Lasa Vecu

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Lasa Vecu (right) on an Etruscan bronze mirror from the 3rd century BC. With the goddess Menrva . You could consult a prophecy.

The Lasa Vecu , Vecui or Vecuvia is a lower Etruscan deity who plays an important role as a prophet and fortune teller in Etruscan art and literature . She is one of the lasers that appear in the Etruscan love cult and as goddesses of fate . The prophecies of the Lasa Vecu were recorded in writing by the Etruscans. The Romans called her the nymph Vegoia and called her books the libri vegoici .

Representation and function

Lasa Vecuvia (left) on a gold ring from the 3rd century BC. In the left margin the inscription of her name. She's probably looking into a fortune-telling mirror .

The goddess is evidently depicted on a bronze mirror and on a gold ring, where she is referred to as Lasa Vecuvia with Etruscan characters . This name was apparently translated into Latin by the Romans as Nymph Vegoia or Nymph Begoë . The word Lasa probably has a general meaning like nymph or perhaps better guardian spirit . The addition Vecu or Vecuvia becomes your personal name.

A bronze mirror shows her as the winged companion of the goddess Menrva , who is closely related to prophecy and oracles . Menrva seems to be consulting or giving instructions to the Lasa Vecu. On the gold ring she can be seen together with another nymph with an unnamed name in a landscape at sunrise. She is turned away from the viewer and looks into a mirror, perhaps as an expression of her prophecy, since the mirror in Etruria was an instrument to predict the future. Other Etruscan mirrors also show such a female figure looking intensely into a mirror. One can therefore assume that the Lasa Vecu is also represented here in the mirror prophecy ( catoptromance ).

The great importance of the Lasa Vecu is based on its prophecies and revelations. In the Etruscan myth, she taught the Etruscans the art of lightning interpretation ( lightning theory ) and the rites of surveying (limitation theory). These teachings were probably recorded in the libri fulgurales and part of the libri rituales . These books were part of the Etrusca disciplina , a set of rules for the religious teachings and practices of the Etruscans. These parts of the Disciplina were already known as libri vegoici in ancient times .

Tarquitius Priscus or Tuscus, a contemporary of Cicero with Etruscan origins, probably translated parts of the Etrusca disciplina from Etruscan into Latin. This could also have included the libri vegoici of Lasa Vecu. A translation of her doctrine of the flash was kept in the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill in Rome .

It is said from ancient sources that the Etruscans knew a creation myth . This should have been communicated to them by the Lasa Vecuvia. She could also have made prophecies for those who did not keep the given divine order.

The prophecy of the nymph Vegoia

Imprint of the gold ring with the Lasa Vecuvia

The only surviving text fragment of the libri vegoici comes from the Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum , a work on field measurement from late antiquity. It is a Latin prophecy of the nymph Vegoia, i.e. the Etruscan Lasa Vecuvia. The fragment could go back to the translation by Tarquitius Priscus. The nymph Vegoia turns her prophecy, which also has an ethical-legal aspect, to Arruns Veltimnus, who was probably called Arnth Veltimna in Etruscan.

Idem Vegoiae Arrunti Veltymno. Scias mare ex aethera remotum. Cum autem Juppiter terram Aetruriae sibi vindicavit, constituit iussitque metiri campos signarique agros. Sciens hominum avaritiam vel terrenum cupidinem, terminis omnia scita esse voluit. Quos quandoque quis ob avaritiam prope novissimi octavi saeculi data sibi homines malo dolo violabunt contingentque atque movebunt. Sed qui contigerit moveritque, possessionem promovendo suam, alterius minuendo, ob hoc scelus damnabitur a diis. Si servi faciant, dominio mutabuntur in deterius. Sed si conscientia dominica fiet, caelerius dominus extirpabitur, gensque eius omnis interiet. Motores autem pessimis morbis et vulneribus efficientur membrisque suis debililabuntur. Tum etiam terra a tempestatibus vel turbinibus plerumque labe movebitur, fructus saepe ledentur decutienturque imbribus atque grandine, caniculis interient, robigine occidentur. Multae dissensiones in populo. Fieri haec scitote, cum talia scelera committuntur. Propterea neque fallax neque bilinguis sis. Disciplinam pone in corde tuo.
From Vegoia to Arruns Veltymnus. Know that the sea has been separated from the sky. When Jupiter had claimed the territory of Etruria for himself, he commanded and commanded that the plains be measured and the fields limited. Knowing the greed of people and their desire for property, he wanted everything to be secured by boundary stones. These boundary stones will one day be injured in the outgoing 8th Saeculum by the greed of a person who despises his intended property and strives for that of another. Others will follow suit and fraudulently touch and shift borders. But whoever touches them and changes them in order to expand his property and to diminish that of others will be punished by the gods for his offense. If slaves do, they will fall into even tougher slavery. If the Lord approves this offense, his family will go out and his whole house will perish. Those who have moved landmarks will be afflicted with dire diseases and wounds, and will lose physical strength. The earth will be devastated by frequent thunderstorms and storms that shake it. The crops will often spoil and be destroyed by rain and hail, burned in high heat or be consumed by the rust. There will be much discord among the people. Know that such punishments will come if you commit these crimes. Therefore, do not be disbelieving and lying. Lower our teachings into your heart.

The text begins with the creation of the sea and the sky and thus gives an insight into an Etruscan creation myth. Then it is told how Jupiter , the Etruscan Tinia , conquered Etruria and divided the country for his people. Jupiter or Tinia is characterized as the god of limits. Disastrous consequences are predicted for those who violate these limits. The myth itself could go back to the early Etruscan period, but it seems to have been written down for the first time in this version when the Romans in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. BC Etruscan territories occupied and redistributed. Therefore the text is to be understood as a warning to change the Etruscan borders.

The fragment also refers to the secular doctrine of the Etruscans, according to which the lifespan of their civilization and culture was limited to a certain number of saecula (Latin saeculum , age, generation , century) due to the providence of higher powers . The predetermined period of time was eight or ten saecula, depending on the tradition. It is not clear whether the secular teaching goes back to a revelation of the Lasa Vecu. In 88 BC According to ancient belief, the eighth Saeculum mentioned in the text ended when the prophecy of Vegoia found its fulfillment through the far-reaching confiscations of Sulla .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nancy Thomson de Grummond: Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. P. 72.
  2. ↑ Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Erika Simon (ed.): The Religion of the Etruscans. P. 31.
  3. ^ A b Karl Lachmann: The Agrimensores. P. 350.
  4. ^ Servius , Vergilii carmina comentarii VI, 72.
  5. ^ A b Nancy Thomson de Grummond: Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. P. 29.
  6. ^ Nancy Thomson de Grummond: Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. P. 30.
  7. ^ Nancy Thomson de Grummond: Religion of the Etruscans. P. 31.
  8. ^ Massimo Pallottino: Etruscology: History and culture of the Etruscans. P. 329.
  9. ^ Karl Lachmann: The Agrimensores. P. 348.
  10. ↑ Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Erika Simon (ed.): The Religion of the Etruscans. P. 2 and 30.
  11. ^ Servius , Vergilii carmina comentarii VI, 72.
  12. ^ Nancy Thomson de Grummond: Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. P. 41.
  13. ↑ Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Erika Simon (ed.): The Religion of the Etruscans. P. 30.
  14. ^ Massimo Pallotino: Etruscology. P. 330.
  15. ^ Nancy Thomson de Grummond: Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. P. 191.
  16. ^ Jacques Heurgon: The Etruscans, p. 327.
  17. ^ Nancy Thomson de Grummond: Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. Pp. 41-42.
  18. ↑ Plutarch , Sulla 7.3.