Fufluns

Revision as of 10:07, 28 August 2009

Fufluns is an Etruscan god of vegetation, vitality and gaiety, son of the earth-goddess Semia. He shows many similarities with Dionysus and Bacchus, the Greek and Roman gods of wine. The Etruscan religion was, like Christianity and Judaism, a revealed religion. An account of the revelation is given by Cicero (On Divination, 2.50). One day, says the legend, in a field near the river Marta in Teruria, a strange event occurred. A divine being rose up from the newly ploughed furrow, a being with the appearance of a child, but with the wisdom of an old man. The startled cry of the ploughman brought the lucomones, the priest-kings of Etruria hurrying up to the spot. To them, the wise child chanted the sacred doctrine, which they reverently listened to and wrote down, so that this most precious possession could be passed on to their successors. Immediately after the revelation, the miraculous being fell dead and disappeared into the ploughed field. His name was Tages, and he was believed to be the son of Genius and grandson of the highest God, Tinia (or Iuppiter as he became known to the Romans). This doctrine was known to the Romans as the "disciplina etrusca".

Ortum videamus haruspicinae; sic facillume quid habeat auctoritatis iudicabimus. Tages quidam dicitur in agro Tarquiniensi, cum terra araretur et sulcus altius esset impressus, exstitisse repente et eum adfatus esse qui arabat. Is autem Tages, ut in libris est Etruscorum, puerili specie dicitur visus, sed senili fuisse prudentia. Eius adspectu cum obstipuisset bubulcus clamoremque maiorem cum admiratione edidisset, concursum esse factum, totamque brevi tempore in eum locum Etruriam convenisse. Tum illum plura locutum multis audientibus, qui omnia verba eius exceperint litterisque mandarint. Omnem autem orationem fuisse eam qua haruspicinae disciplina contineretur; eam postea crevisse rebus novis cognoscendis et ad eadem illa principia referendis. Haec accepimus ab ipsis, haec scripta conservant, hunc fontem habent disciplinae. - M. Tullius Cicero, "de Divinatione" 2.50