Tinia
Tinia , Tin or Tins is the name of the main god of the Etruscans , who lived in northern central Italy in ancient times . In this position, however, Tinia competes with the ancient Etruscan god Voltumna (Roman Vertumnus , from Latin vertere "turn, turn"). However, both deities appear to be identical or merged with one another and merely represent different aspects of the same god. Voltumna is the Etruscan god of the change of the seasons and includes above all the chthonic aspect of being connected to the earth. The name Tinia is originally Etruscan, while Vertumnus is more Roman. The Romans ( Marcus Terentius Varro ) in turn called Voltumna “the highest god of Etruria ” (deus Etruriae princeps) .
Mythological representation and function
Together with the two goddesses, his wife Uni (the Roman Juno or Greek Hera ) and both daughter Menrva (the Roman Minerva and Greek Athena ) he formed the highest trinity or triad of the pantheon of Etruscan mythology, which in Etruscan cities had three temples and three gates were consecrated. The Roman god Jupiter or the Greek father of gods Zeus are considered his counterparts. His high position is often underlined in depictions by the fact that he is seated on a throne.
As the god of heaven, lightning and light as well as the god of vegetation, according to Roman tradition, he ruled over the Council of Twelve of the deities later called Dei Consentes by the Romans . According to the Etruscan doctrine of lightning , the sky was divided into 16 sectors, from where the lightning gods hurled their lightning. Tinia inhabited three adjacent sectors, one in the human positive northeast and two in the northwest, which was considered the most ominous part of the sky. The access to the underworld was in this direction.
In contrast to Zeus and Jupiter, he was not the sole lord of lightning. Other gods of the Etruscan world also made use of them. But Tinia had special lightning bolts with tremendous destructive power. Only one of them, the weakest, he could use at his own discretion. For the second type with greater effect, he had to obtain the approval of the Council of Twelve beforehand. When using the third type with unpredictable effects, he even had to ask permission from the Dei involuti, those powers of destiny superior to the gods. The task of lightning interpreters was to read from it the will of the deity.
The main attribute lightning, especially in later depictions, sometimes also takes on the appearance of a fruit and thus emphasizes Tina's function as fertility and earth god. Above all in this capacity he was worshiped as one of the few Etruscan gods by the Romans, especially as the patron of viticulture, and his statue was on the Vicus Tuscus ("Etruscan Street").
Interpretation problems
In Tinia the characteristics of a sky god or weather god and those of a chthonic vegetation god unite with the aspects of the hereafter, a situation typical of the Etruscan religion , a prophetic region of revelation that emphasizes the close connection between the two spheres. In addition, it combines Greek features with locally Etruscan and later with Roman, because as early as the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Greek, Latin and Etruscan cultures were closely connected, and the first kings of Rome were Etruscans (e.g. the family of Tarquinius ). One must also assume that the Romans of the imperial era in particular no longer understood some of Tinia and sometimes merged or confused him with other gods, especially Vertumnus, whose cult was 264 BC. BC came to Rome and who was previously only the highest deity in the main sanctuary Fanum Voltumnae near Orvieto or Volsinii , which despite all speculations about various archaeological sites has not been identified with certainty , and was by no means the godfather of all Etruscans.
Libation altars for libations, which were reserved in Greece for the cult of chthonic deities, as the offering can penetrate into the depths of the earth through an opening in the altar are typical of the cult of Tina . From this it was concluded that "the iconography emphasizes the sky god, but the cult emphasizes an ancient Mediterranean vegetation god". It should be noted that Etruscan was not an Indo-European language and the origin of the Etruscans is still controversial and probably not Indo-European. As the god of wine, Tinia apparently also took over the functions of Bacchus , which Jupiter, who was initially unfamiliar with viticulture, later took over from Tinia.
The basic problem of all these uncertainties is the fact that our modern knowledge of the Etruscan religion is based on the statements and representations of Roman authors such as Seneca or Ovid , which date from a time when this religion no longer existed or only in remnants that were superimposed on Roman. so that it is quite possible that these reporters no longer understood and misinterpreted this religion and its spiritual background, which is in any case relatively inaccessible, as is the case with many revealed religions. Etruscan written documents are also rare and difficult to interpret; Its characters are legible, but the language itself is still poorly understood.
Representations and text documents
There are numerous depictions of Tinia that are not easy to interpret, especially on bronze mirrors, in vase and tomb paintings and sculptures, mostly votive statuettes . On such representations, a bundle of lightning bolts, a spear and a scepter are usually added as attributes. In some illustrations he has a full beard, only in the late Etruscan period was he occasionally depicted as a beardless youth who could correspond to the aspect of the god of vegetation, i.e. the aspect of Voltumna. On the bronze liver of Piacenza , the most important representation of the Etruscan religion, Tinia is mentioned five times in his capacity as the god of lightning and fate.
In addition to a few mostly late literary evidence, such as Ovid's Metamorphoses , there are above all numerous brief epigraphic evidence, especially dedicatory inscriptions, for example on mirrors, or sacrificial texts, e.g. B. on the Chimera of Arezzo .
literature
- Gerhard J. Bellinger : Knaurs Lexikon Mythologie. Droemer Knaur Verlag / Weltbild Verlag, Munich 1999 / Augsburg 2001. ISBN 3-8289-4154-0
- Fernand Comte: Myths of the World. WBG, Darmstadt 2008. ISBN 978-3-534-20863-0
- Mauro Cristofani et al .: The Etruscans. Mysterious culture in ancient Italy. Belser Verlag, Stuttgart 1995. ISBN 3-7630-2330-5
- Martello Maggiani: In: Cristofani, Mauro et al. (Ed.): The Etruscans , pp. 136–151. Chapter: Science and Religion.
- Friedhelm Prayon : The Etruscans. History - religion - art. 4th edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1996. ISBN 3-406-41040-5
- Erika Simon : In: Cristofani, Mauro et al. (Ed.): The Etruscans , pp. 152–167. Chapter: Etruscan cult deities.
- The New Encyclopedia Britannica , 15th ed. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., Chicago 1993. ISBN 0-85229-571-5
- Mario Torelli : In: Mauro Cristofani et al. (Ed.): The Etruscans , pp. 100–135. Chapter: Society and State. Classes and changes in society.
