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A dierent etymology grounded in the legendary history of Latium and Etruria was proposed by Preller and
Mller-Deeke: Etruscan Nethunus, Nethuns would be an
adjectival form of toponym Nepe(t), Nepete (presently
Nepi), town of the ager Faliscus near Falerii. The district was traditionally connected to the cult of the god:
Messapus and Halesus, the eponymous hero of Falerii,
were believed to be his own sons. Messapus led the
Falisci and others to war in the Aeneid.[14] Nepi and
Falerii have been famed since antiquity for the excellent quality of the water of their springs, scattered in
meadows. Nepet is considered a hydronymic toponym of
preIndoeuropean origin widespread in Europe and from
an appellative meaning damp wide valley plain, cognate
with preGreek wooded valley.[15]
Etymology
has been preserved particularly well in the case of Neptune who was denitely a god of springs, lakes and rivers
before becoming also a god of the sea, as is testied by
the numerous ndings of inscriptions mentioning him in
the proximity of such locations. Servius the grammarian
also explicitly states Neptune is in charge of all the rivers,
springs and waters. He also is the lord of horses because
he worked with Minerva to make the chariot.[19]
2.1
The Neptunalia
2.6
2.3
Sacrices
2.4
Lake Albanus
During the war with Veii in 393 BC the level of Lake Albano (Albanus Lacus) rose to an unusual height even in
the absence of rain. This prodigy was believed to be relevant on the siege of Veii because a haruspex from Veii recited some lines of a prophecy that illustrated the relationship between the level of its waters and either the safety
or the fall of the town to the Romans. It foretold that
as long as the waters of the lake remain high Veii would
be impregnable to the Romans. If the waters of the lake
were scattered in an inland direction on the other hand
Veii would fall; but if they were to overow through the
usual streams or channels toward the sea this fact would
be unfavourable to the Romans as well.[36] Dumzil ascribed this story to the Roman custom of projecting religious legendary heritage onto history, considering it as a
festival myth, aimed at giving relevance to an exceptional
event which would have happened during the Neptunalia.
This legend would show the scope of the powers hidden
in waters and the religious importance of their control by
man: Veientans too knowing the fact had been digging
channels for a long time as recent archaeological nds
conrm. There is a temporal coincidence between the
conjuration of the prodigy and the works of derivation
recommended by Palladius and Columella at the time of
the canicula, when the waters are at their lowest.[37]
2.5
Paredrae
3
ancient and modern. Varro connects the rst to salum,
sea, and the second to ventus, wind.[43] Festus writes of
Salacia that she is the deity that generates the motion of
the sea.[44] While Venilia would cause the waves to come
to the shore Salacia would cause their retreating towards
the high sea.[45] The issue has been discussed in many
passages by Christian doctor Aurelius Augustinus. He
devotes one full chapter of his De Civitate Dei to mocking the inconsistencies inherent in the theological denition of the two entitites: since Salacia would denote the
nether part of the sea, he wonders how could it be possible that she be also the retreating waves, as waves are a
phenomenon of the surface of the sea.[46] Elsewhere he
writes that Venilia would be the hope that comes, one
of the aspects or powers of the all encompassing Jupiter
understood as anima mundi.[47]
Servius in his commentary to the Aeneid also writes about
Salacia and Venilia in various passages, e.g. V 724:
"(Venus) dicitur et Salacia, quae proprie meretricum dea
appellata est a veteribus": "(Venus) is also called Salacia,
who precisely was named goddess of mercenary women
by the ancient. Elsewhere he writes that Salacia and Venilia are indeed the same entity.[48]
Among modern scholars Dumzil with his followers
Bloch and Schilling centre their interpretation of Neptune
on the more direct, concrete, limited value and functions
of water. Accordingly Salacia would represent the forceful and violent aspect of gushing and overowing water,
Venilia the tranquil, gentle aspect of still or slowly owing
water.
Preller, Fowler, Petersmann and Takcs attribute to the
theology of Neptune broader signicance as a god of universal worldly fertility, particularly relevant to agriculture
and human reproduction. Thence they interpret Salacia
as personifying lust and Venilia as related to venia, the attitude of ingraciating, attraction, connected with love and
desire for reproduction. L. Preller remarked a signicant
aspect of Venilia mentioning that she was recorded in the
indigitamenta also as a deity of longing, desire. He thinks
this fact would allow to explain the theonym in the same
way as that of Venus.[49] Other data seem to point in the
same direction: Salacia would be the parallel of Thetis as
the mother of Achilles, while Venilia would be the mother
of Turnus and Iuturna, whom she mothered with Daunus
king of the Rutulians. According to another source Venilia would be the partner of Janus, with whom she mothered the nymph Canens loved by Picus.[50] These mythical data underline the reproductive function envisaged
in the gures of Neptunes paredrae, particularly that of
Venilia in childbirth and motherhood. A legendary king
Venulus was remembered at Tibur and Lavinium.[51]
Mller-Deeke and Deeke had already interpreted the theology of Neptune as that of a divine ancestor of a Latin
stock, namely the Faliscans, as the father of their founder
heroes Messapus and Halesus. Sharing this same approach Fowler considered Salacia the personication of
the virile potency that generated a Latin people, parallel
with Mars, Saturn, Janus and even Jupiter among other
Latins.[57]
3.1
Neptune in Etruria
5
tions, Uil is standing at the centre of the picture, holding in his right hand Aplu's bow, and Thesan is on the
right, with her right hand on Uils shoulder: both gods
look intent in listening Nethunss words. The identication of Uil with Aplu (and his association with Nethuns)
is further underlined by the anguiped demon holding two
dolphins of the exergue below. The scene highlights
the identities and association of Nethuns and Aplu (here
identied as Uil) as main deities of the worldly realm and
the life cycle. Thesan and Uil-Aplu, who has been identied with uri (Soranus Pater, the underwold Sun god)
make clear the transient character of worldly life.[69] The
association of Nethuns and Uil-Aplu is consistent with
one version of the theory of the Etruscan Penates (see
section below).
In Martianus Capella's depiction of Heaven Neptune is
located in region X along with the Lar Omnium Cunctalis (of everybody), Neverita and Consus. The presence
of the Lar Omnium Cunctalis might be connected with
the theology of Neptune as a god of fertility, human included, while Neverita is a theonym derived from an archaic form of Nereus and Nereid, before the fall of the
digamma.[70] For the relationship of Neptune with Consus see the above paragraph. Martianuss placing of Neptune is fraught with questions: according to the order of
the main three gods he should be located in region II,
(Jupiter is indeed in region I and Pluto in region III).
However in region II are to be found two deities related to
Neptune, namely Fons and Lymphae. Stephen Weinstock
supposes that while Jupiter is present in each of the rst
three regions, in each one under dierent aspects related
to the character of the region itself, Neptune should have
been originally located in the second, as is testied by the
presence of Fons and Lymphae, and Pluto in the third.
The reason of the displacement of Neptune to region X
remains unclear, but might point to a second appearance
of the triads in the third quarter, which is paralleled by
the location of Neth in case 7 of the Liver.[71] It is however consistent with the collocation in the third quadrant
of the deities directly related to the human world.[72]
Nethuns is the Etruscan name of the god. In the past it has Bloch remarks the possible chtonic character and stricter
been believed that the Roman theonym derived from Etr- link of Nethuns with Poseidon to which would hint a seuscan but more recently this view has been rejected.[66]
ries of circumstances, particularly the fact that he was
Nethuns was certainly an important god for the Etruscans. among the four gods (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Tellus
His name is to be found on two cases of the Piacenza in order) the haruspices indicated as needing placation for
Liver, namely case 7 on the outer rim and case 28 on the prodigy related in Cicero's De haruspicum responso
the gall-bladder, (plus once in case 22 along with Tinia). 20, i.e. a cracking sound perceived as coming from the
This last location tallies with Pliny the Elders testimony underground in the ager latiniensis.
that the gall-bladder is sacred to Neptune.[67] Theonym
Nethuns recurs eight times on columns VIII, IX and XI
3.1 Neptune and the Etruscan Penates
of the Liber Linteus (ere, erchva Nethunsl), requiring
oerings of wine.[68]
Among ancient sources Arnobius provides important inOn a mirror from Tuscania (E. S. 1. 76) Nethuns is rep- formation about the theology of Neptune: he writes that
resented while talking to Uil (the Sun) and Thesan (the according to Nigidius Figulus Neptune was considered
goddess of Dawn). Nethuns is on the left hand side, sit- one of the Etruscan Penates, together with Apollo, the
ting, holding a double ended trident in his right hand and two deities being credited with bestowing Ilium with its
with his left arm raised in the attitude of giving instruc- immortal walls. In another place of his work, book
VI, Nigidius wrote that, according to the Etrusca Disciplina, his were one among the four genera, types of
Penates: of Iupiter, of Neptune, of the underworld and
of mortal men. According to another tradition related
by a Caesius,[73] also based on the same source, the Etruscan Penates would be Fortuna, Ceres, Genius Iovialis and Pales, this last one being the male Etruscan
god (ministrum Iovis et vilicum, domestic and peasant of
Jupiter).[74]
Depiction in art
REFERENCES
4.1
Gallery
5 Bibliography
Raymond Bloch Quelques remarques sur Poseidon, Neptunus et Nethuns in Comptes-rendus des
sances de l' Acadmie des Inscriptions et BellesLetres 2 1981 pp. 341352.
Sarolta A. Takacs Vestal Virgins, Sibyls and Matronae: Women in Roman Religion 2008, University
of Texas Press.
Georg Wissowa Religion und Kultus der Rmer Munich 1912.
Georges Dumzil La religione romana arcaica. Con
un 'appendice sulla religione degli Etruschi Edizione
e traduzione a cura di Furio Jesi: Milano Rizzoli
1977 (Italian translation conducted on an expanded
version of the 2nd edition of La religion romaine archaque Paris Payot 1974).
6 References
[1] J. Toutain, Les cultes paens de l'Empire romain, vol. I
(1905:378) securely identied Italic Neptune as a saltwater sources as well as the sea.
[2] Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People,
Haydock, 1995, p. 215.
[3] About the relationship of the lord of our earthly world with
water(s) Bloch, p. 342-346, gives the following explanations: 1. Poseidon is originally conceived as a chtonic
god, lord and husband of the Earth (for the etymology, epithtes , he who possesses the Earth,
he who makes the Earth quake) with an equine form. He
mates with Demeter under this form in the Arcadian myth
from Thelpusa, they beget the racing horse Areion and the
unnamed daughter of those mysteries (story in Pausanias
VIII 25, 3). 2. Poseidon hippios (horse) is the god of
Earth and as springs come from beneath the earth, this is
also a metaphora (or better a gure) of the origin of life on
Earth; the horse is universally considered as having a psychopompous character and Poseidon is known as tamer of
horses (damaios) and father of Pegasus who with its hoof
can open up a spring. 3. Poseidon is the god worshipped
in the main temple of the Isle of Atlantis in the myth narrated by Plato in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias; there
was also a hippodrome nearby. 4. The island was swallowed up by an earthquake caused by Poseidon himself.
This factor would connect the power over earth and that
over waters. The Greek had a memory of the explosion
of the Island of Santorini and of the seaquake it provoked
as well as other consequences aecting climate.
[4] Alain Cadotte, Neptune Africain, Phoenix 56.3/4 (Autumn/Winter 2002:330-347) detected syncretic traces of
a Libyan/Punic agrarian god of fresh water sources, with
the epithet Frugifer, fruit-bearer"; Cadotte enumerated
(p.332) some north African Roman mosaics of the fully
characteristic Triumph of Neptune, whether riding in his
chariot or mounted directly on albino dolphins.
[5] Dumzil, La religion romaine archaque (Paris,
1966:381).
[6] Compare Epona.
[7] Varro Lingua Latina V 72: Neptunus, quod mare terras
obnubuit ut nubes caelum, ab nuptu, id est opertione, ut
antiqui, a quo nuptiae, nuptus dictus.: N., because the
sea covered the lands as the clouds the sky, from nuptus
i.e. covering, as the ancients (used to say), whence nuptiae
marriage, was named nuptus".
[8] P. Kretschmer Einleitung in der Geschichte der Griechischen Sprache Gttingen, 1896, p. 33.
[9] R. Bloch Quelques remarques sur Poseidon, Neptunus
et Nethuns in Revue de l' Histoire des Religions 1981, p.
347.
[10] Y. Bonnefoy, W. Doniger Roman and Indoeuropean Myhtologies Chicago, 1992, s.v. Neptune, citing G. Dumezil
Myht et Epope vol. III p. 41 and Alfred ErnoutAtoine Meillet Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue latine Paris, 1985 4th, s.v. Neptunus.
[11] G. Dumzil Ftes romaines d' t et d' automne, suivi par
dix questions romaines Paris 1975, p.25.
[12] H. Petersmann below, Gttingen 2002.
[13] M. Peters Untersuchungen zur Vertratung der indogermanischen Laryngeale in Griechisch in sterreicher
Akademie der Wissenschaften, philsophische historische
Klasse Bd. 372, 1980 p.180.
[14] Vergil Aeneis VII 691: L. Preller Rmische Mythologie II
Berlin, 1858; Mller-Deeke Etrusker II 54 n. 1 b; Deeke
Falisker p. 103, as quoted by William Warde Fowler The
Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London,
1899, p. 185 and n. 3.
[15] Giuseppe Simonetta Le straticazioni linguistiche
nell'Agro Falisco.
[16] Livy v. 13.6; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 12.9; Showerman, Grant. The Great Mother of the Gods. Madison,
WI: University of Wisconsin, 1901:223
REFERENCES
[75] Divers nd Caesar bust that may date to 46 B.C., Associated Press, 2008-05-14
External links
Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 600
images of Neptune)
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Neptune (god)".
Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press.
10
8.1
Text
8.2
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