Usil

Usil is the Etruscan god of the sun, later nicknamed Apulu (Apollo). His iconic depiction features Usil rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved Etruscan bronze mirror in late Archaic style, formerly on the Roman antiquities market.[1] On Etruscan mirrors in Classical style, Usil appears with a halo.

Chariot fitting representing Usil, 500–475 BCE, Hermitage Museum

He is identified with Apulu; in fact, he appears on an Etruscan mirror from the Vatican dating from the 4th century BC, on which Usil is seen holding the bow of Apulu.[2]

Usil has been syncretised with the Roman Sol and Greek Helios. However, while Usil is depicted as male in some artwork, there are also feminine depictions.[3][4] In particular, there is a possible equation with another indigenous Etruscan goddess, Catha, which is often interpreted as having a solar character. In artwork Usil is shown in close association with Thesan, the dawn goddess, something almost never seen with Helios and Eos.[5]

Consort

Since his name appears on the bronze liver of Piacenza, next to Tiur, meaning both "moon" and "month",[6] since then Tiur has been identified as the name of a lunar goddess (likely his wife), but it was most likely a date. The inscriptions on the Pyrgi Tablets confirm that "tiur" was meant as "month" for datations,[7] while Usil's consort was actually Catha.[8]

See also

References
  1. Noted by J. D. Beazley, "The World of the Etruscan Mirror" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 69 (1949:1–17) p. 3, fig. 1.
  2. Nonoss 2015.
  3. Haynes 2000.
  4. De Grummond 2008.
  5. De Grummond & Simon 2006.
  6. Bonfante & Swaddling 2006.
  7. Adiego 2016, p. 155.
  8. Jannot 2005, p. 146.

Bibliography
  • Adiego (2016). "The Etruscan Texts of the Pyrgi Golden Tablets: Certainties and Uncertainties". In Bellelli, Vincenzo; Xella, Paolo (eds.). Le lamine di Pyrgi: Nuovi studi sulle iscizione in etrusco e in fenicio nel cinquantenario della scoperta. Vol. I–X. Verona. p. 155.
  • Bonfante, Larissa; Swaddling, Judith (2006). Etruscan Myths. The Legendary Past (77). British Museum/University of Texas. ISBN 9780714122380.
  • De Grummond, Nancy Thomson; Simon, Erika, eds. (2006). The Religion of the Etruscans. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292782334.
  • De Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2008). "Moon Over Pyrgi: Catha, an Etruscan Lunar Goddess?". American Journal of Archaeology. 112 (3): 419–428. doi:10.3764/aja.112.3.419 – via University of Chicago Press.
  • Haynes, Sybille (2000). Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. ISBN 9780892366002.
  • Jannot, Jean-René (2005). Religion in Ancient Etruria. Translated by Whitehead, J.K. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299208448.
  • Nonoss (2015). "Turan, Aritimi, Usil et l'énigmatique Letham..." Au Fil du Temps (in French). Retrieved 2016-03-25.


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