Voltumna, also known as Veltune or Veltha was a chthonic deity of uncertain sex in Etruscan religion, who became the supreme god of the Etruscan pantheon, the deus Etruriae princeps, according to Varro.

Voltumna's cult was centered in Volsinii (modern-day Bolsena), a city of the Etruscan civilization of central Italy. Voltumna is shown with contrasting characteristics, such as a maleficent monster, a chthonic vegetation god of uncertain sex, or a mighty war god. The volcanic activity of Lake Bolsena were believed to be caused by Voltumna's destructive aspects. During this assembly, a long nail would be ritually driven into a cell of the temple, in order to fix the passage of time for the Etruscan's sacred calendar.

They were associated with the Roman Fortuna

See also

  • Tinia

Notes

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References

  • Briquel, Dominique 2003 "Le Fanum Voltumnae: remarques sur le culte fédéral des cités étrusques", in Dieux, fêtes, sacré dans la Grèce et la Rome antiques, edited by André Motte and Charles Ternes: 133–59. (Brepols, Turnhout). The last ten pages of this paper contain a highly technical discussion of the identity of the Etruscan god Voltumna in relation to the Latin gods Vertumnus and Janus.
  • Fontana Elboj, Gonzalo, 1992. Ager: estudio etimológico y functional sobre Marte y Voltumna (University of Zaragoza) (Spanish)
  • Hederich, Benjamin. (1770) 1996. Gründliches Mythologisches Lexikon (Darmstadt)
  • Pliny 8, 20.
  • Vollmer,Mythologie aller Völker, (Stuttgart) 1874.
  • L. Niebuhr, Römische Geschichte 2, 216.
  • Wissowa, Religion und Cultus des Römer, 243, 3.
  • Müller-Deecke, Die Etrusker, 1, 329 skk.
  • Theodor Mommsen, Römisches Staatsrecht, 3, 666
  • Pallottino, Massimo. "The Religion of the Etruscans"