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Cel (goddess)
Cel was the Etruscan goddess of the earth. On the Etruscan calendar, the month of ''Celi'' (September) is likely named for her. Her Greek counterpart is Gaia and her Roman is Tellus. In Etruscan mythology, Cel was the mother of the Giants. A bronze mirror from the 5th century BC depicts a theomachy in which Celsclan, "son of Cel," is a Giant attacked by Laran, the god of war. In Greek, "giant" comes from a word meaning "born from Gaia". Another mirror depicts anguiped Giants in the company of a goddess, possibly Cel, whose lower body is formed of vegetation. In a sanctuary near Lake Trasimeno were found five votive bronze statuettes, some male and some female, dedicated to her as ''Cel Ati'', "Mother Cel". The inscription on each reads "I elong to, have been givento Cel the mother, here n this sanctuary"Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante, ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction'' (New York University Press, 2002, revised edition), p. 166. Cel appears on the Liver of Pi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etruscan Religion
Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greece, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and Religion in ancient Rome, religion. As the Etruscan civilization was gradually assimilated into the Roman Republic from the 4th century BC, the Etruscan religion and mythology were partially incorporated into ancient Roman culture, following the Roman tendency to absorb some of the local gods and customs of conquered lands. The first attestations of an Etruscan religion can be traced back to the Villanovan culture. History Greek influence Greek traders brought their religion and hero figures with them to the coastal areas of the central Mediterranean. Odysseus, Menelaus and Diomedes from the Homeric tradition were recast in tales of the distant past that had them roaming the lands West of Greece. In Greek tradition, Heracles wandered these western areas, d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laran
In Etruscan mythology and religion, Laran (or Larun) is the god of war. In art, he was portrayed as a naked youth wearing a helmet, a cuirass and carrying a spear, shield, or lance. Laran also appears to be an underworld god. Among his attributes is his responsibility to maintain peace. According to some scholars, he also seems to have been the guardian of boundaries as shown by the boundary cippi found in Bettona with the inscriptions ''tular Larna'' and ''tular larns.'' Along with eight other Etruscan gods, he can wield lightning. Due to the ''Tabula Capuana'' we know that the Laran festival was celebrated on the Ides of May. Laran is the Etruscan equivalent of the Greek Ares and the Roman Mars. Like many other Etruscan gods, his name is gender neutral. Previous scholarship thought that MarÃs, a mysterious figure(s) was the Etruscan god of war due to the similarity of the name to the Roman war god Mars.Simon, Erika; Thomson de Grummond, Nancy (2006). The Religion of the Etru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haruspicy
In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex (plural haruspices; also called aruspex) was a person trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy (''haruspicina''), the inspection of the entrails (''exta''—hence also extispicy (''extispicium'')) of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry. The reading of omens specifically from the liver is also known by the Greek term hepatoscopy (also hepatomancy). The Roman concept is directly derived from Etruscan religion, as one of the three branches of the ''disciplina Etrusca''. Such methods continued to be used well into the Middle Ages, especially among Christian apostates and pagans. The Latin terms ''haruspex'' and ''haruspicina'' are from an archaic word, ''haru'' = "entrails, intestines" (cognate with ''hernia'' = "protruding viscera" and ''hira'' = "empty gut"; PIE '' *ǵʰer-'') and from the root '' spec-'' = "to watch, observe". The Greek ἡπατοσκοπία ''hÄ“patoskÅ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liver Of Piacenza
The Liver of Piacenza is an Etruscan artifact found in a field on September 26, 1877, near Gossolengo, in the province of Piacenza, Italy, now kept in the Municipal Museum of Piacenza, in the Palazzo Farnese. It is a life-sized bronze model of a sheep's liver covered in Etruscan inscriptions ( TLE 719), measuring 126 × 76 × 60 mm (5 × 3 × 2.4 inches) and dated to the late 2nd century BC, i.e. a time when the Piacenza region would already have been Latin-dominated (Piacenza was founded in 218 BC as a Roman garrison town in Cisalpine Gaul). Description The liver is subdivided into sections for the purposes of performing haruspicy (hepatoscopy); the sections are inscribed with names of individual Etruscan deities. The Piacenza liver is a striking conceptual parallel to clay models of sheep's livers known from the Ancient Near East, reinforcing the evidence of a connection (be it by migration or merely by cultural contact) between the Etruscans and the Anatolian c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larissa Bonfante
Larissa Bonfante (March 27, 1931, Naples, Italy – August 23, 2019, New York City, New York) was an Italian-American classicist, Professor of Classics ''emerita'' at New York University and an authority on Etruscan language and culture. Biography Bonfante was born in Naples, the daughter of professor Giuliano Bonfante. She grew up in Princeton, NJ. Bonfante would go on to study fine arts and classics at Barnard College, earning her B.A. in 1954; she completed her M.A. in classics from the University of Cincinnati in 1957 and her Ph.D. in art history and archaeology at Columbia University in 1966. She studied at Columbia with Otto Brendel. Bonfante received the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement in 2007 from the Archaeological Institute of America. She was a founding member of the American section of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici. She edited the periodical publication ''Etruscan News'' that reported on the activities of the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Votive
A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally made in order to gain favor with supernatural forces. While some offerings were apparently made in anticipation of the achievement of a particular wish, in Western cultures from which documentary evidence survives it was more typical to wait until the wish has been fulfilled before making the offering, for which the more specific term ex-voto may be used. Other offerings were very likely regarded just as gifts to the deity, not linked to any particular need. In Buddhism, votive offering such as construction of stupas was a prevalent practice in Ancient India, an example of which can be observed in the ruins of the ancient Vikramshila University and other contemporary structures. Votive offerings have been described in historical Roman era ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Trasimeno
Lake Trasimeno ( , also ; it, Lago Trasimeno ; la, Trasumennus; ett, Tarśmina), also referred to as Trasimene ( ) or Thrasimene in English, is a lake in the province of Perugia, in the Umbria region of Italy on the border with Tuscany. The lake is south of the river Po and north of the nearby river Tiber and has a surface area of , making it the fourth largest in Italy, slightly smaller than Lake Como. Only two minor streams flow directly into the Lake and none flows out. The water level of the lake fluctuates significantly according to rainfall levels and the seasonal demands from the towns, villages and farms near the shore. Description Trasimeno is shallow, muddy, and rich in fish, including pike, carp, and tench. During the last 10 years it has been 5 meters deep, on average. Lake Trasimeno is an apparently endorheic body of water with no natural above-ground outlet. However, the Romans dug an artificial drainage tunnel in the San Savino area, which was restored in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term ''flora'' which refers to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but ''vegetation'' can, and often does, refer to a wider range of spatial scales than that term does, including scales as large as the global. Primeval redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns; all are encompassed by the term ''vegetation''. The vegetation type is defined by characteristic dominant species, or a common aspect of the assemblage, such as an elevation range or environmental commonality. The contemporary use of ''vegetation'' approximates that of ecologist Frederic Clements' term earth cover, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anguiped
The Anguiped (Latin: ''angui'', 'snake'; ''ped-'', 'foot') is a kind of divinity that is often found on magical amulets from the Greco-Roman period, and is characterized by having serpents for legs. Abraxas, the most common kind of Anguiped, is depicted as a creature with the head of a rooster and snakes for legs, symbolism thought to be of Persian origin. Sometimes inscribed below is ''Iao'', a form of the Tetragrammaton – the four letters used to represent the name of the God of Judaism. Such amulets, as well as the repeated usage of the name ''Iao'' in magical papyri, curse tablets, gems, and other amulets, provide evidence of syncretic cults combining elements of Judaism with paganism. In the Talmud, people who turned away from Judaism to such cults are referred to as '' minim'' – often translated as "heretics" or "apostates". In Graeco-Roman art, both Typhon and the giants (after around 380 BCE) are often conventionally depicted as anguipeds. A common religious motif i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theomachy
A theomachy is a battle among gods in Greek mythology. An early example is the Titanomachy (War of the Titans), in which the Olympian Gods fought against the preceding generation, the Titans. The war lasted ten years and resulted in the victory of the Olympians and their dominion over the world. Another case is the Gigantomachy. In the ''Iliad'', multiple theomachies occur. One is fought between Diomedes with the direct aid of Athena against Ares (part of Diomedes' ''aristeia'' in Book 5). Ares is wounded by the spear guided by Athena; this is the first theomachy to occur chronologically in the ''Iliad''. Book 20 begins with Zeus' grant of permission to the gods to participate in the battle and is traditionally known under the title ''Theomachia''. In Book 21 (478ff.) there is fighting between Hera and Artemis. This battle is shown by Homer to be almost playful as Hera is smiling while she boxes the ears of Artemis, which causes Artemis to fly away in tears. Seeing this, Hermes refus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. The remaining 29% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of the Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. The atmosphere of the Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. More solar e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze Mirror
Bronze mirrors preceded the glass mirrors of today. This type of mirror, sometimes termed a copper mirror, has been found by archaeology, archaeologists among elite assemblages from various cultures, from Etruscan art, Etruscan Italy to Japan. Typically they are round and rather small, in the West with a handle, in East Asia with a knob to hold at the back, often with a loop for a cord, or silk tassel. Some were fitted with small stands, and others had a hinged protective cover. They are first-surface mirrors, where the immediate bronze surface is flat, plain and highly polished to be reflective, rather than second-surface mirrors, like modern glass mirrors, where the reflection comes from a backing applied to the glass. They are significantly inferior to modern mirrors in terms of the quality of the reflection, but in older societies were sufficiently impressive to have religious significance in some societies. Examples include the melong in Tibetan Buddhism and the Toli ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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