Etruscan Deities

    This is a list of some of the gods worshipped by the Etruscans. The gods as perceived by the Etruscans are very different from the gods as perceived by the Greeks and Romans, although the names of many of the gods are very similar or even the same. The Etruscans viewed the gods as rather fierce and demanding. They believed that everything that happens is a direct result of the will of the gods, that the gods intervene directly in human affairs, and that it is mankind's duty to discern the divine will of the gods and to act in strict accordance with that will. To ignore the will of the gods is to invite misfortune and disaster.

The Etruscan language has been lost, and there is no surviving literature. A large number of short inscriptions have survived, mostly in the form of votive inscriptions that say something like "(name of person) gives this to (name of deity)". The meaning of a few words is known, and many names. The tombs of wealthy people sometimes contain wall paintings of mythical or religious scenes and the figures in the scenes are usually inscribed with their names. Bronze mirrors are an important source for Etruscan names. The back of a bronze mirror would almost always be engraved with a mythical or religious scene and the figures in the scene are usually labeled with their names.

This list is by no means complete. Some of the names listed here may be epithets or multiple names for the same deities. Many surviving names of deities do not have any known attributes or functions associated with them. Some deities appear to have had interests in both the world of the living and in the underworld. There is also a certain degree of sexual ambiguity involved, since the same or similar names  might be applied to both male and female figures.

Groups of Gods

AISERAS    The Gods.

DII SUPERIORES    The High Gods.

DII INVOLUTI    The Covered Gods, wrapped in shadow.

DII CONSENTES    The 12 Consenting Gods, advisors to Tinia (Jupiter)

NOVENSILES    The Nine Gods who throw lightning.

Individual Deities

AITA    God of the underworld, equivalent to the Roman Pluto and the Greek Hades.

ALPAN    A goddess associated with Aphrodite.

AMAMTUNIA    A goddess.

ANA    Equivalent to the Roman Anna Perenna.

APA    The Mother.

APLU, APULU    Apollo.

ARITIMI, ARTUMES, ARETUME, ARTEMES    Artemis.

ATI    The Father.

CALU, CALUS    God of death.   

CASA VECUVIA    A deity.

CASTUR    Castor

CATHA    A sun god.

CATHAS SECH    Daughter of CATHA.

CAUTHA    A god, perhaps the same as CATHA.

CAVATHA, CAVTHA, CATHA    A sun goddess, also associated with the underworld. Note that the name CATHA could be applied to a god or a goddess.

CEL    A mother goddess. Perhaps the equivalent of the Roman Tellus and the Greek Ge.

CELLE    Perhaps the same as CEL.

CELSCLAN    A giant, the son of CEL.

CHARUN    Keeper of the gates to the underworld, sometimes shown as four separate entities, with various epithets. The name is the same as the Greek Charon, but Charun does not escort the souls of the dead to the underworld, he guards the gates.

CILEN    A god associated with Fate.

CULSANS, CULSU    God of gates, equivalent to the Roman Janus.

CVLALP    A deity.

FUFLANS, PACHA, PACHIES    Equivalent to the Roman Bacchus and the Greek Dionysos.

HERCLE, HERKLE    Hercules.

LARAN    God of war, equivalent to the Roman Mars and the Greek Ares.

LARUNS    A god.

LASA    An attendant deity or spirit, usually depicted as female in the style of a Greek nymph. The name LASA might be a generic name for a type of entity rather than a specific name for a particular entity. There are names such as LASA RACUNETA, LASA THIMRAE, and LASA VECU or VECUVIA. There is a male attendant named LASA SITMICA.

LEINTH    A god, possibly associated with death or the underworld.

LETHAM, LETHAMS    A god associated with the underworld, perhaps a variant of LEINTH.

LETUN    Equivalent to the Greek Latona.

LVSL    A deity.

MANIA    Goddess of the underworld, the wife of MANTUS.

MANTUS    God of the underworld.

MARIS    Probably equivalent to the Roman Mars and the Greek Ares, but there also appears to have been an Etruscan hero with the name Maris. There is a bronze mirror that shows MARIS HURSNANA (Maris as a child?), MARIS HALNA (Maris as an adult?), and MARIS ISMINTHIANS (Maris dead, as a spirit in the underworld?). This scene has also been interpreted as showing three sons of HERCLE and MENVRA. There is a scene on another mirror showing MARIS TIUSTA.

MENVRA, MENERVA    Equivalent to the Roman Minerva and the Greek Athena.

MLACUCH    Probably equivalent to the Roman Bona Dea.

NETHUNS    Equivalent to the Roman Neptune and the Greek Poseidon.

NORTIA    Perhaps a goddess of destiny.

PHERSIPNAI    Persephone.

PULTUCE    Pollux

RATH    A god associated with divination.

SATRE    Saturn

SELVAN, SELVANS    God of boundaries and fields, equivalent to the Roman Sylvanus. There is also a SELVANS CANZATA.

SETHLANS    God of the forge, equivalent to the Roman Vulcan and the Greek Hephaestus.

SIME    ":Snub nosed", a satyr like companion of FUFLUNS.

SURI    God of the sun and the underworld.

TECE, TECUM    A benign deity.

THANUR, THANR    Goddess of childbirth.

THESAN    Goddess of dawn, equivalent to the Roman Aurora and the Greek Eos.

THUFLTHA    A goddess.

TIN, TINIA, TINA, TINS    The Roman Jupiter, the Greek Zeus. There are also names such as TINAS CLENAR, and TINIA CALUSNA..

TIVR, TIUR    God of the moon.

TUCHULCHA    A fearsome entity of the underworld.

TURAN    Equivalent to the Roman Venus and the Greek Aphrodite.

TURMS    Equivalent to the Roman Mercury and the Greek Hermes.

TURMS AITAS    Hermes Psychopompos.

UNI    Equivalent to the Latin Juno and the Greek Hera. Also explicitly linked in inscriptions to Astarte and Ishtar.

USIL    A sun god.

VANTH    A female entity linked with death and the underworld, perhaps similar to the Roman Allecto and the Greek Fury Lyssa. Perhaps VANTH refers to a group of deities or spirits, since some scenes show several figures named VANTH.

VEI    A goddess of agriculture, but also associated with funerary rites and the underworld. Equivalent to the Roman Ceres and the Greek Demeter, but also possibly associated with the Roman Venus Libitina and the Greek Aphrodite Eptymbia.

VEIOVIS, VEIOVE    Equivalent to the Roman Dispater.

VELCH    A deity.

VELTHA, VELTUNE, VOLTUMNA    The national god of Etruria, god of vegetation, god of war. Equivalent to the Roman Vertumnus. Apparently, sometimes regarded as both male and female.

Scene on a mirror showing Helen with four female attendants. The figure of Helen is labeled MALAVISCH (the one adorned?), and the attendants are labeled TURAN, MUNTHUCH, ZIPU, and HINTHIAL. Hinthial means ghost, shade, or reflection.

Scene on a mirror showing the birth of Athena. The figures are labeled TINIA, LARAN, THALNA (a nymph?), UNI, and MARIS TIUSTA.

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Sources

Etruscan Life and Afterlife, Edited by Larissa Bonfante, Wayne State University Press 1986, 289 pages, illustrated

Reading the Past - Etruscan, by Larissa Bonfante, University of California Press 1990, 64 pages, illustrated

Etruscan Civilization, by Sybille Haynes, J Paul Getty Museum 2000, 432 pages, illustrated

The Etruscans, Edited by Mario Torelli, Rizzoli International Publications 2000, 672 pages, illustrated

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