Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/124

 £TBURIA. ment that thej even refused to assist tibe Yeientines ■gainst Borne, because they had returned to it, and placed themselves again under the role of a king. (Liv. ▼. 1.) Tolamnios, also, is called king of Veil about 40 years earlier, (/d iv. 17.) VT. Bblxqiok. The Etruscans were celebrated beyond almost any other people of antiquity for their devotion to their national religion, and for the zeal and scrupulous care with which they practised the various observ* ances of its rites and ceremonies. Livy calls them quod excelleret arte oolendi eas " (v. 1). Hence they became the instructors of the Romans in many oi their religious rites, and that people adopted from them a considenble part of what was in later ages received as the established national religion of Rome. Hence arises one great difficulty in regard to all inquiries into the Etruscan religion, that, as we have no account of it in its native purity, it is almost impossible to say what was truly Tuscan, and to separate it from other elements with which it had become in later ages intimately blended. Equally difficult is it to determine the precise extent and influence of the Greek religion upon that of Etruria. Much of what appears common to the two was probably derived through the PeU»gic population of Southern Etruria, but the fact appears incontestable that the operation of direct Hellenic influences at a much later period may be extensively traced in the Etruscan mythology. This is particularly obvious in the works of art which have been discovered in Etruria, and here the difficulty is still increased by the great in- fluence which Hellenio art undoubtedly exercised over that of the Etruscans, irrespe c tive of any direct religioui operation. [See below, p. 868.] Hence this class of monuments, which, considering the vast numbers of them that have been preserved, would seem likely to throw so much light upon the subject, can only be employed with the utmost caution. It is impossible here to enter into the discussion of this abstruse and complicated subject: a few leading results only can be briefly stated. 1. The Etruscan religious system was not one wholly foreign to the other nations of Italy: it had many points in commiMi with those especially of the Sabines and Latins; and though in many cases this may arise from the confusion of biter writers, and the impossibility of distinguishmg, in the 7th and 8th centuries of the Roman state, which of its religious institutions were really derived from Etruiia, it seems impossible to doubt that the Etruscan mythology really contained much that was common to the two people just mentioned, and that had been derived by all three from some common source. 2. Some portions of the Etruscan mythology and religion unquestionably point to an Eastern origin. The number and importance of these evidences of Oriental influence have been greatiy exaggerated by those writers who have insisted on the Lydian, or other Oriental, extraction of the Etruscans; but the existence of such an element in their religious sys- tem cannot be denied; though it is a question how far it proves in any particular case dirtd transmis- sion from an oriental source. 3. There are not wanting indications which would connect the religious mythology of Etruria with that of the northern nations of Europe. The name of Auar^ which was the Etruscan appellation for the gods in general (Suet. Aug. 97), at once recals the vol* I. ETRURIA. 865 Aaar of the Scandmavians (MfUler, vol. ii. p. 81 ; Donaldson, Vcarroniamu^ p. 161); and much of the gloomy worship of the infernal deities, which forms so prominent a part of the Etruscan religi<m, pre- sents a strong similarity with the nortibem mythology. (Gerhard, Die Gottheiten der Etnuhery p. 17.) 4. But whatever extent may be allowed to these last sources of influence, a much greater one was exercised by the Pelasgic element of the Etruscan people. With every reasonable allowance for the operation of later Hellenic ideas, and especially for the introduction on works of art of foreign deities, and a different cyde of mythology, there remains a pervading similarity with the religious system of the early Greeks, which can hardly be accounted for otherwise than by referring them to a common Pe- lasgic origin. From the same source, probably, pro- ceeded much of that which we find common to the southern Etruscans and to their neighbours in Latium. Of the special deities that were worshipped by the Tuscans, the most important were Tina or Tumif corresponding to the Latin Jupiter; Cupray who was identified witii Juno; and Minerva, whose name was the same in the Tuscan language, and appears on Etruscan monuments as Meturfck These three deities seem to have been regarded as the chief gods, whence we are told that every Etruscan city had three temples dedicated to them (as was the case in the Capitol at Rome), and three gates which bore their names. (Serv. ad Atn. L 422). Besides these, we find particularly mentioned as Etruscan deities, and bearing names of clearly Etruscan origin: VertmMttUy whose worship seems to have especklly prevailed at Volainii, from whence it was transferred to Rome; Nortioy the Etruscan goddess of Fortune, also worshipped at Volsinii, apparently identical with the Fortuna of Antium and Praeneste ; and Vol' tunma^ whose sanctuary was the meeting-place of the whole Etruscan nation. To these must be added, partly finom notices of ancient writers, partly frnn extant m<ninments : Vulcan, whose Etruscan name, as we learn from works of art, was SeUdanty the special object of worship at Pemsia; Mercury, called by the Etruscans 7tirm«, a name of frequent occur- rence on mirrors; Venus, who appears in similar works under the name of Tvran ; Mantns, probably a genuine Etruscan name, and one of the principal infernal deities; Vedius or Vejovis, also an infernal power; Summanus, the god of nocturnal thunder, and one of the rulers of the shades. These two last names are Latin, and perhape the deities themselves belong properly to Latium. Ancharioy who was the tutelary goddess of Faesulae, ar.d EortOj who gave name to the town of that name near the foot of Soracte, are, apparently, mere local divinities, but of native Tuscan origin. Apollo and Hercules, whose names are written (m Etruscan bronzes Aplu or Aputuy and Eertcle or HercUy would seem to be foreign divinities that had originally no place in the mythological system of Etniria, though their wor- ship was at a later period extensively diffased in that country ; and the same thing was still more clearly the case with the Greek Bacchus, though there ex- isted an Etruscan divinity named Phuphltuu with whom he appears to have been identified or con- founded. On the other hand, Util (Sol), the god of the sun, and Loma or Luna, as they bear native names, were probably also genuine Etruscan deities. The worship of Janus at Falerii, of Silvanus and InuQS at Caere, and of Saturuus at Satumia (called dK
 * ^ gens ante onmes alias eo magis dedita religionibus,