Demons and gods of the underworld in Etruscan mythology. Report: Etruscan mythology Polytheistic belief system
the controversy and uncertainty of the etruscan enthogenesis prevents the determination of the circumstances and time of formation of the mythology of the people. Comparing it with a myth. other ancient peoples allows with enough. It is certain that the origins of E. m. go back to the region. Aegean-Anatolian world, from where, acc. domination In ancient times, it was believed (first by Herodotus) that the ancestors of the Etruscans arrived - the Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians. East features of E. m. yavl. the presence of representation in it. about the sacred character of royal power, religion. attributes - double axe, throne, etc., complex cosmogony. system, in plural close cosmogony of Egypt and Babylonia. During the contact of the Etruscans with the Greek. colonists in Italy and on the adjacent islands were separated. the most ancient Etruscan gods with the Olympian gods, borrowing the Greek by the Etruscans. myths and their reinterpretation in the spirit of their own. religious and political ideology. The universe was presented to the Etruscans in the form of three stages. temple, in which the top. stage resp. the sky, the middle one - the earth's surface, the lower one - the underground kingdom. The imaginary parallelism between these three structures made it possible to predict the fate of a person by the location of the luminaries in the upper - visible one. clan, people and every individual. The lower structure, invisible and inaccessible to living people, was considered an underground dwelling. gods and demons, kingdom of the dead. In rep. Etruscan middle and lower structures conn. passages in the form of faults in the earth's crust, along which they descended souls of the dead. Similarities of such faults in the form of a pit (mundus) were built in every Etruscan city for making sacrifices underground gods and the souls of ancestors. Along with the representation there was an idea about dividing the world vertically. o horizontal. division into four cardinal directions; at the same time in the zap. part was placed evil gods and demons, in the east. - kind ones. The Etruscan pantheon includes many gods, in most cases known only by name and the place occupied by each of them on the model of the oracle liver from Piacenza. Unlike the Greek myth., E. m., as a rule, did not have myths about the marriages of gods and their kinship. Ed. gods into triads and duals, where it is recorded in the source, was justified by their place in religion. hierarchy. To the most ancient religions. presented The Aegean-Anatolian world goes back to the Etruscan concept of gods conveying their will with the help of lightning. These included Tin, ident. from Greek Zeus and Rome. Jupiter. As the god of the sky, the thunder god Tin commanded three beams of lightning. The first of them he could warn people, the second he used only after consulting with twelve other gods, the third - the most terrible - he punished only after receiving the consent of the chosen gods. Thus, Tin, unlike Zeus, is the original. was not thought of as the king of the gods, but only as the head of their council, represented. modeled on the council of heads of Etruscan states. The goddess Turan, whose name meant “giver”, was considered the mistress of all living things and creatures. with Aphrodite. Greek Hera and Rome. Juno resp. goddess Uni, revered. in plural cities as the patroness of royal power. Together with Tin and Uni, founded by the Etruscans at the end. 6th century BC. In the Capitoline Temple in Rome, Menva (Roman: Minerva), the patron saint, was revered. crafts and artisans. These three deities made up the Etruscan triad, cut accordingly. Rome. triad: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. God Aplu, ident. from Greek Apollo, the original was perceived by the Etruscans as a god protecting people, their herds and crops. God Turms, resp. Greek Hermes, was considered the deity of the underworld, the conductor of the souls of the dead. Greek to the god Hephaestus - the owner of the underground fire and the blacksmith, respectively. Etruscan Seflans. He is a participant in the scene, depicted. Uni's punishment on Tin's orders. In the city of Populonia, Seflans was revered under it. Velhans (hence the Roman Vulcan). Judging by the plural image on mirrors, gems, coins, the god Nephuns occupied a prominent place. He has the characteristic attributes of a pestilence. deities - trident, anchor. Among the Etruscan deities of vegetation and fertility, the most popular was Fufluns, resp. Dionysus-Bacchus in Greek. myth. and Silvanus to Rome. The cult of Fufluns was orgiastic. The character was more ancient in Italy than the veneration of Dionysus-Bacchus. Sacred food state with the center in Volsinia led to the allocation of Ch. the deity of this city Voltumnus (the Romans called him Vertumnus). Sometimes he was portrayed as malicious. a monster, sometimes as a deity of vegetation, undefined. gender, sometimes in the form of a warrior. These images may have reflected the stages of transformation of the local chthonic. deities in "Ch. god of Etruria,” as Varro calls him. The Etruscans included Satre among the gods of the “heavenly valley,” believing that he, like Tin, could strike with lightning. Cosmogonic was associated with the god Satre. teaching and representation about the golden age - the coming era of abundance, universal equality (which is the corresponding idea about the Roman Saturn). God of Italian origin. was Maris (Roman Mars). In one of his functions he was the patron of vegetation, in another - of war. From Italian myth. The Etruscans accepted Maius as a chthonic. deity of vegetation. The Etruscans worshiped the god Selvans later. adopted by the Romans under it. Sylvan. The rulers of the underworld were Aita and Fersiphaus (corresponding to the Greek gods Hades and Persephone). It is likely that certain names of Etruscan wives. deities were the original. epithets of the great mother goddess, indicating certain of her functions - wisdom, art, etc. Along with the cult of gods, the Etruscans had a cult of evil and good demons. Their image. saved buried on mirrors and frescoes. crypts. The bestial features in the iconography of demons suggest that they have an original origin. priest animals relegated to the background as anthropomorphic gods emerge. Demons are often depicted. as companions and servants of the gods. The death demon Haru (Harun) is more than kin. to him Greek Charon, the carrier of the souls of the dead, retained his independent features. deities. On earlier monuments, Haru is an ominous and silent witness to the torments of death, then the messenger of death and, finally, under the influence of the Greek. myth. - guide of souls to the underground. kingdom, usurping this role from Turms (Greek Hermes). He had a lot in common with Haru Tukhulka, in the guise of whom he united. human and animal features. Haru and Tukhulka are often depicted. together as witnesses or executors of the will of the gods of the underworld. From the cult of deities. the number of demons-lazov (Roman lara) stood out as demonic. Laza creature. This is young nudity. woman with wings behind her back. She is depicted on mirrors and urns. scene participant love content. Her attributes were a mirror, tablets with stylus, and flowers. The meaning of meetings. in the inscriptions of the epithets of Laza: Evan, Alpan, Mlakus - remains unclear. By analogy with Rome. Larami, it can be assumed that the Laz were good deities, patrons of the house and home. hearth. Demonich. there were many manas (Roman manas) - good and evil demons. To the demons the afterlife belonged to Vanf. He will depict Etruscan. the claim has preserved many myths known from Greek. myth. Etruscan artists preferred subjects related to sacrifices and bloody battles. The frescoes of Etruscan tombs often represent images. closed cycles of scenes of death, travel to the afterlife and judgment of the souls of the dead.
Uni Tezan Tin Satre Aita Aplu Herkle Kulsans Menwa NortiaAplu figure. 550-520 BC e.
Mirror with images of satyrs and maenads. OK. 480 BC e.
Gerekele and Mlakukh. Bronze mirror. OK. 500-475 BC e.
The controversy and uncertainty of the ethnogenesis of the Etruscans prevents the determination of the circumstances and time of formation of the mythology of the people. Comparing it with the mythologies of other ancient peoples allows us to assert with sufficient confidence that the origins of Etruscan mythology go back to the region of the Aegean-Anatolian world, from where, according to the prevailing opinion in ancient times (for the first time in Herodotus I 94), the ancestors of the Etruscans, the Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians, arrived. The eastern features of E. m. are the presence in it of ideas about the sacred nature of royal power, religious attributes - a double ax, a throne, etc., a complex cosmogonic system, in many ways close to the cosmogony of Egypt and Babylonia. During the contact of the Etruscans with the Greek colonists in Italy and on the adjacent islands, the most ancient Etruscan gods were identified with the Olympian gods, borrowed by the Etruscans Greek myths and their reinterpretation in the spirit of their own religious and political ideology.
The universe was presented to the Etruscans in the form of a three-tiered temple, in which the upper step corresponded to the sky, the middle – to the earth’s surface, and the lower – to the underground kingdom. The imaginary parallelism between these three structures made it possible to predict the fate of the human race, people and each individual by the location of the luminaries in the upper visible one. The lower structure, invisible and inaccessible to living people, was considered the abode of underground gods and demons, the kingdom of the dead. In the ideas of the Etruscans, the middle and lower structures were connected by passages in the form of faults in the earth's crust, along which the souls of the dead descended. Similarities of such faults in the form of a pit (mundus) were built in every Etruscan city to make sacrifices to the underground gods and the souls of their ancestors. Along with the idea of dividing the world vertically, there was the idea of horizontal division into four cardinal directions; at the same time, evil gods and demons were placed in the western part, and good ones in the eastern part.
The Etruscan pantheon includes many gods, in most cases known only by name and the place each of them occupies on a model of the oracle liver from Piacenza.
Unlike Greek mythology, E. m., as a rule, did not have myths about the marriages of gods and their kinship. The unification of gods into triads and duals, where it is recorded in the sources, was justified by their place in the religious hierarchy.
The Etruscan concept of gods conveying their will with the help of lightning goes back to the most ancient religious ideas of the Aegean-Anatolian world. These included Tinus, identified with the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter. As the god of the sky, the thunder god Tin commanded three beams of lightning. The first of them he could warn people, the second he used only after consulting with twelve other gods, the third - the most terrible - he punished only after receiving the consent of the chosen gods. Thus, Tin, unlike Zeus, was initially thought of not as the king of the gods, but only as the head of their council, modeled on the council of heads of Etruscan states. The goddess Turan, whose name meant “giver,” was considered the mistress of all living things and was identified with Aphrodite. The Greek Hera and Roman Juno corresponded to the goddess Uni, who was revered in many cities as the patroness of royal power. Together with Tin and Uni, founded by the Etruscans at the end. 6th century BC e. In the Capitoline Temple in Rome, Menva (Roman Minerva), the patroness of crafts and artisans, was revered.
These three deities made up the Etruscan triad, which corresponded to the Roman triad: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. The god Aplu (see figure), identified with the Greek Apollo, was initially perceived by the Etruscans as a god protecting people, their herds and crops. The god Turms, corresponding to the Greek Hermes, was considered a deity of the underworld, a conductor of the souls of the dead. The Greek god Hephaestus, the master of underground fire and a blacksmith, corresponds to the Etruscan Sephlans. He is a participant in the scene depicting Uni's punishment under Tin's orders. In the city of Populonia, Seflans was revered under the name Velhans (hence the Roman Vulcan). Judging by the many images on mirrors, gems, and coins, the god Nefuns occupied a prominent place. He has the characteristic attributes of a sea deity - a trident, an anchor. Among the Etruscan deities of vegetation and fertility, the most popular was Fufluns, corresponding to Dionysus-Bacchus in Greek mythology and Silvanus in Roman (see figure). The cult of Fufluns was orgiastic in nature and was more ancient in Italy than the veneration of Dionysus-Bacchus. The sacred unification of states with a center in Volsinia led to the identification of the main deity of this city, Voltumnus (the Romans called him Vertumnus). Sometimes he was depicted as a malicious monster, sometimes as a vegetation deity of indeterminate gender, sometimes as a warrior. These images may have reflected the stages of transformation of a local chthonic deity into the “chief god of Etruria,” as Varro calls him (Antiquitatum rerum... V 46).
The Etruscans included Satre among the gods of the “heavenly valley,” believing that he, like Tin, could strike with lightning. The god Satre was associated with cosmogonic teaching and the idea of a golden age - the coming era of abundance, universal equality (which corresponds to the idea of the Roman Saturn). The god of Italian origin was Maris (Roman Mars). In one of his functions he was the patron of vegetation, in another - of war. From Italic mythology, the Etruscans adopted Maius, the chthonic deity of vegetation. The Etruscans revered the god Selvans, later adopted by the Romans under the name Silvanus. The lords of the underworld were Aita and Fersifai (respective Greek gods Hades and Persephone).
It is likely that some of the names of Etruscan female deities were originally epithets of the great mother goddess, indicating certain of her functions - wisdom, art, etc.
Along with the cult of gods, the Etruscans had a cult of evil and good demons. Their images are preserved on mirrors and frescoes of burial crypts. The bestial features in the iconography of demons suggest that they were originally sacred animals, pushed into the background as anthropomorphic gods emerged. Demons were often depicted as companions and servants of the gods. The death demon Haru (Harun), more than his related Greek carrier of the souls of the dead, Charon, retained the features of an independent deity.
On earlier monuments, Haru is an ominous and silent witness of mortal pain, then a messenger of death and, finally, under the influence of Greek mythology, a guide of souls in the underworld, usurping this role from Turms (Greek Hermes). Tukhulka had a lot in common with Haru, whose appearance combines human and animal features. Haru and Tukhulka are often depicted together as witnesses or executors of the will of the gods of the underworld.
From the cult of the divine multitude of Laz demons (Roman Lares), the demonic creature Laza emerged. This is a young naked woman with wings behind her back. On mirrors and urns she was depicted as a participant in love scenes. Her attributes were a mirror, tablets with stylus, and flowers. The meaning of the Laza epithets found in the inscriptions: Evan, Alpan, Mlakus remains unclear.
By analogy with the Roman Lares, it can be assumed that the Laz were good deities, patrons of the home and hearth. The demonic set were manas (Roman manas) - good and evil demons. Vanf was one of the demons of the underworld.
Etruscan fine art preserved many myths known from Greek mythology. Etruscan artists preferred subjects related to sacrifices and bloody battles. The frescoes of Etruscan tombs often depict closed cycles of scenes of death, travel to the afterlife and judgment of the souls of the dead. (see picture)
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- Ivanov V.V., Notes on the typology and comparative historical study of Roman and Indo-European mythology, in the book: Works on sign systems, vol. 4, Tartu, 1969;
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- Grenier A., Les religions et trusque et romaine, P., 1948;
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- Mühlestein H., Die Etrusker im Spiegel ihrer Kunst, V., 1969;
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Etruscans- an ancient mysterious people who once lived on the Apennine Peninsula, in the territory of modern Italy. Etruria is a region of Tuscany located between the Tiber and Arno rivers. The Greeks knew the Etruscans under the name Tyrrhenians or Tyrsenians, and this was preserved in the name of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Their history can be traced back to approximately 1000 BC. e. up to the 1st century. n. e., when the Etruscans were finally assimilated by the Romans. When and where the Etruscans came to Italy is unclear, and their language is considered non-Indo-European by most scholars. The Etruscans experienced the enormous influence of ancient Greek culture, which also affected religion. Thus, many of the scenes on Etruscan mirrors are undoubtedly of Greek origin; this is proven by the names of many characters written in the Etruscan alphabet in the Etruscan language, but of undoubted Greek origin. Many Etruscan beliefs became part of the culture Ancient Rome; It was believed that the Etruscans were the keepers of knowledge about many rituals that were not well known to the Romans.
Etruscan fine art preserved many myths known from Greek mythology. Etruscan artists preferred subjects related to sacrifices and bloody battles. The frescoes of Etruscan tombs often depict closed cycles of scenes of death, travel to the afterlife and judgment of the souls of the dead.
Their borders converged in the area where Rome arose.
The Etruscans, who were the most powerful tribe of Italy before the Romans, lived in a country rich in olives and grapes in the valleys and slopes of the Apennines, along the coast of this region, and from the mouth of the Padus to the northern bank of the Tiber. They early formed a federation consisting of twelve independent cities (the Etruscan Twelve Cities). These Etruscan cities were: in the north-west Cortona, Arretium, Clusium and Perusia (near Lake Trasimene); in the southeast of Volaterra, Vetulonia (which had its harbor at Telamon), Rusella and Volsinia; in the south of Tarquinia, Caere (Agilla), Veii, Faleria (near Mount Sorakte, rising alone on the plain). At first, all these states had kings, but early (even before the 4th century) the kingship was abolished, and all spiritual and temporal power began to belong to the aristocracy. There was no union government in the Etruscan federation. During the war, some cities probably entered into alliances with each other by voluntary agreement.
Etruria and the conquests of the Etruscans in the VIII-VI centuries. BC
The legend of Demaratus indicates that the Etruscan federation from an early time was in relations with the commercial and industrial city of Corinth. She says that the Corinthian Demaratus settled in Tarquinia, that the painter Clephant and the sculptors Euheir (“skillful-handed”) and Eugram (“skillful draftsman”) came with him, that he brought the alphabet to Tarquinia. Written monuments and drawings that have come down to us from the Etruscans also show Greek influence on this wonderful people. Their language shows no trace of kinship with either Greek or Italic; We have not yet learned to understand what is written on it, but we reliably see that it did not belong to the Indo-Germanic family. The Etruscans borrowed the alphabet from the Greeks, no doubt in very ancient times, and not through the Latins, but directly from the Greek colonists of Southern Italy, as can be seen from the differences in the forms and meanings of the letters of the Etruscan alphabet from the Latin ones. Clay urns and other vessels with black designs found at Tarquinia and Caere also show the connection between Etruscan painting and plastic art and Greek art: these vases are strikingly similar to Greek ones from the ancient period.
Etruscan trade and industry
The development of cities was facilitated by the fact that the Etruscans took up trade and industry. Since a very long time, Phoenician, Carthaginian and Greek merchant ships sailed to the Etruscan coast, which had good harbors; Agilla, located near the mouth of the Tiber, was a convenient pier for the exchange of goods.
Judging by the shape of the Etruscan vases and the exceptional love of Etruscan artists for depicting scenes from Greek myths and tales of heroes, it must be assumed that the school of art that flourished in southern Etruria was a branch of the Peloponnesian school. But the Etruscans did not borrow the later, more advanced style from the Greeks; they remained forever with the ancient Greek. The reason for this could be that the influence of the Greeks on the Etruscan coast subsequently decreased. It weakened, perhaps because the Etruscans, in addition to honest maritime trade, were also engaged in robbery; their piracy made the Tyrrhenian name a terror to the Greeks. Another reason for the weakening of Greek influence on the Etruscans was that they developed their own commercial and industrial activities. Owning the coastal region from Tarquinia and Caere to Capua, to the bays and capes near Vesuvius, very convenient for navigation, the Etruscans themselves soon began to export expensive products of their country to foreign lands: iron mined on Ilva (Etalia, i.e. Elbe), Campanian and Volaterran copper, Populonian silver and amber that reached them from the Baltic Sea. By bringing goods themselves to foreign markets, they made more profit than when trading through intermediaries. They began to strive to oust the Greeks from the northwestern part of the Mediterranean Sea. For example, they, in alliance with the Carthaginians, drove the Phocians out of Corsica and forced the inhabitants of this poor island to pay them tribute with its products: resin, wax, honey. In addition to pottery, the Etruscans were famous for their foundry art and metal work in general.
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan funeral urn. VI century BC
It is very likely that the Romans borrowed from the Etruscans their instruments of military music and attire, just as they borrowed their haruspices from them, religious ceremonies, folk holidays, construction art, land surveying rules. Ancient writers say that from Etruria the Romans took their religious-dramatic games, circus games, common theaters in which actors, dancers and jesters played crude farces; that they also borrowed from the Etruscans gladiator fights, magnificent processions of victors returning from war (triumphs) and many other customs. These ancient reports are confirmed by the latest research. The development of the building art of the Etruscan civilization is evidenced by the remains of huge structures, such as, for example, the colossal walls of Volaterr and other cities, the tomb of Porsena in Clusia, the ruins of huge temples, the remains of huge mounds, roads, tombs and other underground structures with arches, canals (for example, called Philistine ditches). The very name “Tyrrenians”, in the ancient form “Tyrseni”, is derived by ancient writers from the fact that the Etruscans built high towers (“thyrsi”) on the seashore to repel enemy landings. Like the Cyclopean walls in the Peloponnese, the structures of the Etruscan civilization are built from large blocks of stone, sometimes hewn, sometimes rough, and lying on top of each other without cement.
The development of technical arts among the Etruscans was favored by the fact that their land had a lot of good materials: soft limestone and tuff were easy to cut to build strong walls; Fat plastic clay took all forms well. The abundance of copper, iron, gold, and silver led to foundry, to the minting of coins, to the manufacture of all kinds of metal tools and accessories. The main difference between Greek and Etruscan art was that among the Greeks art strove for ideal goals and developed according to the laws of beauty, while among the Etruscans it served only needs practical life and luxury; Remaining fixed in its ideals, Etruscan art tried to replace their improvement with the preciousness of material and pretentiousness of style. It has forever preserved the character of handicraft work.
Social system of the Etruscans
The Etruscan people were formed from a mixture of different tribes: the newcomers conquered the former population and placed them in the position of a class subject to them; We see this reliably from many facts preserved in historical times. The diversity of the population is especially evidenced by the fact that the Etruscans had a class of subject people, which the rest of the Italian peoples did not have; the subject people were, without a doubt, descendants of the former population of the country, conquered by the newcomers. The Etruscan cities were ruled by an aristocracy, which was both a military and priestly class: it performed religious rites, commanded the army, and carried out justice; the owner of the estate was at the court the representative of the commoner under his control in his litigation; commoners were subordinate to the owners, whose land they cultivated, paid taxes to their masters or worked for them. “Without this enslavement of the masses of the people, it would hardly have been possible for the Etruscans to erect their enormous structures,” says Niebuhr. Scientists have different opinions about which tribes were the classes of owners and subject people. But in all likelihood the natives belonged to the Umbrian tribe, which in ancient times occupied a very wide area, or were closely related to them. It seems that the descendants of this former population remained especially numerous in the southern parts of the Etruscan land between the Tsimin forest and the Tiber. The dominant, so-called Etruscan tribe, undoubtedly came from the north from the Po Valley. Ancient writers had a very widespread opinion that the Etruscans moved to Italy from Asia Minor; it is also proven by modern research.
Aristocrats called Lucumoni ruled the Etruscan cities. Their general meeting probably decided on union affairs and, in cases of need, elected a union ruler, who, as a distinction of his rank, had an ivory chair, called a curule, and a toga with a purple trim, and who was accompanied by twelve police officers (lictors) who had bunches of sticks with an ax inserted into them (chamfers, fasces). But this elected head and high priest of the union had quite little power over the cities and aristocrats. The Etruscans loved to give outward shine to their rulers, but did not give them independent power. The twelve cities that made up the union had equal rights, and their independence was little constrained by the allied ruler. Even for the defense of the country they were probably rarely united. The Etruscans, alien to the Italians, soon became accustomed to sending mercenary troops to war.
The Etruscans did not have a free middle class; the oligarchic social system was inevitably associated with unrest; therefore, in the Etruscan states, a decline in energy began early, resulting in political impotence. Agriculture and industry once flourished in them, they had many military and trading ships, they fought with the Greeks and Carthaginians for dominion in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea; but the enslavement of the masses weakened the Etruscan states; The townspeople and villagers had no moral energy.
The Etruscan aristocracy, which at the same time was the priestly class, left with its monopoly those astronomical, physical and other information on which worship was based. The Lucumons performed public sacrifices and fortune-telling using sacrificial animals (haruspices), established an annual calendar, i.e., holiday times, and managed military and peaceful public affairs. They alone knew how to explain signs and recognize the will of the gods from them; They alone knew the laws and customs that had to be observed when founding cities, building temples, when surveying the land, when setting up a military camp. They spread the Etruscan culture across the Pada plain, brought it into the mountains, taught the wild mountain tribes the simplest crafts, and gave them the alphabet. In the early days of Rome, as Livy says, noble Roman youths came to them to learn sacred knowledge. Among the Etruscans, women could also interpret the will of the gods. The Romans had a legend about the soothsayer Tanaquila, the wife of Tarquin the Elder; The Romans kept her spinning wheel in the temple of Sanca.
The Etruscan culture was at a fairly high level of development; the ruins of their structures testify to the enormity and daring of their architectural and engineering work; their painted vases, copper statues, beautiful dishes, elegant decorations, their coins and carved stones surprise us with their beautiful technique; but Etruscan art and, in general, all Etruscan education did not have a national character, were deprived of creative power, and therefore did not have strength, they were alien to progressive development. The Etruscan culture soon stagnated and was subjected to the numbness of craft routine. Knowledge did not have a beneficial, softening effect on social life among the Etruscans. It remained the privilege of the ruling class, isolated from the people by the right of birthright into a closed caste, was inextricably linked with religion and surrounded by the horrors of dark superstition.
The Etruscans loved to excess to enjoy the abundant gifts of nature of their country and early indulged in luxury. Twice a day they ate long and a lot; This gluttony seemed strange and bad to the Greeks, who were moderate in food. The Etruscans loved pampered music, skillful dancing, and the cheerful singing of the Fescennians national holidays, terrible spectacles of gladiatorial combat. Their houses were full of patterned carpets, silver dishes, bright paintings, and all sorts of expensive things. The Etruscan servants consisted of whole crowds of richly dressed male and female slaves. Their art did not have Greek idealism and was alien to development; there was no moderation and simplicity in their way of life. The Etruscans did not have that strict family life like the rest of the Italic tribes, there was no complete subordination of the wife and children to the will of the householder, there was no strict sense of legality and justice.
Etruscan painting. Around 480 BC.
Etruscan colonies
The Etruscans founded colonies, the most famous of which were: in the north Fezula, Florence, Pistoria, Luca, Luna, Pisa; in the south Capua and Nola. Etruscan names are also found on the southern bank of the Tiber. Tradition says that on the Caelian hill there was an Etruscan village founded by a newcomer from Volsinia, Celes Vibenna, and after his death, which had as its ruler his faithful associate, Mastarna; in Rome, on the lowland adjacent to the Palatine Hill, there was a part of the city called Etruscan; this name shows that there was once an Etruscan colony here too. Some scholars even believed that the legend about the Tarquin kings means the period of Etruscan rule over Rome and that Mastarna is the king whom the Roman chronicles call Servius Tullius. The Etruscan colonies preserved the laws, customs, and federal structure of their homeland.
Etruscan gods
Alien to the Old Italian tribes by origin, language, way of life, character, culture, the Etruscans also had a religion significantly different from their beliefs and rituals. Greek influence, manifested throughout the Etruscan civilization and explained by their trade relations with Greece and with the Italian colonies of the Greeks, is also found in the Etruscan religion; It is obvious that the Etruscans from a very long time succumbed to the attractiveness of Greek culture and mythology, the spread of which different nations united different religions, introduced a cosmopolitan character into aesthetic ideas and their poetry.
Etruscan painting. Feast scene. V century BC
The Etruscans still had their own deities, who were highly respected in those cities in which they were objects of local cult. Such were in Volsinia the patron goddess of the Etruscan federation Voltumna and Nortia (Northia), the goddess of time and fate, in whose temple a nail was driven into the crossbar annually to count the years; in Caere and in the seaside city of Pyrgi such were the forest god Silvanus and the benevolent “mother Matuta,” the goddess of the day of birth and every birth, at the same time the patroness of ships, bringing them safely to the harbor. But besides these native deities, we find among the Etruscans many Greek gods and heroes; They especially revered Apollo, Hercules and the heroes of the Trojan war. The Etruscans respected the Delphic Temple so much that a special treasury was built in its sacred enclosure for their offerings.
The Etruscan king of the gods, the thunderer Tina, whom the Romans called Jupiter, corresponded to Zeus; the Etruscan goddess Cupra (Juno), goddess of the citadel of the city of Veii, patroness of cities and women, corresponded to Hera, and her service was accompanied by the same magnificent games and processions. Menerfa (Minerva) was, like Pallas Athena, the divine power of reason, the patroness of crafts, the female art of spinning wool and weaving, the inventor of the flute, which was played during worship, and the military trumpet; goddess heavenly heights, throwing lightning from them, she was also the goddess of military art. Apollo (Aplou) was also among the Etruscans the god of light, a healer of diseases, and a cleanser from sins. Vertumnus, the god of fruits, who changed his appearance according to the seasons, the correct change of which he produced by the rotation of the sky, was among the Etruscans, like the Greek Dionysus, the personification of the course of annual changes in vegetation and in field labor; the change of flowers by fruits and the diversity of vegetation are expressed by the fact that Vertumnus takes on different forms and different emblems. Its main holiday, called Vertumnalia by the Romans, took place in October, at the end of the grape and fruit harvest, and was accompanied by folk games, amusements and a fair. The Etruscans borrowed from the Greeks, and from the Etruscans other Italic peoples borrowed the system of six gods and six goddesses, which was generally accepted in the colonies of the Greeks, as in Greece itself. These twelve deities formed a council, and therefore the Romans, who borrowed this idea of them from the Etruscans, were called consentes “co-sitters”; they ruled the course of affairs in the universe, and each of them was in charge of human affairs in one of the twelve months of the year. But they were lesser deities; Above them, the Etruscans had other deities, the mysterious forces of fate, the “veiled gods,” not known by name or number, who lived in the innermost region of the sky and grouped around Jupiter, the king of the gods and ruler of the universe, who questioned them; Their activity manifested itself to the human spirit only during great catastrophes.
Spirits in the Etruscan religion
In addition to these "covered" and lower deities, who were independent personal beings, separated from the infinite divine power, the Etruscans, other Italic peoples and subsequently the Romans, like the Greeks, had an innumerable number of spirits, the activity of which, indefinite in its extent, supported the life of nature and of people. These were the patron spirits of clans, communities, localities; for a family, city, district, under the patronage of famous spirits, serving them was of the greatest importance. Among the Etruscans, whose character was gloomy, prone to painful thoughts, the activity of these spirits, and especially the terrible side of it, had a very wide scope.
The cult of death and ideas about the underworld among the Etruscans
The Etruscan religion, equally far from the clear rationalism of the Roman and the bright, humane plasticism of the Greek, was, like the character of the people, gloomy and fantastic; in it important role played symbolic numbers; there was a lot of cruelty in its dogmas and rituals. The Etruscans often sacrificed slaves and prisoners of war to angry gods; the Etruscan kingdom of the dead, where the souls of the dead wandered (manes, as the Romans called them) and mute deities, Mantus and Mania, ruled, was a world of horror and suffering; in it, fierce creatures in the form of women, called furies by the Romans, tormented the dead; there, to suffer from beatings with sticks and biting snakes, Harun, a winged old man with a large hammer, took souls.
Chimera from Arezzo. An example of Etruscan art. V century BC
Fortune telling among the Etruscans
The Etruscans were very inclined to mysterious teachings and rituals; They greatly developed and from them passed on to the Romans state fortune telling (divinatio, as this art was called by the Romans): fortune telling by the flight of birds (augury), by the flash of lightning (fulgury), by the entrails of sacrificial animals (haruspicy); the art of fortune telling, based on superstition and deception, was developed by the Etruscans and acquired such respect among the Romans and the Italians in general that they did not undertake any important state business without questioning the gods through auguries or haruspices; when unfavorable signs occurred, rituals of reconciliation with the gods were performed; extraordinary natural phenomena (prodigia), happy or unlucky omens (omina) had an influence on all decisions. This feature of the Italians came from their deep faith in fate. The belief in oracles, in omens with which the gods give advice and warnings, borrowed from the Etruscans, was as strong in the Italian folk religion and then in the official religion of Rome as in any other, and the service of the deities of fate, Fortune and Fate (Fatum) was not was nowhere as widespread as in Italy.
The Romans adopted many types of fortune telling from the Etruscans. Auguries were the name given to fortune-telling about the future, about the will of the gods by the flight or cry of certain birds and especially eagles. The augur (“bird teller”) stood in an open place (templum), from which the entire sky was visible, and divided the sky into parts with a crooked rod (lituus); The flight of birds from some parts foreshadowed happiness, from others - misfortune. Another way to find out from the actions of the birds whether the planned business would be successful was to give food to the sacred chickens and see if they eat; Not only the priests, but also all patricians who wanted to occupy government positions should have known the rules of this fortune-telling in Rome. The fulgurators observed the appearance of lightning (fulgur), through which the gods also proclaimed their will; if the lightning was unfavorable, then rituals were performed to soften the anger of the gods; - The Etruscans considered lightning to be the most reliable of all heavenly signs. The place where lightning fell was sanctified; They sacrificed a lamb on it, made a cover on it in the shape of a covered frame of a well, and surrounded it with a wall. Most often, the Etruscans performed fortune-telling through haruspices; they consisted in the fact that the fortuneteller who performed them, the haruspex, examined the heart, liver, other internal parts, and sacrificial animals; the rules of these fortune-telling were developed in great detail by the Etruscans. The art of fortune telling - auspices, as the Romans called them, was taught to the Etruscans by Tages, a dwarf with the face of a child and gray hair, who emerged from the ground near Tarquinia in a plowed field; Having taught the Lucumoni (Etruscan priests) the science of fortune telling, he immediately died. Tages's books, containing the doctrine of lightning, of fortune-telling, of the rules that must be observed when founding cities, of land surveying, were the source of all Etruscan and Roman manuals for the art of fortune-telling. The Etruscans had schools in which the art of auspices was taught by the Lucumoni, who knew this science well.
Literature about the Etruscans
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The controversy and uncertainty of the ethnogenesis of the Etruscans prevents the determination of the circumstances and time of formation of the mythology of the people. Comparing it with the mythologies of other ancient peoples allows us to assert with sufficient confidence that the origins of Etruscan mythology go back to the region of the Aegean-Anatolian world, from where, according to the prevailing opinion in ancient times (for the first time in Herodotus I 94), the ancestors of the Etruscans - the Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians - arrived. The eastern features of Etruscan mythology are the presence in it of ideas about the sacred nature of royal power, religious attributes - a double ax, a throne, etc., a complex cosmogonic system, in many ways close to the cosmogony of Egypt and Babylonia. During the contact of the Etruscans with the Greek colonists in Italy and on the adjacent islands, the ancient Etruscan gods were identified with the Olympian gods, the Etruscans borrowed Greek myths and reinterpreted them in the spirit of their own religious and political ideology.
The Etruscans imagined the universe as a three-stage temple, in which the top stage corresponded to the sky, the middle to the earth's surface, and the bottom to the underground kingdom. The imaginary parallelism between these three structures made it possible to predict the fate of the human race, people and each individual by the location of the luminaries in the upper - visible - one. The lower structure, invisible and inaccessible to living people, was considered the abode of underground gods and demons, the kingdom of the dead. In the ideas of the Etruscans, the middle and lower structures were connected by passages in the form of faults in the earth's crust, along which the souls of the dead descended. Similarities of such faults in the form of a pit (mundus) were built in every Etruscan city to make sacrifices to the underground gods and the souls of their ancestors. Along with the idea of dividing the world vertically, there was the idea of horizontal division into four cardinal directions; at the same time, evil gods and demons were placed in the western part, and good ones in the eastern part.
The Etruscan pantheon includes many gods, in most cases known only by name and the place each of them occupies on a model of the oracle liver from Piacenza.
Unlike Greek mythology, Etruscan mythology, as a rule, did not have myths about the marriages of gods and their kinship. The unification of gods into triads and duals, where it is recorded in the sources, was justified by their place in the religious hierarchy. The Etruscan concept of gods conveying their will with the help of lightning goes back to the most ancient religious ideas of the Aegean-Anatolian world. These included Tin, identified with the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter. As the god of the sky, the thunder god Tin commanded three beams of lightning. The first of them he could warn people, the second he used only after consulting with twelve other gods, the third - the most terrible - he punished only after receiving the consent of the chosen gods. Thus, Tin, unlike Zeus, was initially conceived not as the king of the gods, but only as the head of their council, modeled on the council of heads of Etruscan states. The goddess Turan, whose name meant “giver,” was considered the mistress of all living things and was identified with Aphrodite. The Greek Hera and Roman Juno corresponded to the goddess Uni, who was revered in many cities as the patroness of royal power. Together with Tin and Uni, founded by the Etruscans at the end of the 6th century. BC. In the Capitoline Temple in Rome, Menva (Roman Minerva), the patroness of crafts and artisans, was revered. These three deities made up the Etruscan triad, which corresponded to the Roman triad: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. The god Aplu, identified with the Greek Apollo, was initially perceived by the Etruscans as a god who protected people, their herds and crops. The god Turms, corresponding to the Greek Hermes, was considered the deity of the underworld, the guide of the souls of the dead. The Greek god Hephaestus, the master of underground fire and a blacksmith, corresponds to the Etruscan Sephlans. He is a participant in the scene depicting Uni's punishment under Tin's orders. In the city of Populonia, Seflans was revered under the name Velhans (hence the Roman Vulcan). Judging by the many images on mirrors, gems, and coins, the god Nefuns occupied a prominent place. He has the characteristic attributes of a sea deity - a trident, an anchor. Among the Etruscan deities of vegetation and fertility, the most popular was Fufluns, corresponding to Dionysus-Bacchus in Greek mythology and Silvanus in Roman mythology. The cult of Fufluns was orgiastic in nature and was more ancient in Italy than the veneration of Dionysus-Bacchus. The sacred unification of states with a center in Volsinia led to the identification of the main deity of this city, Voltumnus (the Romans called him Vertumnus). Sometimes he was depicted as a malicious monster, sometimes as a vegetation deity of indeterminate gender, sometimes as a warrior. These images may have reflected the stages of transformation of a local chthonic deity into the “chief god of Etruria,” as Varro calls him (Antiquitatum rerum... V 46). The Etruscans included Satre among the gods of the “heavenly valley,” believing that he, like Tin, could strike with lightning. The god Satre was associated with cosmogonic teaching and the idea of a golden age - the coming era of abundance, universal equality (which corresponds to the idea of the Roman Saturn). The god of Italian origin was Maris (Roman Mars). In one of his functions he was the patron of vegetation, in another - of war. From Italic mythology, the Etruscans adopted Maius, the chthonic deity of vegetation. The Etruscans revered the god Selvans, who was later adopted by the Romans under the name Silvanus. The rulers of the underworld were Aita and Fersiphaus (corresponding to the Greek gods Hades and Persephone). It is likely that some of the names of Etruscan female deities were originally epithets of the great mother goddess, indicating certain of her functions - wisdom, art, etc.
Along with the cult of gods, the Etruscans had a cult of evil and good demons. Their images are preserved on mirrors and frescoes of burial crypts. The bestial features in the iconography of demons suggest that they were originally sacred animals, pushed into the background as anthropomorphic gods emerged. Demons were often depicted as companions and servants of the gods. The death demon Haru (Harun), more than his related Greek carrier of the souls of the dead, Charon, retained the features of an independent deity. On earlier monuments, Haru is an ominous and silent witness of mortal pain, then a messenger of death and, finally, under the influence of Greek mythology, a guide of souls in the underworld, usurping this role from Turms (Greek Hermes). Tukhulka had a lot in common with Haru, whose appearance combined human and animal features. Haru and Tukhulka are often depicted together as witnesses or executors of the will of the gods in the underworld. From the cult of the divine multitude of Laza demons (Roman Lares), the demonic creature Laza emerged. This is a young naked woman with wings behind her back. On mirrors and urns she was depicted as a participant in love scenes. Her attributes were a mirror, tablets with stylus, and flowers. The meaning of the Laza epithets found in the inscriptions: Evan, Alpan, Mlakus remains unclear. By analogy with the Roman Lares, it can be assumed that the Laz were good deities, patrons of the home and hearth. The demonic set were manas (Roman manas) - good and evil demons. Vanf was one of the demons of the underworld.
Etruscan fine art preserved many myths known from Greek mythology. Etruscan artists preferred subjects related to sacrifices and bloody battles. The frescoes of Etruscan tombs often depict closed cycles of scenes of death, travel to the afterlife and judgment of the souls of the dead.
Bibliography
To prepare this work, materials from the site http://greekroman.ru/ were used
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