Etruscan religion

Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greece, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and religion. As the Etruscan civilization was gradually assimilated into the Roman Republic from the 4th century BC, the Etruscan religion and mythology were partially incorporated into ancient Roman culture, following the Roman tendency to absorb some of the local gods and customs of conquered lands. The first attestations of an Etruscan religion can be traced back to the Villanovan culture.

Etruscan mural of Typhon, from Tarquinia

Reconstruction of an Etruscan temple, Museo di Villa Giulia, Rome, which is heavily influenced by studies of the Temple of Apollo at Portonaccio (Veio)

History

Etruscan votive heads IV-II century BC found in various sanctuaries of Etruria

Greek influence

Greek traders brought their religion and hero figures with them to the coastal areas of the central Mediterranean. Odysseus, Menelaus and Diomedes from the Homeric tradition were recast in tales of the distant past that had them roaming the lands West of Greece. In Greek tradition, Heracles wandered these western areas, doing away with monsters and brigands, and bringing civilization to the inhabitants. Legends of his prowess with women became the source of tales about his many offspring conceived with prominent local women, though his role as a wanderer meant that Heracles moved on after securing the locations chosen to be settled by his followers, rather than fulfilling a typical founder role. Over time, Odysseus also assumed a similar role for the Etruscans as the heroic leader who led the Etruscans to settle the lands they inhabited.

Claims that the sons of Odysseus had once ruled over the Etruscan people date to at least the mid-6th century BC. Lycophron and Theopompus link Odysseus to Cortona (where he was called Nanos). In Italy during this era it could give non-Greek ethnic groups an advantage over rival ethnic groups to link their origins to a Greek hero figure. These legendary heroic figures became instrumental in establishing the legitimacy of Greek claims to the newly settled lands, depicting the Greek presence there as reaching back into antiquity.

Roman conquest

After the Etruscan defeat in the Roman–Etruscan Wars (264 BCE), the remaining Etruscan culture began to be assimilated into the Roman. The Roman Senate adopted key elements of the Etruscan religion, which were perpetuated by haruspices and noble Roman families who claimed Etruscan descent, long after the general population of Etruria had forgotten the language. In the last years of the Roman Republic the religion began to fall out of favor and was satirized by such notable public figures as Marcus Tullius Cicero. The Julio-Claudians, especially Claudius, whose first wife, Plautia Urgulanilla, claimed an Etruscan descent, maintained a knowledge of the language and religion for a short time longer, but this practice soon ceased. A number of canonical works in the Etruscan language survived until the middle of the first millennium AD, but were destroyed by the ravages of time, including occasional catastrophic fires, and by decree of the Roman Senate.

Sources

The mythology is evidenced by a number of sources in different media, for example representations on large numbers of pottery, inscriptions and engraved scenes on the Praenestine cistae (ornate boxes; see under Etruscan language) and on specula (ornate hand mirrors). 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.

Seers and divinations

The Etruscans believed their religion had been revealed to them by seers, the two main ones being Tages, a childlike figure born from tilled land who was immediately gifted with prescience, and Vegoia, a female figure.

The Etruscans believed in intimate contact with divinity. They did nothing without proper consultation with the gods and signs from them. These practices were taken over in total by the Romans.

Etrusca Disciplina

The Etruscan scriptures were a corpus of texts termed the Etrusca Disciplina. This name appears in Valerius Maximus, and Marcus Tullius Cicero refers to a disciplina in his writings on the subject.

Massimo Pallottino summarizes the scriptures known from other sources to have once existed. The revelations of the prophet Tages (Libri Tagetici, "Tagetic Books") included the theory and rules of divination from animal entrails (Libri Haruspicini, "Haruspical Books") and discussion of the Etruscan afterlife and its attendant rituals (Libri Acherontici, "Acherontic Books"). The revelations of the prophetess Vegoia (Libri Vegoici, "Vegoic Books") included the theory and rules of divination from thunder (brontoscopy) and lightning strikes (Libri Fulgurales, "Fulgural Books") and discussion of religious rituals. Books on rituals (Libri Rituales) included Tages's Acherontic Books as well as other books on omens and prodigies (Libri Ostentaria) and books on fate (Libri Fatales) that detailed the religiously proper ways to found cities, erect shrines, drain fields, formulate laws, and measure space and time.

The Etrusca Disciplina was mainly a set of rules for the conduct of all sorts of divination; Pallottino calls it a religious and political "constitution": it does not dictate what laws shall be made or how humans are to behave, but rather elaborates rules for asking the gods these questions and receiving answers.

Priests and officials

Rare Etruscan fanu located at Orvieto.

Divinatory inquiries according to discipline were conducted by priests whom the Romans called haruspices or sacerdotes; Tarquinii had a college of 60 of them. The Etruscans, as evidenced by the inscriptions, used several words: capen (Sabine cupencus), maru (Umbrian maron-), eisnev, hatrencu (priestess). They called the art of haruspicy ziχ neθsrac.

Beliefs

The Etruscan system of belief was an immanent polytheism; all visible phenomena were considered to be manifestations of divine power, and that power was embodied in deities who acted continually on the world but could be dissuaded or persuaded by mortals.

Long after the assimilation of the Etruscans, Seneca the Younger said that the difference between the Romans and the Etruscans was that

Whereas we believe lightning to be released as a result of the collision of clouds, they believe that the clouds collide so as to release lightning: for as they attribute all to deity, they are led to believe not that things have a meaning insofar as they occur, but rather that they occur because they must have a meaning.

Spirits and deities

Main articles: List of Etruscan mythological figures and List of Etruscan names for Greek heroes

The Mars of Todi, a life-sized Etruscan bronze sculpture of a soldier making a votive offering, most likely to Laran, the Etruscan god of war, late 5th to early 4th century BC

After the 5th century, iconographic depictions show the deceased traveling to the underworld. In several instances of Etruscan art, such as in the François Tomb in Vulci, a spirit of the dead is identified by the term hinthial, literally "(one who is) underneath". The souls of the ancestors, called man or mani (Latin Manes), were believed to be found around the mun or muni, or tombs,

A god was called an ais (later eis), which in the plural is aisar / eisar. The Liber Linteus (column 5, lines 9–10, and elsewhere) seems to distinguish "Gods of Light" aiser si from "Gods of Darkness" aiser seu: nunθene eiser śic śeuc /unuχ mlaχ nunθen χiś esviśc faśe: "Make an offering for both the Gods of Light and of Dark, / for them make an appropriate offering with oil from the Chi and from the Esvi rituals." The abode of a god 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), or "offering".

Three layers of deities are portrayed in Etruscan art. One appears to be divinities of an indigenous origin: Voltumna or Vertumnus, a primordial, chthonic god; Usil, god(-dess) of the sun; Tivr, god of the moon; Turan, goddess of love; Laran, god of war; Maris, goddess of (child-)birth; Leinth, goddess of death; Selvans, god of the woods; Thalna, god of trade; Turms, messenger of the gods; Fufluns, god of wine; the heroic figure Hercle; and a number of underworld deities such as Catha, Lur, Suri, Thanr and Calus (all listed on the Lead Plaque of Magliano and elsewhere.)

Ruling over them were higher deities that seem to reflect the Indo-European system: Tin or Tinia, the sky, Uni his wife (Juno), Nethuns, god of the waters, and Cel, the earth goddess.

As a third layer, the Greek gods and heroes were adopted by the Etruscan system during the Etruscan Orientalizing Period of 750/700–600 BC. Examples are Aritimi (Artemis), Menrva (Minerva, Latin equivalent of Athena), the heroic figure Hercle (Hercules), and Pacha (Bacchus; Latin equivalent of Dionysus), and over time the primary trinity became Tinia, Uni and Menrva. This triad of gods were venerated in Tripartite temples similar to the later Roman Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

A fourth group, the so-called dii involuti or "veiled gods", are sometimes mentioned as superior to all the other deities, but these were never worshipped, named, or depicted directly.

Afterlife

Etruscan beliefs concerning the hereafter appear to be an amalgam of influences. The Etruscans shared general early Mediterranean beliefs, such as the Egyptian belief that survival and prosperity in the hereafter depend on the treatment of the deceased's remains. Etruscan tombs imitated domestic structures and were characterized by spacious chambers, wall paintings and grave furniture. In the tomb, especially on the sarcophagus (examples shown below), was a representation of the deceased in his or her prime, often with a spouse. Not everyone had a sarcophagus; sometimes the deceased was laid out on a stone bench. As the Etruscans practiced mixed inhumation and cremation rites (the proportion depending on the period), cremated ashes and bones might be put into an urn in the shapes of a house or a representation of the deceased.

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  Funerary home at Banditaccia with couches
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  Funerary home at Populonia
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  Sarcophagus from Siena
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  Sarcophagus from Chiusi
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  Sarcophagus
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  Burial urn
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  Urn from Chiusi

In addition to the world still influenced by terrestrial affairs was a transmigrational world beyond the grave, patterned after the Greek Hades. It was ruled by Aita, and the deceased was guided there by Charun, the equivalent of Death, who was blue and wielded a hammer. The Etruscan Hades was populated by Greek mythological figures and a few such as Tuchulcha, of composite appearance.

Women in Etruscan religion

Women in Ancient Etruria enjoyed more social liberties than their Roman counterparts until the Roman absorption of Etruria and the consequential assimilation into it. For example, the husband and wife often stood alongside each other in representations, and women were portrayed on sarcophagi in the same ceremonial feasts that men were. Etruscan women also participated in an array of religious activities, which can be observed through archaeological evidence of votive offerings, ceremonial textile production, and iconography found in Etruscan burials.

Worship

Votive evidence for Etruscan worship is rich and provides insight into how women worshipped deities in Etruria. Women's votive offerings included terracotta or bronze statuettes, items related to textile production, such as spindle whorls or spools, or anatomical votives.

An inscribed bronze statue base dating to the Archaic period (525-500 BCE) was excavated at Campo della Fiera in Orvieto, Italy, and provides evidence of an affluent woman's offering to a deity. The statue's inscription reads that it is a dedication to a deity, or group of deities, named- Tlusχval, from Kanuta, who may be a freedwoman based on the inscription's use of the noun lauteniθa, although it is hard to say for certain. This inscription confirms that affluent Etruscan women were able to dedicate votives at religious sites freely, showcasing their wealth and testifying to women's social freedoms in ancient Etruria. Etruscan sanctuaries also reveal evidence for the dedication of anatomical votives. Models of body parts such as the uterus were often offered to divinities, likely in relation to concerns revolving around childbirth and fertility.

Some scholars suggest there was a link between women's production of textiles/ceremonial textiles and ritual at Etruscan sanctuaries. Recent excavations at the Poggio Colla archaeological site near Vicchio, Italy have revealed what may be a link between the location of excavated spindle whorls, spools, and ritual activity due to their location. The artifacts were found on the northern sides of the acropolis, near where defensive walls were later built. Scholars have speculated that this may be due to a form of obliteration in which the artifacts were linked to their deposition in a sacred way.

Priestesses

In speculation on the existence of an Etruscan priestess, the hatrencu is the most widely discussed term in scholarly communities. The term hatrencu was found in the inscriptions from a tomb in Vulci, a formerly Etruscan town in central Italy.

The tomb is especially significant in that it contains a group of women buried together, which deviates from normal Etruscan burial rituals of men and women. The status of the hatrencu as an Etruscan priestess is widely debated by scholars. While many scholars assert that due to the abnormal burial conditions and the obscure term usage in the inscription, the hatrencu represents a priestess, other scholars disagree with these conclusions. There is also debate on whether the iconography of the tombs points to the women buried being associated with ritual objects, with a cista in the tomb of a woman named Ramtha as an example, however the female depictions could just as easily be divinities associated with funerary culture.

The role of the hatrencu is thought to be similar to that of the Roman college of matrons, which was dedicated to the worship of the goddess Mater Matuta. Such a comparison underscores the possible ritual and social functions that hatrencu may have held in Etruscan society. Whether there were female religious specialists such as Etruscan priestess in Etruria, is mainly speculation and is subject to ongoing academic debate.

See also

• Interpretatio graeca
• List of Etruscan mythological figures
• List of Etruscan names for Greek heroes
• Liber Linteus
• Daily life of the Etruscans

References

• Bonfante, Giuliano; Bonfante, Larissa (2002). The Etruscan Language: an Introduction. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. ISBN 0-7190-5540-7.
• Bonnefoy, Yves (1992). Roman and European Mythologies. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-06455-7. Translated by Wendy Doniger, Gerald Honigsblum.
• Gaultier, F. and D. Briquel, eds. (F. Gaultier and D. Briquel, eds., Les Étrusques, le plus religieux des hommes. État de la recherche sur la religion étrusque, Paris, 1997; A. Pfiffig, Religio etrusca, Graz, 1975.) Les Étrusques, le plus religieux des hommes. État de la recherche sur la religion étrusque, Paris.
• De Grummond; Nancy Thomson (2006). Etruscan Mythology, Sacred History and Legend: An Introduction. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. ISBN 1-931707-86-3.
• De Grummond, Nancy Thomson; Simon, Erika, eds. (2006). The Religion of the Etruscans. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70687-1.
• Dennis, George (1848). The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. London: John Murray. Available in the Gazetteer of Bill Thayer's Website at [1]
• Jannot, J.-R. (2005) Religion in Ancient Etruria, trans. J. Whitehead, Madison, WI.
• Johnston, S. I. (ed.) (2004) Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide, Cambridge, MA.
• Pallottino, M. (1975). Ridgway, David (ed.). The Etruscans. Translated by Cremina, J (Revised and Enlarged ed.). Bloomington & London: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-32080-1.
• Pfiffig, A. (1975) Religio etrusca, Graz.
• Richardson, Emeline Hill (1976) [1964]. The Etruscans: Their Art and Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-71234-6.
• Rykwert, Joseph (1988). The Idea of a Town: the Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-68056-4.
• Swaddling, Judith; Bonfante, Larissa (2006). Etruscan Myths. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70606-5.
• Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum (journal)(ThesCRA), Los Angeles, 2004-on
• Thulin, Carl (1906). Die Götter des Martianus Capella und der Bronzeleber von Piacenza (in German). Alfred Töpelmann.

External links

• Cicero, Marcus Tullius (1923) [44 BC]. W.A. Falconer (ed.). Cicero on Divination. Loeb Classical Library. Vol. XX. Harvard University Press.
• William P. Thayer (2008). "Cicero on Divination". Lacus Curtius. University of Chicago. Retrieved 25 June 2009.
• Cicero, Marcus Tullius (2009) [44 BC]. "De Divinatione". The Latin Library (in Latin). Retrieved 25 June 2009.