The
EtruscanEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
s were a diachronically continuous population speaking a distinct language and practicing a distinctive culture that ranged over the
Po ValleyThe Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain is a major geographical feature of Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po river; it runs from the Western Alps to the Adriatic Sea...
and some of its alpine slopes, southward along the west coast of
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, most intensely in
EtruriaEtruria — usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia — was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...
, with enclaves as far south as
CampaniaCampania is a region of southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,595 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
, and inland into the Appennine mountains, during the period of earliest European writing in the Mediterranean
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
, in the second two quarters of the first millennium BC. Their prehistory can be traced with certainty to about 1000 BC. During their floruit of about 500 BC they were a significant maritime power with a presence in
SardiniaSardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . The area of Sardinia is . The nearest land masses to the island are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia, and the Spanish Balearic Islands...
and the
Aegean SeaThe Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
. At first influential in the formation and conduct of the Roman monarchy they came to oppose the Romans during the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
, entered into military conflict with it, were defeated, politically became part of the republic and integrated into Roman culture. The Etruscans had both a
religionA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
and a supporting
mythologyMythology is the study of myths and or of a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece. The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story;...
. Many Etruscan beliefs, customs and divinities became part of Roman culture, including the
Roman pantheonRoman mythology, or Latin mythology, refers to the mythological beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Ancient Rome. It can be considered as having two parts; One part, largely later and literary, consists of borrowings from Greek mythology...
.
The Etruscans believed that their religion had been revealed to them in early days by seers, the two main ones being
TagesTages was a founding prophet of Etruscan religion who is known from reports by Latin authors of the late Roman republic and Roman empire. He revealed a cosmic view of divinity and correct methods of ascertaining divine will concerning events of public interest. Divination was undertaken in Roman...
and Vegoia. A number of
canonicalCanonical is an adjective derived from canon. Canon comes from the Greek word kanon, "rule" , and is used in various meanings....
works on their teaching were written in Etruscan and survived until the middle centuries of the 1st millennium AD, when they were destroyed by the ravages of time and by Christian elements in Roman society. After defeating the Etruscans the Romans, whose original population had included significant Etruscan elements, did not harbor ill-will against them but the Senate voted to adopt the key elements of their revealed religion. It was in practice long after the general Etruscan population had forgotten the language and was perpetuated by haruspices and members of the noble families at Rome who knew Etruscan and claimed an Etruscan descent. In the last years of the
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
the religion began to fall out of favor and was satirized by such notable public figures as Marcus Tullius Cicero. The Julio-Claudians, especially
ClaudiusTiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 24 January AD 41 to his death in AD 54...
, who claimed a remote Etruscan descent, perpetuated an obscure knowledge of the language and religion for a short time longer, and then it was lost.
Polytheistic belief system
The Etruscan system of belief was an
immanentImmanence, derived from the Latin in manere - "to remain within" - refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, which hold that some divine being or essence manifests in and through all aspects of the material world...
polytheismPolytheism is the belief in and worship of multiple deities, called gods and goddesses. These are usually assembled into a pantheon, along with their own mythologies and rituals...
; that is, all visible phenomena were considered to be a manifestation of
divineDivinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power, or its attributes or manifestations in the world...
power and that power was subsided into
deitiesA deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
that acted continually on the world of man and could be dissuaded or persuaded in favor of human affairs.
Seneca the YoungerLucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
said (long after the assimilation of the Etruscans) that the difference between "us" (the population of the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
) 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 in so far as they occur, but rather that they occur because they must have a meaning.
Three layers are evident in the extensive Etruscan art motifs concerning religion. One appears to be divinities of an indigenous nature:
CathaCatha may refer to:*the shrub Khat*the Etruscan goddess Cautha...
and Usil, the sun, Tivr, the moon,
SelvansIn Etruscan mythology, Selvans was god of the woodlands, cognate with Roman Silvanus. His name is mentioned on the Piacenza Liver, a bronze model of a sheep's liver used for divinatory rites....
, a civil god,
TuranTuran was the Etruscan goddess of love and vitality and patroness of the city of Velch. In art, she was usually depicted as a young winged girl . Turan appears in toilette scenes of Etruscan bronze mirrors. She is richly robed and jeweled in early and late depictions, but consistently appears nude...
, the goddess of love,
LaranIn Etruscan mythology, Laran was the god of war. In art, he was portrayed as a naked young man with a helmet and a spear. Laran's consort was Turan . Laran would go on to be merged with the Greek pantheon's Ares and his Etruscan companion Veive to form the Roman's god of war: Mars....
, the god of war,
LeinthIn Etruscan mythology, Leinth is the goddess of death, whose name means "Old Age" or "Old Woman". In art, she was portrayed with the face veiled....
, the goddess of death,
MarisMaris was the Etruscan god of agriculture and fertility later borrowed by the Romans as a war/agricultual god Mars and equated with Greek Ares by interpretatio romana. Some of his known epithets are Mariś Halna, Mariś Husrnana and Mariś Isminthians....
,
ThalnaIn Etruscan mythology, Thalna was the goddess of childbirth and wife of Tinia. She was depicted in art as a youthful woman.Early Roman Mythology focused on the interlocking and complex interrelations between gods and humans. In this, the Romans maintained a large selection of divinities with...
,
TurmsIn Etruscan mythology, Turms was the equivalent of Greek Hermes, god oftrade and the messenger god between people and gods.Turms is also a character in a book by Mika Waltari "Turms the Immortal" which takesplace at the end times of Etruscan civilization....
and the god
FuflunsIn Etruscan mythology, Fufluns was a god of plant life, happiness and health and growth in all things. He is the son of Semla. He was worshipped at Populonia ....
, whose name is related in some unknown way to the city of
Populoniathumb|250px|Modern Populonia|thumb|Fortress of Populonia thumb|The necropolis of PopuloniaPopulonia is a frazione of the commune of Piombino . It is especially noteworthy for its Etruscan remains, including one of the main necropolis in Italy, discovered by Isidoro Falchi...
and the populus Romanus.
Ruling over this pantheon of lesser deities were higher ones that seem to reflect the Indo-European system: Tin or
TiniaThe Etruscan bright sky god Tinia was the highest god in Etruscan mythology, the Etruscan equivalent of the Roman Jupiter and the Greek Zeus. He was the husband of Thalna or Uni and the father of Heracle....
, the sky, Uni his wife (
JunoJuno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Juventas, Mars, and Vulcan...
), and Cel, the earth goddess. As a third layer the Greek gods were taken into the Etruscan system: Aritimi (
ArtemisArtemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo...
),
MenrvaMenrva was an Etruscan goddess of war, art, wisdom and health. She contributed a lot of her character to Roman Minerva....
(
MinervaMinerva was the Roman goddess whom Hellenizing Romans from the second century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of warriors, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic and the inventor of music...
; Latin equivalent of
AthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, peace, warfare, strategy, handicrafts and reason, shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour...
), and Pacha (
BacchusIn classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, amongst whom Greek mythology treated him as a late arrival...
; Latin equivalent of
DionysusIn classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, amongst whom Greek mythology treated him as a late arrival...
) during the Etruscan Orientalizing Period of 750/700-600 BCE.
Etrusca Disciplina
The Etruscan religion was a
revealedIn religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, or making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication with supernatural entities . It is believed that revelation can originate directly from a deity, or through an agent, such as an angel...
one. Its
scripturesReligious texts, also known as scripture, are the texts which various religious traditions consider to be sacred, or of central importance to their religious tradition...
were a corpus of Etruscan texts termed the
Etrusca Disciplina. This name appears fully in
Valerius MaximusValerius Maximus was a Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes. He flourished in the reign of Tiberius.-Personal History of Valerius Maximus:...
but Marcus Tullius Cicero in the later
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c...
refers to a
disciplina in his writings on the subject.
Massimo PallottinoMassimo Pallottino was an archaeologist specializing in Etruscan civilization and art.Pallottino was a student of Giulio Quirino Giglioli and worked early in his career on the Temple of Apollo at Veii. In essence Pallottino created the modern discipline of Etruscology and trained many of its...
summarizes the known (but non-extant) scriptures as the
Libri Haruspicini, stating the theory and rules of divination from animal entrails, the
Libri Fulgurales, of which the topic was divination from lightening strikes and the
Libri Rituales. The latter were composed of the
Libri Fatales, expressing the religiously correct methods of founding cities and shrines, draining fields, formulating laws and ordinances, measuring space and dividing time; the
Libri Acherontici, dealing with the hereafter and the
Libri Ostentaria, rules for interpreting prodigies. The revelations of the prophet
TagesTages was a founding prophet of Etruscan religion who is known from reports by Latin authors of the late Roman republic and Roman empire. He revealed a cosmic view of divinity and correct methods of ascertaining divine will concerning events of public interest. Divination was undertaken in Roman...
were given in the
Libri Tagetici, which included the
Libri Haruspicini and the
Acherontici, and those of the prophetess Vegoia in the
Libri Vegoici, which included the
Libri Fulgurales and part of the
Libri Rituales.
These works did not present prophecies or scriptures in the ordinary sense; the
Etrusca Disciplina foretold nothing itself. The Etruscans appear to have had no systematic ethics or religion and no great visions. Instead they concentrated on the problem of God's will: if God created the universe and man and has a will and a plan for everyone and everything in it, why did he not devise a system for communicating that will in a clear manner?
The Etruscans totally accepted the inscrutability of God's will. They did not attempt to rationalize or explain why he does anything or put any doctrines in his intent. As answer to the problem of ascertaining his will they developed an elaborate system of
divinationDivination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a standardized process or ritual. Diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency...
; that is, God offers a perpetual stream of
signsSigns is the plural of sign. See sign .Signs may also refer to:*Signs, a 1993 album by Kathryn Tickell*Signs , a 2001 album by Badmarsh & Shri*Signs , a 2002 film by M...
in the events and phenomena of daily life, and if only read rightly they can direct man's affairs at any level of detail, private or public. The will revealed in this manner may not be otherwise understandable and may not be pleasant or easy but can only be doubted at the peril of the questioner. The Etrusca Disciplina therefore was mainly a set of rules for the conduct of divination of all sorts; Pallottino calls it a religious and political "constitution." It does not dictate what laws shall be made or how men are to behave, but rather elaborates rules for asking God these questions more directly and receiving answers no matter how incredible. Cicero said
For a hasty acceptance of an erroneous opinion is discreditable in any case, and especially so in an inquiry as to how much weight should be given to auspices, to sacred rites, and to religious observances; for we run the risk of committing a crime against the gods if we disregard them, or of becoming involved in old women's superstition if we approve them.
He then quipped, regarding divination from the singing of frogs:
Who could suppose that frogs had this foresight? And yet they do have by nature some faculty of premonition, clear enough of itself, but too dark for human comprehension.
History of the discipline
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 (
SabineThe Sabines were an Italic tribe that lived in the central Appennines of ancient Italy, inhabiting also Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome...
cupencus),
maru (Umbrian
maron-),
eisnev,
hatrencu (priestess). They called the art of haruspicy
zich nethsrac.
Religious practices
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. 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, were the
man or
mani (Latin
Manes), the souls of the ancestors. In iconography after the 5th century BC, the deceased are shown traveling to the underworld. In several instances of Etruscan art, such as in the Francois Tomb, a spirit of the dead is identified by the term
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
haruspicyIn Roman practice, inherited from the Etruscans, a haruspex was a man trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy, hepatoscopy or hepatomancy. Haruspicy is the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry...
is a tradition originating from the
Fertile CrescentThe Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often incorrectly extended to Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the birthplace of writing and the wheel.The...
.
Beliefs of the hereafter
Etruscan beliefs concerning the hereafter appear to be a compound accumulation of beliefs from different historical influences. The Etruscans shared in the general early Mediterranean belief, such as the
EgyptianAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
, that survival in the hereafter and prosperity there depend on the treatment of the deceased's remains here. 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 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, a tomb might also contain urns holding the ashes and bones; in that case, the urn might be in the shape of a house or be shaped into a representation of the deceased.
In addition to the world still influenced by terrestrial affairs was a transmigrational world beyond the grave patterned after the Greek
HadesHades refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the god; the genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades"...
. It was ruled by
VanthVanth is a chthonic figure in Etruscan mythology shown in a variety of forms of funerary art, such as in tomb paintings and on sarcophagi. Vanth is a female demon in the Etruscan underworld that is often accompanied either by additional Vanth figures or by another demon, Charun . Both Vanth and...
. The deceased was guided there by
CharunIn Etruscan mythology, Charun acted as one of the psychopompoi of the underworld, not to be confused with the lord of the underworld, known to the Etruscans as Aita...
, the equivalent of Death, who wielded a hammer and was blue. The Etruscan Hades was populated by Greek mythological figures and also a few native, such as
TuchulchaIn Etruscan mythology, Tulchulcha was a chthonic daemon with pointed ears , and hair made of snakes and a beak...
, of composite appearance.
Sources
The mythology is attested 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 languageThe Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna , in Italy...
) and on
specula (ornate hand mirrors). Currently some two dozen fascicles of the
Corpus Speculorum EtruscorumCorpus Speculorum Etruscorum is an international project with the goal to publish all existing Etruscan bronze mirrors. The first volumes were published in 1981 and since then over 25 fascicles have been produced.-Background:...
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 RixHelmut Rix was a German linguist and professor of the Sprachwissenschaftliches Seminar of Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany....
,
Etruskische Texte.
Mythological systems
The primary trinity included
TiniaThe Etruscan bright sky god Tinia was the highest god in Etruscan mythology, the Etruscan equivalent of the Roman Jupiter and the Greek Zeus. He was the husband of Thalna or Uni and the father of Heracle....
,
UniUni was the supreme goddess of the Etruscan pantheon and the patron goddess of Perugia. Uni was identified by the Etruscans as their equivalent of Juno in Roman mythology and Hera in Greek mythology....
and
MenrvaMenrva was an Etruscan goddess of war, art, wisdom and health. She contributed a lot of her character to Roman Minerva....
.
List of Etruscan mythological figures