Impero romano sotto Ottaviano Augusto 30aC - 6dC

According to

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

's '' Germania'' (

AD 98 AD 98 ( XCVIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Traianus (or, less frequently, year 851 ''Ab urbe condi ...

), Tuisto (or Tuisco) is the legendary divine ancestor of the

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and e ...

. The figure remains the subject of some scholarly discussion, largely focused upon etymological connections and comparisons to figures in later (particularly Norse)

Germanic mythology Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism. Origins As the Germanic langu ...

Etymology

The ''Germania'' manuscript corpus contains two primary variant readings of the name. The most frequently occurring, Tuisto, is commonly connected to the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...

root ''*twai'' – "two" and its derivative ''*twis'' – "twice" or "doubled", thus giving Tuisto the core meaning "double". Any assumption of a gender inference is entirely conjectural, as the tvia / tvis roots are also the roots of any number of other concepts / words in the Germanic languages. Take for instance the Germanic "twist", which, in all but the English has the primary meaning of "dispute / conflict". The second variant of the name, occurring originally in manuscript ''E'', reads Tuisco. One proposed etymology for this variant reconstructs a Proto-Germanic ''*tiwisko'' and connects this with Proto-Germanic ''* Tiwaz'', giving the meaning "son of Tiu". This interpretation would thus make Tuisco the son of the sky-god (

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...

*'' Dyeus'') and the earth-goddess.

Tuisto, Tvastar, and Ymir

Connections have been proposed between the 1st century figure of Tuisto and the hermaphroditic primeval being

Ymir In Norse mythology, Ymir (, ), also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar. Ymir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, in the ''Prose Edda'', writ ...

in later Norse mythology, attested in 13th century sources, based upon etymological and functional similarity. Meyer (1907) sees the connection as so strong, that he considers the two to be identical. Lindow (2001), while mindful of the possible semantic connection between Tuisto and Ymir, notes an essential functional difference: while Ymir is portrayed as an "essentially… negative figure" – Tuisto is described as being "celebrated" (''celebrant'') by the early Germanic peoples in song, with Tacitus reporting nothing negative about Tuisto. Jacob (2005) attempts to establish a genealogical relationship between Tuisto and Ymir based on etymology and a comparison with Vedic Indian mythology: as Tvastr, through his daughter Saranyū and her husband Vivaswān, is said to have been the grandfather of the twins

Yama Yama (Devanagari: यम) or Yamarāja (यमराज), is a deity of death, dharma, the south direction, and the underworld who predominantly features in Hindu and Buddhist religion, belonging to an early stratum of Rigvedic Hindu deities. ...

and

Yami Yamuna is a sacred river in Hinduism and the main tributary of the Ganges River. The river is also worshipped as a Hindu goddess called Yamuna. Yamuna is known as Yami in early texts, while in later literature, she is called Kalindi. In Hindu scr ...

, so Jacob argues that the Germanic Tuisto (assuming a connection with Tvastr) must originally have been the grandfather of Ymir (cognate to Yama). Incidentally, Indian mythology also places

Manu Manu may refer to: Geography * Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region **Manú National Park, Peru ** Manú River, in southeastern Peru * Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh *Manu Tem ...

(cognate to Germanic Mannus), the Vedic progenitor of mankind, as a son of Vivaswān, thus making him the brother of Yama/Ymir.

Attestation

Tacitus relates that "ancient songs" (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''carminibus antiquis'') of the Germanic peoples celebrated Tuisto as "a god, born of the earth" (''deum terra editum''). These songs further attributed to him a son,

Mannus Mannus, according to the Roman writer Tacitus, was a figure in the creation myths of the Germanic tribes. Tacitus is the only source of these myths. Tacitus wrote that Mannus was the son of Tuisto and the progenitor of the three Germanic tribe ...

, who in turn had

three 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

sons, the offspring of whom were referred to as

Ingaevones The Ingaevones were a West Germanic cultural group living in the Northern Germania along the North Sea coast in the areas of Jutland, Holstein, and Frisia in classical antiquity. Tribes in this area included the Angles, Frisii, Chauci, S ...

, Herminones and

Istaevones The Istaevones (also spelled Istvaeones) were a Germanic group of tribes living near the banks of the Rhine during the Roman Empire which reportedly shared a common culture and origin. The Istaevones were contrasted to neighbouring groups, the In ...

, living near the Ocean (''proximi Oceano''), in the interior (''medii''), and the remaining parts (''ceteri'') of the geographical region of Germania, respectively.

Theories and interpretations

Tacitus's report falls squarely within the ethnographic tradition of the classical world, which often fused anthropogony, ethnogony, and

theogony The ''Theogony'' (, , , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contain ...

together into a synthetic whole. The succession of father-son-three sons parallels occurs in both Germanic and non-Germanic

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

areas.Simek (2007:336). The essential characteristics of the myth have been theorized as ultimately originated in

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

around 2,000 BCE.Simek (2007:224-225). According to Rives (1999), the fact that the ancient Germanic peoples claimed descent from an earth-born god was used by Tacitus to support his contention that they were an indigenous population: the Latin word ''indigena'' was often used in the same sense as the Greek ''autochthonos'', meaning literally '

orn from Orn or ORN may refer to: *Orn (name), a given name and surname * ''Orn'', the second book in Piers Anthony's trilogy Of Man and Manta * Offshoring Research Network, an international network researching the offshoring of business processes and ser ...

the land itself'. Lindauer (1975) notes that, although this claim is to be judged as one made out of simple ignorance of the facts on the part of Tacitus, he was not entirely wrong, as he made the judgement based on a comparison with the relatively turbulent Mediterranean region of his day.

Later influence

In 1498, a monk named

Annio da Viterbo Annius of Viterbo ( la, Joannes Annius Viterb(i)ensis; 5 January 143713 November 1502) was an Italian Dominican friar, scholar, and historian, born Giovanni Nanni in Viterbo. He is now remembered for his fabrications. He entered the Dominican Or ...

published fragments known as "Pseudo-Berossus", now considered a forgery, claiming that Babylonian records had shown that Tuiscon or Tuisto, the fourth son of Noah, had been the first ruler of Scythia and Germany following the dispersion of peoples, with him being succeeded by his son Mannus as the second king. Later historians (e.g.

Johannes Aventinus Johann Georg Turmair (or Thurmayr) (4 July 1477 – 9 January 1534), known by the pen name Johannes Aventinus (Latin for "John of Abensberg") or Aventin, was a Bavarian Renaissance humanist historian and philologist. He authored the 1523 ...

) managed to furnish numerous further details, including the assertion by

James Anderson James Anderson may refer to: Arts *James Anderson (American actor) (1921–1969), American actor *James Anderson (author) (1936–2007), British mystery writer *James Anderson (English actor) (born 1980), British actor * James Anderson (filmmaker) ...

that this Tuiscon was in fact none other than the biblical

Ashkenaz Ashkenaz ( he, ''ʾAškənāz'') in the Hebrew Bible is one of the descendants of Noah. Ashkenaz is the first son of Gomer, and a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. In rabbinic literature, the descendants of Ashkenaz were first ass ...

, son of Gomer.

, ''Royal Genealogies'' p. 442, "The Most Ancient Kings of the Germans".

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Jacob, Alexander (2005). ''Ātman: A Reconstruction of the Solar Cosmology of the Indo-Europeans.'' Georg Olms Verlag. . * Lindauer, Josef (1975). ''Germania: Bericht über Germanien.'' München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. . * Lindow, John. (2001)
Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs
'.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. * North, Richard (1997).
Heathen Gods in Old English Literature
'.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

. . * Rawlinson, George (2000).
The History of Herodotus
'. * Rives, J. B. (1999) (Trans) Tacitus' ''Germania.'' Oxford University Press 1999. . * Simek, Rudolf (1995). ''Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie.'' Stuttgart: Kröner . * Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. D.S. Brewer. * Stallybrass, James Steven. (2004a) (Trans) J. Grimm's ''

Teutonic Mythology Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germ ...

'', volume I.

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, book ...

. . * Stallybrass, James Steven. (2004b) (Trans) J. Grimm's ''

'', volume IV.

. * Stuart, Duane R (1916). ''Germania''. New York: MacMillan Co. 1916. * Tacitus (2000). '' De origine et situ Germanorum liber''. Stuttgart: Reclam 2000. . * Valpy (1812)
The Classical Journal
March/June Edition, Vol. V. London: A. J. Valpy. 1812. {{Good article Germanic mythology Germanic paganism Legendary progenitors Ymir