Etruscan religion comprises the religious beliefs and practices of the Etruscan civilization. The Etruscans were polytheistic, and although there is some syncretism between their mythological traditions and those of the Greeks and Romans, the Etruscan conception and worship of these divinities is individual and not an adoption of other cultures' practices. Because there are no surviving Etruscan sacred texts, with the exception of the Liber Linteus, it is impossible to fully understand their religion, however we can gain some insight from archaeological evidence. The Etruscans appear to have had specific religious personnel, and to have engaged in a reciprocal practice of offerings, rituals including divination, and funerary rites. As the Etruscan civilization was gradually assimilated into the Roman Republic from the 4th century BC, Etruscan beliefs and mythologies were often incorporated into ancient Roman culture, following the Roman tendency to absorb local gods and customs of other civilizations. The first attestations of an Etruscan religion can be traced back to the Villanovan culture.
History The earliest evidence for Etruscan religious practices dates to the Villanovan period. The archaeological record preserves data from sites that grow into fully-developed sanctuaries, such as Tarquinia's 9th century BCE Pian d'Civita shrineHaynes, S. (2000). Etruscan civilization : a cultural history. J. Paul Getty Museum. or Veii's Piazza d'Armi.Tabolli, J., & Cerasuolo, O. (2019). Veii. University of Texas Press. Numerous cemeteries showcase funeral practices from this period, such as cremation burial in urns and accompanying grave goods. By the 6th century BCE, Etruscan sanctuaries became increasingly monumental, with major temples, expensive offerings, and evidence for animal sacrifice and other rituals.Turfa, J. M., Gleba, M., & Becker, H. (2009). Votives, places and rituals in Etruscan religion: studies in honor of Jean MacIntosh Turfa. Brill.
Greek influence During the Archaic period, Greek settlers and traders interacted with local Italic communities along the Central Mediterranean coasts. In addition to influencing some artistic traditions in these communities, Greeks brought their mythological narratives as well. It is unclear how much religious figures such as Hercle (Heracles) or Menvra (Minerva) derived from Greeks, and to what degree they already existed among some Italian communities.De Grummond, N. T. (2006). Etruscan myth, sacred history, and legend (1st ed). University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. It is likely that some heroes from the Homeric tradition, such as Odysseus, Menelaus and Diomedes, were recast in tales of the distant past that had them roaming the lands West of Greece. In Greek tradition, Heracles (Etruscan Hercle) wandered these western areas, doing away with monsters and brigands, and bringing civilization to the inhabitants. Legends of his prowess with women became the source of tales about his many offspring conceived with prominent local women, though his role as a wanderer meant that Heracles moved on after securing the locations chosen to be settled by his followers, rather than fulfilling a typical founder role. It is possible that Odysseus also assumed a similar role for the Etruscans as the heroic leader who led the Etruscans to settle the lands they inhabited, though this cannot be proven at this time.
Greek claims that the sons of Odysseus had once ruled over the Etruscan people date to at least the mid-6th century BC. Lycophron and Theopompus link Odysseus to Cortona (where he was called Nanos). In Italy during this era it could give non-Greek ethnic groups an advantage over rival ethnic groups to link their origins to a Greek hero figure. These legendary heroic figures became instrumental in establishing the legitimacy of Greek claims to the newly settled lands, depicting the Greek presence there as reaching back into antiquity.
Roman conquest After the Etruscan defeat in the Roman–Etruscan Wars (264 BCE), the remaining Etruscan culture began to be assimilated into the Roman. The Roman Senate adopted key elements of the Etruscan religion, which were perpetuated by haruspices and noble Roman families who claimed Etruscan descent, long after the general population of Etruria had forgotten the language. In the last years of the Roman Republic the religion began to fall out of favor and was satirized by such notable public figures as Marcus Tullius Cicero. The Julio-Claudians, especially Claudius, whose first wife, Plautia Urgulanilla, claimed an Etruscan descent, maintained a knowledge of the language and religion for a short time longer, but this practice soon ceased.
Sources Archaeological evidence for Etruscan religious life comes from the excavation of shrines and sanctuaries. Ritual evidence comes from both monumental religious spaces, such as those found at Tarquinia and Pyrgi, and smaller, so-called "rural" or "boundary" sanctuaries, such as those at Centamura del Chianti and Poggio Colla. Within these sanctuaries, altars are one of the primary pieces of physical evidence for religious activities. Etruscan altars varied in shape and decoration, yet particular bow-shaped moldings seem to have a distinctly Etruscan origin. Altar shape may sometimes have been related to ritual function, as can be seen in the description of a particular altar in the Tabulae Iguvinae, an Umbrian religious text. Along with altars, large quantities of animal bones have been discovered in sanctuary contexts, suggesting the importance of animal sacrifice. Animal bones are also present in funerary contexts and at the boundaries of necropoleis, seemingly having a consecreating function.
Etruscan mythology is evidenced by a number of sources in different media. Pottery, architectural terracottas, inscriptions, and engraved scenes on the Praenestine cistae (ornate boxes; see under Etruscan language) and on specula (ornate hand mirrors), depict religious activities as well as mythological figures. The inscriptions on specula are particularly illuminating, of which two dozen fascicles have been published in the Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum. Etruscan mythological and cult figures also appear in many forms of Etruscan art, and in dedicatory and votive inscriptions, as well as votive objects. For a catalogue of Etruscan mythological figures, visit the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. Etruscan inscriptions have recently been given a more authoritative presentation by Helmut Rix, Etruskische Texte. Etruscan language and inscriptions have also been analyzed linguistically by Rex Wallace in Zikh Rasna.
Seers and divinations The Etruscans believed their religion had been revealed to them by seers, the two main ones being Tages, a childlike figure born from tilled land who was immediately gifted with prescience, and Vegoia, a female figure.
The Etruscans believed in intimate contact with divinity.The religiosity of the Etruscans most clearly manifested itself in the so-called 'discipline', that complex of rules regulating relations between men and gods. Its main basis was the scrupulous search for the divine will by all available means; ... the reading and interpretation of animal entrails, especially the liver ... and the interpretation of lightning. They did nothing without proper consultation with the gods and signs from them. These practices were taken over in total by the Romans.
Etrusca Disciplina The Etruscan scriptures were a corpus of texts termed the Etrusca Disciplina. This name appears in Valerius Maximus, and Marcus Tullius Cicero refers to a disciplina in his writings on the subject.
Massimo Pallottino summarizes the scriptures known from other sources to have once existed. The revelations of the prophet Tages (, "Tagetic Books") included the theory and rules of divination from animal entrails (, "Haruspical Books") and discussion of the Etruscan afterlife and its attendant rituals (, "Acherontic Books"). The revelations of the prophetess Vegoia (, "Vegoic Books") included the theory and rules of divination from thunder (brontoscopy) and lightning strikes (, "Fulgural Books") and discussion of religious rituals. Books on rituals () included Tages's Acherontic Books as well as other books on omens and prodigies () and books on fate () that detailed the religiously proper ways to found cities, erect shrines, drain fields, formulate laws, and measure space and time.Turfa, Jean M. "Etruscan religion." The handbook of religions in ancient Europe. Routledge, 2014. 139-155.Rawson, Elizabeth. "Caesar, Etruria and the disciplina Etrusca." The Journal of Roman Studies 68 (1978): 132-152.
The Etrusca Disciplina was mainly a set of rules for the conduct of all sorts of divination; Pallottino calls it a religious and political "constitution": it does not dictate what laws shall be made or how humans are to behave, but rather elaborates rules for asking the gods these questions and receiving answers.
Priests and officials
Divinatory inquiries according to discipline were conducted by priests whom the Romans called haruspices or sacerdotes; Tarquinii had a college of 60 of them. The Etruscans, as evidenced by the inscriptions, used several words: capen (Sabine cupencus), maru (Umbrian maron-), eisnev, hatrencu (priestess). They called the art of haruspicy ziχ neθsrac.
Beliefs The polytheistic Etruscan belief system readily adopted gods from other religions, integrating them as important cult deities and adapting their names and aspects of their powers. The Etruscans, Romans, and other native Italic peoples all influenced each other's religious beliefs and practices, with the Romans adopting the practice of haruspicy, and the Etruscans adopting the deities Juno, Minerva, and Neptunus as Uni, Menrua, and Nethuns. Excavations of the sanctuary at Pyrgi have revealed that the goddess Uni was worshipped there. Ancient authors refer to her as Leukotheo or Mater Matuta, and she is equated with the Phoenician goddess Astarte by the Pyrgi Tablets. The most powerful god in the Etruscan pantheon, Tinia/Tin, is Uni's consort. Like Zeus, he wields lightning bolts, although he cannot be entirely conflated with the attributes of Zeus, as he is often depicted as a beardless youth, and has less absolute power. Cthonic and underworld deities were common in the Etruscan pantheon. Two of the most important were Aplu and Fufluns, related to the Greek Apollo and Dionysus. In Etruscan mythology they were brothers, sons of Semele, who was guided out of the underworld by Dionysus. This event was celebrated at the festival Herios at Delphi, and is depicted on a mirror from Vulci, which Aplu also features in.