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Śuri (Etruscan: 𐌉𐌛𐌖𐌑, lit. 'black'), Latinized as Soranus, was an ancient Etruscan infernal, volcanic and solar fire god, also venerated by other Italic peoples – among them Capenates, Faliscans, Latins and Sabines – and later adopted into ancient Roman religion.
| Śuri | |
|---|---|
| |
| Member of the Novensiles | |
| Other names | |
| Etruscan alphabet | 𐌉𐌛𐌖𐌑 |
| Major cult center | |
| World | |
| Weapons | |
| Animals | |
| Symbols | |
| Adherents | Hirpi Sorani |
| Gender | male |
| Region | Italy |
| Ethnic group | |
| Festivals | [a] |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | |
| Siblings | |
| Consort | Catha |
| Equivalents | |
| Greek | |
| Hindu | Sūrya |
| Norse | Surtr |
| Roman | |
| Celtic | |
He was variously depicted, mainly as a crowned young man wielding a spear or bow and arrows, an enthroned black-bearded man with a wolf-skin cap or wolf-like appearance, or even a winged humanoid monster, usually wielding a sledgehammer or mallet, or a sword.
The Etruscan theonym[1] Śuri (Etruscan: 𐌉𐌛𐌖𐌑, from 𐌛𐌖𐌑, śur, 'black')[2][3][4][5][6][7] means both 'black' and 'from the black [place]', i.e. the underworld.[2][5][6][7]
Śuri was essentially a chthonic solar deity:[b] the volcanic fire god of light and darkness, lord of the sun and the underworld, with powers over health and plague as well.[3][4][5] Furthermore, as god of volcanic lightning, he was considered to be among the Novensiles, the nine Etruscan thunder gods.[3][5][8][9]
He was also an oracular god. His sacred animals were wolves and goats.[a]
Epithets and Greco-Roman equivalents
Because of his multiple attributes, the Etruscan fire god Śuri bore many epithets,[3][5] among them infernal theonyms – consistently associated with kingship over the Manes (underworld deities), infernal and volcanic attributes, fire, lightning, wolves and goats – like Manth (𐌈𐌍𐌀𐌌, Manθ, Latinized as Mantus),[10][3][5][c] Vetis (𐌔𐌉𐌕𐌄𐌅, also spelt 𐌔𐌉𐌅𐌉𐌄𐌅, Veivis, variously Latinized as Vēdius, Vēdiovis, Vēiovis or Vēive),[16][5] Calu (𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌂),[17][18][5] lit. 'dark' or 'darkness' or 'underworld',[19][20][b] and – by interpretatio graeca – the equivalent[21][22] foreignism Aita (𐌀𐌕𐌉𐌀, also spelt 𐌀𐌕𐌉𐌄, Eita),[23][24][25][3][5] from Epic Greek: Ἄϊδης, romanized: Áïdēs, lit. 'Hades' or 'underworld',[26] syncretised with Roman Dīs Pater;[27][23][5][17][18][28][7] as well as solar theonyms – consistently associated with solar and volcanic attributes, fire, lightning, wolves and goats – like Rath (𐌈𐌀𐌛, Raθ),[3][5][29][d] Usil[32] (𐌋𐌉𐌔𐌖, also spelt 𐌋𐌉𐌑𐌖, Uśil),[e] lit. 'light' or 'sun',[34][f] and the equivalent foreignism Apulu (𐌖𐌋𐌖𐌐𐌀, also spelt 𐌖𐌋𐌐𐌀, Aplu),[3][5] from the Greco-Roman Apollo,[35][36][37][g] identified with Śuri (Latin: Soranus)[3][4][40][28][26][5][6][41] and later syncretised by the Romans as Apollo Soranus[17][18][7] or Apollo Soractis.[42][23] These theonyms were also associated on Pyrgi inscriptions.[25][3]
Cult centers
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]
Multiple cities were dedicated to this deity, among them the twin cities of Surina (Soriano) and Surina (Viterbo), in the present-day province of Viterbo, Latium, as well as the city of Sorano, in the present-day province of Grosseto, Tuscany.[3][6][7]
Furthermore, his theonym Manth (Latin: Mantus) is the eponymous of Mantua (Etruscan: Manthva, Italian: Mantova),[27][44][10][5] birthplace of Virgil, who also mentioned the volcanic god in the Aeneid.[42][23] This theonym was primarily used in the Po Valley (Etruria Padana, Northern Italy), as described by Servius,[27] but a sanctuary with dedications from the Archaic period was also found in Pontecagnano, province of Salerno (Etruria Campana, Southern Italy).[10][5]
Besides, according to Mauro Cristofani, the sun god was also worshipped in Cortona, Populonia and Magliano.[38][39] Temples and votives were also found in Tuscania and Tarquinia,[4][45][46][5] where there are also traces of a priestly college.
Worshippers
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]
Śuri has been historically associated with two female partners: the aforementioned Feronia, celebrated alongside him[a] and considered to be his sister-in-law,[h] whose major sanctuary (Latin: Lucus Feroniae) was located near Mount Soracte;[48][41][7] and Catha (𐌀𐌈𐌀𐌂, Caθa), considered to be his consort, goddess of the moon and the underworld.[49][24][50][3][7]
Paired with Śuri and all his epithets, his consort Catha also bore several ones, which varied accordingly, e.g.: his theonym Manth (Latin: Mantus) was paired with Mania (𐌀𐌉𐌍𐌀𐌌),[10][51][c] whereas his theonym Aita was paired with Persipnei (𐌉𐌄𐌍𐌐𐌉𐌔𐌛𐌄𐌐, also spelt 𐌉𐌀𐌍𐌐𐌉𐌔𐌛𐌄𐌘, Phersipnai), equivalent to the Greco-Roman theonym Persephone (Latin: Proserpina).[24][52][3][6]
Liver of Piacenza
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]
Even outside his cult centers, Śuri is mentioned in multiple archaeological sites and artifacts, e.g. the bilingual Phoenician–Etruscan Pyrgi Tablets,[3][2][5][58] the Lead Plaque of Magliano,[17] and the Tabula Capuana.[59][60] His mentions and depictions also reflect his multiple attributes and epithets, for example his solar theonyms in Pyrgi,[49][2] Caere,[61] and the aforementioned Liver of Piacenza.
Mentioned as son of the supreme sky god Tinia[b] and the earth goddess Semla,[i] brother of Fufluns[h] and twin brother of Aritimi,[62] he is primarily known for his powers over the sun,[26] lightning,[9] healing and plague, and divination,[38][39] as well as for his volcanic and infernal characteristics.[16][8][4]
Chthonic sun deity
Frequently in associatiation with the aforementioned foreignism Apulu[g] (which does not appear on the Liver of Piacenza), equivalent to his native theonyms Rath,[29][61][d] Usil[32][f] and Vetis,[16][5] he is often depicted in art with a crown and laurel branches. His most famous representation, known as the Apollo of Veii, is a painted terracotta statue from Veii, Latium, attributed to Vulca.
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 Greek Helios and Roman Sol, 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]
Chthonic wolf deity
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.
The god – also known as Manth, king of the Manes[c] – also acts as psychopomp: he guides the souls of the deceased into the underworld, getting occasionally nicknamed Charun (Etruscan: Υ𐌛𐌀𐌙, romanized: Kʰaru, from Greek Charon)[68][44][69] and associated with the feminine counterpart Vanth. He is also known as a trickster god and bringer of misfortune, because he would attract the attention of his victims through trickery, thus stealing their souls.[27] As such, he is often depicted on Etruscan coffins as a black-bearded animalistic man or satyr, with pale skin (symbolizing the decay of death),[70] pointed ears,[j] and enormous wings,[73][74][75] wearing a tunic and sometimes a crown or a cap, usually wielding a sledgehammer or a sword.[10][69][k]
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]
Chthonic lightning deity
In addition to their inherent attributes over light and darkness, Śuri and all his epithets (e.g. his infernal theonym Aita, or solar theonyms Usil and Apulu) were consistently associated with kingship, fire and lightnings, health and plague, wolves and goats; attributes also shared with his aforementioned theonyms Manth (Latin: Mantus)[c] and Vetis (also spelt Veivis; variously Latinized as Vēdius, Vēdiovis, Vēiovis or Vēive), as well as their Roman spin-off Summanus.[c]
 | |
| O: Diademed bust of Vejovis hurling thunderbolt. | R: Minerva with javelin and shield riding quadriga. |
| Silver denarius struck in Rome, 84 BC. | |
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.
Summanus
Summanus – Latin: Summānus, supposedly from Summus Manium, 'the greatest of the Manes',[c] or sub-, 'under' + manus, 'hand' – was the god of nocturnal thunder in ancient Roman religion, as counterposed to Jupiter, the god of diurnal (daylight) thunder.[87][l][b]
His precise nature was unclear even to Ovid.[90][91] Pliny thought that he was of Etruscan origin, and one of the nine gods of thunder.[92] Varro, however, lists Summanus among gods he considers of Sabine origin, to whom king Titus Tatius dedicated altars (arae) in consequence of a votum.[93] Paulus Diaconus considers him a god of lightning.[87]
The temple of Summanus was dedicated during the Pyrrhic War c. 278 BCE on June 20.[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 June 20, 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]
Mount Summano – located in the Alps near Vicenza, Veneto – is traditionally considered a site of the cults of Pluto, Summanus, and the Manes.[c] The mountaintop is frequently struck by lightning. The mountain itself has a deep grotto in which, according to local legend, a young shepherdess became lost and disappeared. The story might be an adaptation of the Greek, Etruscan and later Roman myth of Proserpina, who was abducted by Pluto.[106]
Celtic mythology
The solar, volcanic and infernal fire god Śuri (lit. 'black') – alternatively depicted as a crowned young man wielding bow and arrows or a spear (Latin: pilum, lit. 'javelin', shared by Samnites, Etruscans and Celtiberians, and later the Romans), an enthroned black-bearded man with a wolf-skin cap or wolf-like appearance, or even a winged humanoid monster, usually wielding a sledgehammer or mallet, or a sword – coincidentally shared his iconography with two distinct Celtic deities:
- the supreme god Lugos (supposedly from Proto-Indo-European *leug-, lit. 'black'),[107] solar and infernal king of the gods,[108] usually depicted with a crown and a spear,[109] occasionally accompanied by wolves and ravens;
- the wine god Sucellus (equivalent to Śuri's brother Fufluns), usually depicted with a wolf-skin cap and a sledgehammer or mallet – later adopted into the Gallo-Roman religion and allegedly also shared with the Rhaetian people.
Norse mythology
The Etruscan theonym Śuri, lit. 'black', is somehow cognate to Old Norse Surtr, lit. 'black'.[110][111] In Norse mythology, Surtr – king of the fire giants of Múspell,[m][n][o] birthplace of the Sun and other stars[116] – is "a mighty giant who ruled the volcanic powers of the underworld"[117] and will cover the Earth in fire during Ragnarök, causing the entire world to burn.[112][118] 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.[117] 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 |
Surtr moves from the south |
These and other apparent coincidences[120] inspired the hypothesis that Surtr's mythic south could be identified in Śuri's Etruscan Italy,[110] but, despite the archaeological findings confirm ancient exchanges among the Tyrrhenians and the Proto-Germanic peoples,[p] systematic studies of compared mythology and linguistics, as well as additional archaeological surveys, may still be needed to confirm deeper connections.[110]
- Apollo Smintheus – A chthonic epithet of Apollo
- Etruscan art – Art of the ancient Etruscan civilization
- Etruscan civilization – Pre-Roman civilization of ancient Italy
- Etruscan mythology
- Sethlans – God in Etruscan mythology
- Surya – Solar deity in Hinduism
- Suryastra – A celestial weapon used by warriors in Hindu Epics
- Ulfheðnar – Old Norse legendary wolf-warriors
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