Download - Discover Europe Through The World of Mythology

Discover Europe
through the world of
mythology
LLP Comenius
2013-2015
Mythology
An ancient population of uncertain origin
constituted in 9th century b.C. a civilization
which settled in the area of present Tuscany,
Lazio, Umbria and in the offshoots of
Campania, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy.
The contact with Greek settlers favoured the
absorbment of their mythology, or rather, a
new way to conceive mythology. Etruscan
gods, till than simple entities, divine spirits of
vague and unprecise shape, assumed human
shape. The Etruscan Pantheon originated
similar to the Greek one. When the Etruscan
people was subjected to the they absorbed
even their mythology which placed on Roman
gods.
Etruscan Mythology
Thauchun, while was plowing a field, saw a
baby child coming out from a groove, he was
as wise as a greybeard. His name was Tages,
recalled Tagete by Latins.
The maximum priests, the Lucumones, arrived
while the baby sentenciated and wrote the the
Tagetic books or Acherontics.
After his pontification, Tages disappeared as o
God. the legend tells that he was son of
Mather-Earth and nephew of the heaven God
Tinia.
More often the figure of a baby founder of
religions or civilizations, is a recurring theme
in the history of old peoples.
Rome had its twins
The Christianity had baby Jesus
Tages is a divine creature transmitting the
revelation of the holy thing of Etruscan.
Influences-Contaminations
The basic concept of Etruscan
religion was that Nature depende
by the gods wil. Any natural
phenomenon was a precise signal
of the god to the man, who had to
recognise and interpret to uniform
to his will.
Uni - Hera - Giunone
Etruscan gods, at the very
biginning, were an unspecified
number as was their function, the
contact and the influence of other
religions, in particular the Greek
one, brought to Etruscan pantheon.
Menerva - Athena - Minerva
The
"contamination"
between
Etruscan gods and Greek one
began around the VII century B.C.
and can be said concluded.
Tinia - Zeus - Giove
The cult of the dead in the Etruscan Mythology
There are differenrt kind of Etruscan tombs, varying
according to the historical period, the geographical
location and to the geological characteristic of the
soil where they are.
Ipogee: completely underground
tumulus: partially underground, round or
rectangular
aedicola: rectangular houses with sloping roof.
Tomba etrusca Tarquinia
The Dyonisiac cults
arrived to Rome from
Etruria, they were
prohibited in 186
B.C. by the Roman
Senate because of
the seriuos moral
disorder that would
have produced.
The
iconography
of
Fufluns, since the second
half of the sixth century
BC, is closely linked to that
of the god Dionysus.
The worship of God is
related to vine cultivation,
an activity that was of
great importance in the
economy of the city.
Fufluns
Since the IV of youth
Fufluns estabilished
representations
in
Etruria to mean the
adoption
of
the
myths linked to the
Greek world and
related to
the
childhood
of
Dionysius.
NURAGIC CIVILIZATION
It developed in the island of Sardinia, the between the Bronze Age and
the early Iron Age(XVII-IX century B.C.) the nuragic civilization takes its
name from the unique and impressive monument charactirizing it: the
Nuraghe.
NURAGIC CIVILIZATION
Sardus Pater
The different nuragic tribes, to appease the gods and
to progress, most likely practiced a religion
connecting the fertility of the fields, the cycle of the
seasons, and the water of life, with the strength of the
bull male sun and the female fertility of the watermoon.
Probably there was a mediterranean mother goddess
, and a god father Babai (called in Roman age
Sardus Pater). Today “Babai” in the Sardinian
language means father.
Nuragic carrycot/ships
The deer was probably a
Symbolic figure of relief.
Many swords and nuragic
ships, offered to the gods, as
well as real ships used by the
Celtsa even centuries, had a
protome deer shape.
.
The name Italy
If ther ehad been any cosmogonic history
before the strong influence of the Greek way of
thinking , it is irremediably lost.
However, it is possible to recover some
fragments of n italic story in the etymology of
the word Italy.
Italo
There are many legends about Italo, who lived
sixteen generations before the Trojan War.
He was the King of of Oenotria in the territory
corresponding
to
the
'current
Calabria,
Thucydides says: "that region was called Italy by
the king Italo".
Aristotle reports that Italo then transformed the
Enotri, arrived in Italy in the Iron Age, from
nomads to farmers, giving them the laws.
Virgil, finally, in the Aeneid writes: "There is a
place-the Greeks call it Esperia, an ancient land,
powerfulfot the weapons and fertile clod; the
Enotri populated it, and now is fame that their
grandchildren have called Italia that people, by the
name of the head".
A Roman God
Giano
Giano’s Arch in Rome
One of the oldestRoman god, he is not
comparable to any Greek divinities.
Latin words like Ianua (door) are linked to
his name.
His cult was linked to passages and to any
initial event.
Any first things, in cronological meaning,
belong to his, for example the beginning of
the year: January.
He was represented with to opposite faces
which allowed him to look at the beginning
and ending, entrance and exit, in and out of
anything.
Didracma Romani coin representing Giano. About 220 b.C.
Rome foundation
If the tale of Romulus and Remus appears the more popular
Roman founding tale today, then the tale of Aeneas, harking
back to yet earlier times, was perhaps the more popular in the
days of the Roman Empire. In fact through Virgil the Aeneid
became the national epic of the Roman empire and the most
famous poem of the Roman era.
Aeneas was a hero fighting the Greeks in the Trojan wars.
Son of Venus and a mortal father, he left Toia as soon it was
sacked. After quite an odyssey he landed in Latium through
which the river Tiber flows. Aeneas married King Latinus'
daughter to displease King Turnus of the Rutuli who was
interested in her. As usual in ancient tales, a war broke out
between Turnus and Aeneas ,for her; Aeneas was supported
by King Tarchon of the Etruscan. Aeneas,thanks to his mother
Venus , was triumphant.
The sack of Troy is dated around 1220 BC. To fill the years
from Aeneas to Romulus the Romans therefore were required
to produce a string of fictional Kings to make the tale work.
This was done across all the generations with some ease
from Ascanius, son of Aeneas to Numitor, grandfather of
Romulus and Remus.
Rome meets Greek
Through the Etruscan, Roman
knew and adopted Greek
mythology.
This influence modified the
ancient roman gods which
placed over the Olimpyc
Greek gods.
Ade
Plutone
Afrodite
Demetra
Venere
Cerere
Efesto
Vulcano
Adranòs-Efesto
Even if the old tradition indicated
that Adranòs ’ forge was in the
Lemnos island, Greek settlers
identified Efesto with the God
Adranòs , who lived in the town
Etna. He was worshipped in
Adranon , today Adrano.
This suggestion let that his forge
was set in these places in poets
lines.
Eliano tell about Efesto culto in
the Town of Etna (Inessa)
specifying that the temple hosted
the eternal fire saved by holy
dogs able to recognize goodnes
and wickdness of people.
Discover Europe through the world of
mythology
LLP
Comenius
2013-2015