Discover Europe through the world of mythology

1. Discover Europe through the world of mythology • LLP Comenius • 2013-2015

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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. 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. The "contamination" between Etruscan gods and Greek one began around the VII century B.C. and can be said concluded. Uni - Hera - Giunone Menerva - Athena - Minerva Tinia - Zeus - Giove

5. 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

6. 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. 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. The iconography of Fufluns, since the secondhalf of the sixthcentury BC, iscloselylinked to that of the godDionysus. The worship of Godisrelated to vinecultivation, an activitythatwas of greatimportance in the economy of the city. Fufluns

7. 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.

8. SardusPater 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 water-moon. 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. .

9. The nameItaly 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".

10. A Roman GodGiano 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. Giano’s Arch in Rome Didracma Romani coin representing Giano. About 220 b.C.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. Ade Plutone Afrodite Venere Demetra Cerere Efesto Vulcano

14. 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.

15. Discover Europe through the world of mythology LLP Comenius 2013-2015