp. pages 1961-1965, ISBN 3110082896  Preview shown on Google Books.
  • Hooper, Finley and Schwartz, Matthew (1991). Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814315941. 
  • Leland, Charles Godfrey (1892). Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition. London: T. Fisher Unwin.  Downloadable Google Books, online at [3].
  • Summers, Montague (2001). The Vampire in Lore and Legend. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0486419428.  Preview Google Books.
  • Pallottino, M. (1975). The Etruscans. London: Penguin Books. 
  • Richardson, Emeline Hill (1964, 1976). The Etruscans: Their Art and Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 
  • Rykwert, Joseph (1988). The Idea of a Town: the Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World. MIT Press. ISBN 0262680564.  Preview available on Google Books.
  • Swaddling, Judith, and Bonfante, Larissa (2006). Etruscan Myths. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292706065.  Preview Google Books.
  • Thulin, Carl (1906). Die Götter des Martianus Capella und der Bronzeleber von Piacenza. Alfred Töpelmann.  A German-language book, downloadable from Google Books.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links