Usil

Chariot fitting representing Usil, 500–475 BCE, Hermitage Museum

Usil is the Etruscan god of the sun, shown to be identified with Apulu (Apollo). His iconic depiction features Usil rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved Etruscan bronze mirror in late Archaic style, formerly on the Roman antiquities market.^[1] On Etruscan mirrors in the Classical style, Usil appears with an aureole.

He was identified with Apulu; appearing on an Etruscan mirror from the Vatican dating from the 4th century BC, on which Usil is seen holding the bow of Apulu.^[2]

Usil was identified with the Roman Sol and Greek Helios. However, while Usil is depicted as male in some artwork, there are also feminine depictions.^[3][4] There is also a connection with the indigenous Etruscan goddess Catha, who has been interpreted as having a solar character, however she has also been identified with a Lunar character.^[5] In artwork, Usil is shown in close association with the dawn goddess Thesan, something almost never seen with Helios and Eos.^[6]

Catha has been identified as "Solis Filia" meaning "Sun's Daughter", making Usil her father.^[7]

In the Liver of Piacenza

Since his name appears on the bronze liver of Piacenza, next to Tiur, meaning both "moon" and "month",^[8] since then Tiur has been identified as the name of the personification of the moon, but it was most likely a date. The inscriptions on the Pyrgi Tablets confirm that "tiur" was meant as "month" for datations,.^[9]

See also

• List of solar deities
• Catha
• Etruscan Religion

References

1. Noted by J. D. Beazley, "The World of the Etruscan Mirror" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 69 (1949:1–17) p. 3, fig. 1.
2. Nonoss 2015.
3. Haynes 2000.
4. De Grummond 2008.
5. de Grummond, Nancy T. (2008). "Moon over Pyrgi: Catha, an Etruscan Lunar Goddess?". American Journal of Archaeology. 112 (3): 419–428. doi:10.3764/aja.112.3.419. ISSN 0002-9114. JSTOR 20627480. S2CID 193046316.
6. De Grummond & Simon 2006.
7. de Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2004). "For the Mother and for the Daughter: Some Thoughts on Dedications from Etruria and Praeneste". Hesperia Supplements. 33: 351–370. ISSN 1064-1173. JSTOR 1354077.
8. Bonfante & Swaddling 2006.
9. Adiego 2016, p. 155.

Bibliography

• Adiego (2016). "The Etruscan Texts of the Pyrgi Golden Tablets: Certainties and Uncertainties". In Bellelli, Vincenzo; Xella, Paolo (eds.). Le lamine di Pyrgi: Nuovi studi sulle iscizione in etrusco e in fenicio nel cinquantenario della scoperta. Vol. I–X. Verona. p. 155.
• Bonfante, Larissa; Swaddling, Judith (2006). Etruscan Myths. The Legendary Past (77). British Museum/University of Texas. ISBN 9780714122380.
• De Grummond, Nancy Thomson; Simon, Erika, eds. (2006). The Religion of the Etruscans. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292782334.
• De Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2008). "Moon Over Pyrgi: Catha, an Etruscan Lunar Goddess?". American Journal of Archaeology. 112 (3): 419–428. doi:10.3764/aja.112.3.419. S2CID 193046316 – via University of Chicago Press.
• Haynes, Sybille (2000). Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. ISBN 9780892366002.
• Jannot, Jean-René (2005). Religion in Ancient Etruria. Translated by Whitehead, J.K. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299208448.
• Nonoss (2015). "Turan, Aritimi, Usil et l'énigmatique Letham..." Au Fil du Temps (in French). Retrieved 2016-03-25.