#usil

how i see apollo/suri

Titles and Other names: Soranus, Apulu, Tivr (maybe), Sol, Dis Pater

Attributes

The Sun

The Underworld

Infernal fire or Volcanic fire

The moon (possibly)

Darkness

Plague

The Morning Dew

Lighting (mostly attune to volcanic lighting)

Health

Light

Prophecy and other Oracular beliefs

Symbols/Sacred Animals

Wolf

Goat

Sun areole or rays

Lighting bolt

A bow

Sledgehammer

Sword

Spear

Lead

Halo

General Information

What we know of Usil is mostly from a bronze artifact called Piacenza liver it was a guide or map shaped in a sheep’s liver found in northern Italy near Piacenza made around 100 BCE. A tool used in haruspicy or reading omens through entrails of animals which the Etruscans were well know in this practice that which the Romans admired and adopted their knowledge in their own practices. Basically the liver is section mirroring how the sky is section during Augury each section has a domain of a god one side of the right contains celestial and light gods. Usil is mentioned quite a few times and there is evidence that he was popular in everyday life of Etruria he also appears on many mirrors depiciting him with another deity named Thesan goddess of Dawn he is seen with Nethuns/Neptune. There is Etruscan inscriptions but their language is not well known nor translated but what we do have is a concessive evidence of Usil and with pieces we can put together of what the Etruscans did left behind.

Who is Usil?

Through depictions of Usil that we have and art pieces like the mirrors depict Usil in the similar fashion of Apollo, he carries a bow in his right hand, he is depicted of rising out of the sea and joining by Thesan and waving farewell to Nethuns who is seated, it depicts a close relationship with the sun and dawn which isn’t seen in Ancient Greek mythology. Another myth is hard to decipher and not really understood so don’t take it as fact but it’s Usil as a youth running with a cock-headed companion it’s suggested that this might be a myth of the morning dew when daybreak happens however due to lack of translation we don’t really know for certain of the companion’s name or the full context. It also shows two stars in hands of a winged goddess speculated being Thesan carrying the morning and evening star.

Apollo is known to the Etruscans went by as Apulu/Aplu, however Usil like the other deities of Etruscan is more connected to the Cthonic sphere, when sunsets Usil is in the underworld and is know as Suri “Black” or Soranus scholars presume it’s similar how in Egyptian afterlife where their dead is also have their time in the sun. So why the connection to Apollo? Well Apollo has connections to the dead and dying which the Etruscans noticed in several myths of Apollo taking care of the corpses of Hector and Sarpedon, during the beginning of Euripides “Alketis” Apollo leaves the house of a friend whose wife is dying. Etruscans called him the god of Mount Soracte which is north of Rome, known as Apollo Soranus and alongside him was Dis Pater of the underworld. In the Aeneid Etruscan Arruns/Princes pray to him “Summe deum, sancti custos, Soractis Apollo.” Meaning “The supreme god, the guardian of the holy, Apollo of Soractus” due to votive inscriptions throughout Etruria Archaeologist Giovanni Colonna who specializes in historical excavations of Etruscan sites including finding a temple of Apollo in Veii has identified that through archeological evidence that Súri is Soranus, many amulets given to the dead and painted in tombs were sacred laurels of Apulu or Usil. Usil was connected with the Sibylline Oracles which the Romans would equate it with Apollo and Helios later on to establish a cult.

He also shared a cult under the name Súri with another goddess named Catha/Kavtha referring to her as a “daughter” or “daughter of the sun”

Sooo what does all this means?

Usil was a sun god similar to how the Greeks saw Helios but he had attributes and domains similar to Apollo. Etruscans notice how in certain aspects Apollo was associated with death or the dying a Cthonic aspect, which they gave him a epithet named after the mountain which he was worshipped as Apollo Soranus (latinized) after Mount Soracte along with Dis Pater the king of the underworld since the Etruscans merged Apulu with Usil he also took the name as Soranus. Súri is an infernal aspect as well and the underworld venerated at multiple sites like Viterbo and Surrina which was named after him due to the extensive work of Giovanni Colonna who made a great contribution towards preserving Etruscan history and archeology was able to piece together that Súri is Apulu who had underworld connections like his Greek counterpart.

Usil and Tivr or Tiv

Tivr is a goddess of the moon but this name is also used for Usil, the name “Tivr” means “Bright one” but it can be used as a word for month or the moon. It can be said that Usil was a deity of the moon or at least a control over time or that he was also can be seen as a goddess as well. It was a common among the Etruscans to see their deities more gender neutral using same names for other deities.

But her name appears on the back of the Piacenza Liver next to Usil hence all these theories but it can be just a division of two skies night and day with two separate deities but I’m putting this here to make it known have your own thoughts on it.

Súri

Súri’s name means “black” or “from the black place/underworld” A lot of symbols and associations of Usil comes from the deity Súri, the Cthonic Sun deity with a lot of connections to other Dii inferi (gods of below/underworld) like Charun a deity with a monstrous face of a wolf carries a sledgehammer but acts like a guide of the dead, Manth is the King of The Underworld similar to that of Hades, Calu who is also a wolf like deity name means darkness or dark. He is considered to be an oracular god sacred animal is the goat and along with oblivious the wolf His priests were called Hirpi Sorani “Wolves of Soranus”. He was also known as Vetis an Etruscan god of healing counterpart was Asclepius holding bunch of arrows. Soranus he became associated with volcanic and infernal fire and Volcanic lightning.

He was also linked with nocturnal lightning as Summanus who was the “opposed twin” of Jupiter and one of the Novensiles the nine deities to wield lightning bolts as wells as personification of the night. Every June 20th of the Summer Solstice people would make round cake called Summanalia he was typically offered black oxen or any dark fur animal like any other Cthonic deity

Anmpile 18, 3 days post Feast of Laran 

Note: my calendar references here are based on interpretation of the Tabula Capuana, roughly placed on the Gregorian Calendar. As with all things Etruscan, this is not absolute. It is, additionally, only based on my specific practice, and is subject to change. I have chosen to use both n and m in the word "Anmpile", instead of a singular letter, as we find many Etruscan words which contain similar consonant clusters (Hercle, Vanth, Achivzr, Menrva, etc. - all examples of this certain linguistic phenomenon in the Rasenna language.) As usual, my choice of subject is based on the planetary weekday, corresponding generally to the Roman calendar (dies Solis). 

Usil, God(dess) of the Sun?

This post took me some hours (and several coffee breaks) to write. Large parts of that were research or just thinking about what to write. I try to put forth some kind of academic writing from an Etruscan pagan's point of view on this blog, but my own perfectionism and doubt certainly gets in the way. 

So let's dive in - not to necessarily infodump or propose an academic paper, but to read a mix of my research and thoughts on the Etruscan god Usil; as academia forms the basis of our worship as Etruscan pagans.

Usil is on the Liver of Piacenza, as are several other Etruscan deities (I mentioned Satre in yesterday's post!). He is next to Tiur/Tivr - and you will notice that I have placed two different spellings of this word next to each other. On the Liver, looking directly at it, with my rudimentary knowledge of the Etruscan alphabet, we can see "TIVR" - however, Tiur is an attested spelling as well from other inscriptions. Typically, I will write Tiur for ease of English pronunciation. Since I am referencing the Liver's specific spelling, I will write Tivr. 

Tivr and Usil are at the bottom, next to each other. Our current research concludes that Tivr is the moon god(dess), as well as a word for "month", and Usil is the sun god. (...Dess. Etruscan deities tend to lack permanent genders.) In my research, I did find this blog post: Paleoglot: Etruscan 'usil': It ain't the "sun" - which argues, that rather than the commonly agreed-upon definition, Usil means "dusk" due to this sentence: "Cis-um thesane uslane-c mlache." While I appreciate the research & argument, I have to disagree - Usil, to my linguist brain & knowledge, does appear to have connections to both Greek Helios and Roman Sol linguistically; it contains similar letters, as do other Etruscan equivalents - Menrva to Minerva, Uni to Juno - and a similar cadence.Thesan is occasionally attested as goddess of both the dawn and dusk - and this, along with her connection to Eos, leads me to conclude that this line is specifically about Thesan; not her presumed brother.  Additionally, the statues he does have clearly depict him as a solar deity. The one most often seen when discussing Usil is this: 

He has wings. He has a solar halo! And these spherical structures? Quoted as him holding fireballs. I think this absolutely supports his role as the god of the sun.

Another interesting thing to note is that Usil is cited as Catha's father in several places. This gets into the problem of who Catha is…

…and that's not a question with an easy answer. She's a goddess of Pyrgi. She has a connection to the underworld. 

But she might also be a lunar deity, or a solar deity, or even have a connection to childbirth. When equating her with a Greek deity, researchers choose Leucothea, a minor sea deity! 

So Usil, a male and sometimes female god of the sun, has a daughter who is a chthonic lunisolar goddess of childbirth and possibly the ocean. Unlike the Tivr & moon connections, this does not have a clear mythology we can put together - Helios and Selene are Titans of the sun and moon, brother and sister, along with Eos, Titaness of the dawn. Helios is the father of…Circe. And Phaethon. Circe's hardly a sea goddess - the closest she gets to that is turning sailor Odysseus' men into pigs and cursing the monster Scylla. She's not lunar, solar, chthonic, or a deity of childbirth either. So this thread falls apart as well - barring unverified personal gnosis and individual practice.

Phaethon is a demigod, a mortal demigod. He does not appear to have an Etruscan equivalent; which seems to be more rare as I dive into them. We have Heracles to Hercle, Theseus to These, Adonis to Atunis/Atune. Perhaps he's in some as-of-yet undiscovered tomb. But that's simply speculation. 

What do we conclude from this? Really, what do I conclude from this? Since, as I've stated, this is a blog for my own practices. 

Largely, that Usil is the god of a son, he has a sibling in Tivr, the moon god, a sister in Thesan, the dawn & dusk goddess, and a daughter in Catha, the…chthonic einalic lunisolar goddess of childbirth.  Writing these does help me form my own thoughts about the pantheon of aiser and where they all fit together - through reconstructions, Etruscan writing, comparisons to Greek and Roman mythology, other Italic languages, and my own theology. I don't think Catha is a Circe equivalent - though I couldn't find a specific Circe equivalence in my research. I do know the Etruscans had the stories of Odysseus, and I've seen at least one fresco of him defeating the Cyclops (cuclu) Polyphemus:

Again, that's a post for another time. Yet as with all things Etruscan, I'm left largely with more questions than answers, and less sure than when I started out. But I don't think that's a problem - learning is sacred. Ask Menrva. :-)

Śin Usil, god of the sun!

Sources

Usil: Etruscan God of the Sun

Foot of a Cista (Storage Box) | The Art Institute of Chicago

Most Popular Etruscan Gods: Discovering the Ancient Divine Pantheon - Mythical Encyclopedia

Usil - World Mythos

Turan, Aritimi, Usil et l'énigmatique Letham... - A la recherche des Etrusques…

Etruscan Sun god Usil

* Vulci

* 500-475 BCE

* bronze

* Getty Museum

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/327217/unknown-maker-applique-depicting-the-sun-god-usil-etruscan-500-475-bc/

Appliqué depicting the Etruscan Sun God Usil

[500-475 BCE] Christie's

~ Appliqué depicting the Sun God Usil.

Culture: Etruscan

Place of origin: Vulci, Italy

Date: 500–475 B.C.

Usil 400-375 BCE, Etruscan Christie’s Sale 14231

The rayed nimbus surrounding the head of this imposing winged youth indicates that this figure represents the Etruscan sun god Usil. As with his Greek counterpart Helios, he was responsible for moving the sun across the sky on his flying chariot, day after day. The un-worked flat back of the figure, the projecting hollow section at the centre and the presence of attachment pins would suggest its use as a decoration on a wooden object, most likely a chariot.

There are four other known comparable pieces, all thought to date to the very beginning of the 5th century B.C. and possibly produced in the wealthy city of Vulci in southern Etruria. Two are part of the Castellani collection now in the Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome. Another example is now in the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco in the Vatican Museums and another in the Hermitage.