The center of his cult was Mount Soracte,[42][23][18][43][3][6][7] a sacred mountain located north of Rome, isolated in the middle of the countryside, in an area characterized by deep karst cavities and secondary volcanic phenomena; these phenomena were associated in antiquity with underworld deities,[26] whom the area was hence sacred to, such as the Roman Dīs Pater, syncretised with Śuri (Latin: Soranus).[23]
The priests of Soranus were called Hirpi Sorani, lit.'Wolves of Soranus' (from Sabine: hirpus, lit. 'wolf').[18][43][6][28][7]
They were considered skillful ornithomantists[26] and firewalkers; during the ceremonies, they walked on hot coals, holding the entrails of sacrificed goats.[23][40][47][48][7]
Furthermore, during the annual festivities in honor of Apollo Soranus and Feronia,[h] they walked barefoot among burning logs without being burned, for which they were forever released by the Roman Senate from military service and other liturgies.[26]
The Lupercalia, in the Roman religion, probably derive from these priests.[18]
Servius has preserved the following legend about them: once, during a sacrifice to Dīs Pater, several wolves ran up to the altar and stole the sacrificial pieces. The shepherds gave chase and ran to a cave – into Mount Soracte – from which such suffocating fumes emanated that those who pursued fell dead. The pestilence that soon spread throughout the country was connected with the death of the shepherds, while the oracle, to whom they turned for advice on how to get rid of the plague, replied that the plague would stop as soon as the inhabitants, like wolves, began to lead a robber life. These people took the name Hirpi Sorani (from Sabine: hirpus, lit. 'wolf') and devoted themselves to the cult of Soranus, later identified with Dīs Pater due their shared volcanic and underworld attributes.[23][26][7]
Under the solar theonym Usil (lit.'light' or 'sun'), Śuri is named alongside Catha on the right lobe (convex face) of the bronze Liver of Piacenza, which is separated into two lobes.[53][32]
Initially, some researchers supposed that the first lobe, where the gods of the lights and heavens are listed, could represent him, whereas the second an hypothetical partner named Tiur.[54][55]
In fact, his name appears next to the word tiur (lit.'moon' or 'month'),[56] that was purported to be the name of a lunar goddess, allegedly his consort, but since tiur actually meant "moon" and "month" (lunar month, equivalent to Greek mēnē), that inscription was most likely meant as a datation, as in the Pyrgi Tablets,[57] while his consort, also known by multiple epithets, was actually named Catha.[37]
In the Etruscan iconography, his theonym Usil[f] (also mentioned on the Liver of Piacenza) is the representation of power and strength.[63][64]
His iconic depiction features the sun god 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.[65] On Etruscan mirrors in Classical style, he appears with a halo.
Syncretised with the GreekHelios and RomanSol, and later Apollo (Apulu), the sun god also appears on an Etruscan mirror from the Vatican dating from the 4th century BC, on which Usil is seen holding the bow of Apulu.[32]
Besides, in artwork Usil is shown in close association with Thesan, the dawn goddess, something almost never seen with Helios and Eos.[62]
However, while Usil is depicted as male in most artworks, there are also feminine depictions.[66][67]
Typical depictions of Charun. From an Etruscan red-figure calyx-crater. End of the 4th century BCE, or beginning of the 3rd. On the right: Ajax killing a Trojan prisoner in front of Charun.
This animalistic god of the dead, also called Calu (lit.'dark' or 'darkness' or 'underworld'),[b] is equally identified by his wolf attributes, such as a wolf-like appearance or a wolf-skin cap;[77] and although the equivalent grecism Aita (lit.'Hades' or 'underworld') is very rarely depicted, he may appear enthroned and sometimes wears a wolf-skin cap, borrowing a key attribute from earlier Calu.[21]
Indeed, the theonym Aita is a relatively late addition to the Etruscan pantheon, appearing in iconography and in Etruscan text beginning in the 4th century BC, and is heavily influenced by his Greek counterpart, Hades.[78][79]
Pictured in only a few instances in Etruscan tomb painting, such as in the Golini Tomb from Orvieto and the tomb of Orcus II from Tarquinia,[46][5] he is shown with his consort Persipnei or Phersipnai, the Etruscan equivalent to the Greek Persephone.[52]
Other examples of Aita in Etruscan art depict his abduction of Persipnei.
Aside from tomb painting, he may be identified in a few examples in other media, including on a 4th-century painted vase from Vulci, two 2nd century alabaster ash urns from Volterra, and a red-figure 4th–3rd century oinochoe.[22]
Romans believed that Vejovis was one of the first gods to be born.
Portrayed as a young man, holding a bunch of arrows, pilum or lightning bolts in his hand, and accompanied by a goat – he was consistently associated with volcanic eruptions[8] and healing, getting occasionally identified as a young version of Jupiter, Apollo,[16][80] or Asclepius.[81]
Aulus Gellius, in the Noctes Atticae, speculated that Vejovis was an ill-omened counterpart of Jupiter (compare Summanus),[b] observing that the particle ve- that prefixes the name of the god also appears in Latin words such as vesanus, 'insane', and thus interpreting the name Vejovis as the anti-Jove.[82][83]
Vejovis had three festivals in the Roman Calendar: on 1 January 7 March, and 21 May.[84]
He was mostly worshipped in Rome and Bovillae, in Latium.
On the Capitoline Hill and on the Tiber Island, temples were erected in his honour.[85]
Among them, there was a temple between the two peaks of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, where his statue carried a bundle of arrows and stood next to a statue of a she-goat.
In spring, multiple goats were sacrificed to him to avert plagues. Gellius informs us that Vejovis received the sacrifice of a female goat, sacrificed ritu humano;[82] this obscure phrase could either mean "after the manner of a human sacrifice" or "in the manner of a burial."[86] These offerings were less about the animal sacrificed and more about the soul sacrificed.
The temple of Summanus was dedicated during the Pyrrhic War c. 278 BCE on 20 June.[94][91][95][96][97] It stood at the west of the Circus Maximus, perhaps on the slope of the Aventine. It seems the temple had been dedicated because the statue of the god which stood on the roof of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus had been struck by a lightning bolt.[98][99][95][100]
Cicero recounts that the clay statue of the god which stood on the roof of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was struck by a lightning bolt: its head was nowhere to be seen. The haruspices announced that it had been hurled into the Tiber River, where indeed it was found on the very spot indicated by them.[99]
The temple of Summanus itself was struck by lightning in 197 BCE.[101]
Every 20 June, the day before the summer solstice, round cakes called summanalia, made of flour, milk, and honey and shaped as wheels,[102] were offered to him as a token of propitiation: the wheel might be a solar symbol. Summanus also received a sacrifice of two black oxen or wethers. Dark animals were typically offered to chthonic deities.[103][104]Saint Augustine records that in earlier times Summanus had been more exalted than Jupiter, but with the construction of a temple that was more magnificent than that of Summanus, Jupiter became more honored.[105]
The Etruscan theonym Śuri, lit.'black', is somehow cognate to Old NorseSurtr, lit.'black'.[107][108]
In Norse mythology, Surtr – king of the fire giants of Múspell,[m][n][o] birthplace of the Sun and other stars[113] – is "a mighty giant who ruled the volcanic powers of the underworld"[114] and will cover the Earth in fire during Ragnarök, causing the entire world to burn.[109][115]Rudolf Simek notes that jötnar – frost and fire giants – are usually described as living to the east in Old Norse sources, yet Surtr is described as being from the south.[114]
Indeed, Surtr is mentioned twice in the poem Völuspá, where a völva divulges information to the god Odin. The völva says that, during Ragnarök, Surtr will come from the south with flames, carrying a sword brighter than the sun:[o]
Old Norse
English
Sutr ferr sunnan
með sviga lævi:
skinn af sverði
sól valtiva.[116]
Surtr moves from the south
with the scathe of branches:
there shines from his sword
the sun of Gods of the Slain.[116]
These and other apparent coincidences[117] inspired the hypothesis that Surtr's mythic south could be identified in Śuri's Etruscan Italy,[107] but, despite the archaeological findings confirm ancient exchanges among the Tyrrhenians and the Proto-Germanic peoples,[p] systematic studies of comparative mythology and linguistics, as well as additional archaeological surveys, may still be needed to confirm deeper connections.[107]
^ abcdefA black sun, i.e. a sun god of the underworld,[6] rather that a celestial god, was also defined by the Etruscans as TiniaCalusna (Jupiter of the Underworld, equivalent to Greek Zeus Chthonios).[7]
^ abcdefgManth (𐌈𐌍𐌀𐌌) and Mania (𐌀𐌉𐌍𐌀𐌌): The epithets of this divine couple indicate that they were connected to the Manes, chthonic divinities or spirits of the dead in ancient Roman belief and called man(im) by the Etruscans.[11][12] Their names are also linked to Mana Genita and Manius,[13] as well as the GreekMania (or Maniae), goddess of insanity and madness. Both the Greek and Latin Mania derive from PIE (Proto-Indo-European) *men-, "to think." Cognates include Ancient Greekμένος, ménos, 'mind, thought', and Avestan𐬎𐬫𐬥𐬌𐬀𐬨, mainyu, 'spirit'. Cfr. Latin: Summanus (supposedly a contraction from Summus Manium, lit.'the highest of the Manes'),[14][15] Roman nocturnal thunder god of unclear Etruscan origins.[9][7]
^ abReference: File:Usil, Nethuns, Thesan.jpg: Bronze mirror from Tuscania. From left to right, Nethuns, Usil, Thesan. In the lower exergue a winged anguiped demon who holds up a dolphin in each hand. Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco.[33]
^ abcFeronia, goddess of fertility, wildlife and freedom (also venerated by Faliscans and Sabines), was considered to be the consort of his brother Fufluns (𐌔𐌍𐌖𐌋𐌚𐌖𐌚, also spelt 𐌔𐌍𐌖𐌋𐌘𐌖𐌐, Puphluns), god of growth, lifeforce and wine; son of Tinia and Semla, Fufluns was later syncretised with the Greco-Roman god Dionysus (Bacchus), son of Zeus and Semele.[i]
^Georges Dumézil[88][89] has argued that Summanus would represent the uncanny, violent and awe-inspiring element of the gods of the first function, connected to heavenly sovereignty. The double aspect of heavenly sovereign power would be reflected in the dichotomy Varuna-Mitra in Vedic religion and in Rome in the dichotomy Summanus-Dius Fidius. The first gods of these pairs would incarnate the violent, nocturnal, mysterious aspect of sovereignty while the second ones would reflect its reassuring, daylight and legalistic aspect.
Coincidentally, the aforementioned Feronia (see § Partners), venerated and celebrated with Apollo Soranus, likely inherited her name from Varuna or Rudra.
^Drawing in part on various eddic poems, the Gylfaginning section of the Prose Edda contains an account of the development and creation of the cosmos: Long before the Earth came to be, there existed the bright and flaming place called Muspell – a location so hot that foreigners may not enter it – and the foggy land of Niflheim. In Niflheim was a spring, Hvergelmir, and from it flow numerous rivers. Together these rivers, known as Élivágar, flowed further and further from their source. Eventually the poisonous substance within the flow came to harden and turn to ice. When the flow became entirely solid, a poisonous vapor rose from the ice and solidified into rime atop the solid river. These thick ice layers grew, in time spreading across the void of Ginnungagap.[109][110]
^The etymology of "Muspelheim" is uncertain, but may come from Mund-spilli, "world-destroyers", "wreck of the world".[111][112]
In the midst of this clash and din the heavens are rent in twain,
and the sons of Muspell come riding through the opening.
Surtr rides first, and before him and after him flames burning fire.
He has a very good sword, which shines brighter than the sun.
As they ride over Bifrost it breaks to pieces, as has before been stated.
The sons of Muspel direct their course to the plain which is called Vigrid ....
The sons of Muspel have there effulgent bands alone by themselves.
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MacCrossan, Tadhg (29 May 2002). "Celtic Religion". Llewellyn Worldwide. Retrieved 27 August 2024. Lugus, like Odin, was king of the gods in the Celtic pantheon, was accompanied by crows and ravens, carried a spear, and closed one eye to do his magic (Odin offered his eye); like the Great Zeus in Hesiod's Theogony, he led the Tuatha Dé Danann gods in victory over the Fomorian giants. Lugh's birth and childhood also parallels that of Zeus.
Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Carrara Putto, cat. 12108, Rome: Vatican Museums, retrieved 27 August 2024, […] a votive offering to Selvans and to Śuri, etymologically the "black", a sort of underworld Apollo for the Etruscans. […] dedicated by an eminent personage to an urban shrine in ancient Tarquinia.
Ovid. Fasti [On the Roman Calendar]. Loeb Classical Library (in Latin and English). Vol. VI. Translated by Frazer, James George. 729–731. p. 731: quisquis is est, Summano templa feruntur [The temple is said to have been dedicated to Summanus, whoever he may be]
Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia [The Natural History] (in Latin and English). Vol. II. Translated by Bostock, John. 53. Retrieved 27 August 2024 – via Perseus Digital Library. Tuscorum litterae novem deos emittere fulmina existimant, eaque esse undecim generum; Iovem enim trina iaculari. Romani duo tantum ex iis servavere, diurna attribuentes Iovi, nocturna Summano, rariora sane eadem de causa frigidioris caeli [The Tuscan books inform us, that there are nine Gods who discharge thunder-storms, that there are eleven different kinds of them, and that three of them are darted out by Jupiter. Of these the Romans retained only two, ascribing the diurnal kind to Jupiter, and the nocturnal to Summanus; this latter kind being more rare, in consequence of the heavens being colder]
Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia [The Natural History] (in Latin and English). Vol. VII. Translated by Bostock, John. 2. Retrieved 27 August 2024 – via Perseus Digital Library.
Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia [The Natural History] (in Latin and English). Vol. XXIX. Translated by Bostock, John. 14. Retrieved 27 August 2024 – via Perseus Digital Library.
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