The Etruscan Tina, or Tinia, is now generally identified, even
etymologically, with Jupiter[966]. The attributes of the two are
essentially the same, though one particular side of the Etruscan god’s
activity, that of the lightning-wielder, is specially developed. But
Tina is also the protector of cities, along with Juno and Minerva (Cupra
and Menvra); and it is in connexion with this function of his that we
first meet with a decided tendency towards an anthropomorphic
conception. Even here, however, the stimulus can hardly be said to have
come from Italy. ‘The one fact,’ says Aust[967], ‘which is at present
quite clear is that the oldest Etruscan representations of gods can be
traced back to Greek models. Tinia was completely identified in costume
and attributes with the Greek Zeus by Etruscan artists.’ The insignia of
Etruscan magistrates were again copied from these, and have survived for
us in the costume of the Roman triumphator[968], and in part in the
insignia of the curule magistrate, i. e. in sceptrum, sella, toga
palmata, &c., and in the smearing of the face of the triumphator with
_minium_.
Coming nearer to Rome we find at Falerii, a town subject to Roman and
Sabellian as well as Graeco-Etruscan influence, the curious rite of the
ἱερὸς γάμος described by Ovid (_Amores_, 3. 13), and found also in many
parts of Greece[969]. In this elaborate procession Juno is apparently
the bride, but the bridegroom is not mentioned. At Argos, Zeus was the
bridegroom, and the inference is an obvious one that Jupiter was the
bridegroom at Falerii. But this cannot be proved, and is in fact
supported by no real evidence as to the old-Italian relation of the god
and goddess. The rite is extremely interesting as pointing to what seems
to be an early penetration of Greek religious ideas and practices into
the towns of Western Italy; but it has no other bearing on the
Jupiter-question, nor are we enlightened by the little else we know of
the Falerian Jupiter[970].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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