Nortia
Encyclopedia
Nortia is the Latinized name of an Etruscan goddess
whose sphere of influence was time, fate
, destiny
and chance. The Etruscan
form was perhaps Nurtia. Variant manuscript readings
include Norcia, Norsia, Nercia, and Nyrtia.
annually to mark the New Year
. The Roman historian
Livy
took note of the ritual:
The ritual seems to "nail down" the fate of the people for the year. H.S. Versnel conjectured that it was associated with the annual meeting of the Etruscan league, and that Nortia's consort could have been Voltumna
, the counterpart of Roman Vortumnus
. The rite is analogous to, or a borrowed precedent for, a similar ritual at Rome originally held in the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, near a statue of Minerva
. Nortia may thus have been related to the Etruscan Menerva. At Rome, the goddess Necessitas, the divine personification of necessity, was also depicted with a nail, "the adamantine nail / That grim Necessity drives," as described by the Augustan poet
Horace
. In a poem addressing Fortuna
and acknowledging her power over all, from the lowliest to the highest, Horace pictures Necessity carrying nails large enough to drive into wooden beams, and wedges.
The ritual of the nail illuminates the otherwise puzzling iconography
on the back of an Etruscan
bronze mirror
. Meleager
is depicted under the wings of another Etruscan goddess of fate, identified by inscription as Athrpa, the counterpart of the Greek fate goddess Atropos
who is one of the three Moirai. Athrpa holds a hammer in her right hand and a nail in her left. With Meleager is his beloved Atalanta
(both names given in the Etruscan spelling), who will be parted by his death in a boar hunt presaged at the top of the composition. Turan
and Atunis (the Etruscan Venus and Adonis myth) also appear, as another couple whose love is destroyed by the savagery of the hunt. The hammer ready to drive in the nail symbolizes "the inexorability of human fate."
R.S. Conway
compared Nortia to the Venetic
goddess Rehtia, whose name seems to be the Venetic
equivalent of Latin rectia, "right, correct." Bronze nails finely inscribed with dedications were found within a temple precinct thought to have been that of Rhetia at Ateste
(modern Este
). The heads of the nails have links that attach them to small objects or charms, perhaps the "wedges of necessity" that Horace said Fortuna carried. Rehtia has been seen as a counterpart of the Roman Iustitia, the divine embodiment of justice, or the Greek goddesses Themis
or Dikē
.
. She appears a few times in Latin literature
and inscriptions. She is mentioned in one of Juvenal
's satires and identified with the Roman goddess
Fortuna, and Martianus Capella
lists her along with other goddesses of fate and chance such as Sors
, Nemesis
, and Tyche
. Tertullian
names Nortia twice in Christian polemic
.
A name has been deciphered as possibly Nortia among those of other deities in an inscription
found within an Umbri
an sanctuary at the Villa Fidelia, Hispellum
. The 4th-century writer and consul
Avienus
, who was from Nortia's seat in Volsinii, addressed the goddess in a devotional inscription:
The ancient location of Volsinii is vexed, and the Etruscan town was refounded by the Romans. At Bolsena
, the most likely candidate for the new Volsinii, there is a ruin outside the Florence gate that is known locally as the Tempio di Norzia, but as George Dennis
pointed out in the 19th century, no evidence other than the existence of the cult of Nortia supports this identification, and the architecture is Roman.
Etruscan mythology
The Etruscans were a diachronically continuous population, with a distinct language and culture during the period of earliest European writing, in the Mediterranean Iron Age in the second half of the first millennium BC...
whose sphere of influence was time, fate
Time and fate deities
Time and fate deities are personifications of time, often in the sense of human lifetime and human fate, in polytheistic religions.In monotheism, Time can still be personified, as in Father Time in European folklore, or Zurvan in Persian tradition.In the book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible,...
, destiny
Destiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
and chance. The Etruscan
Etruscan language
The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna...
form was perhaps Nurtia. Variant manuscript readings
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
include Norcia, Norsia, Nercia, and Nyrtia.
Ritual of the nail
Nortia's attribute was a nail, which was driven into a wall within her temple at VolsiniiVolsinii
Volsinii or Vulsinii , is the name of two ancient cities of Etruria, one situated on the shore of Lacus Volsiniensis , and the other on the Via Clodia, between Clusium and Forum Cassii...
annually to mark the New Year
New Year
The New Year is the day that marks the time of the beginning of a new calendar year, and is the day on which the year count of the specific calendar used is incremented. For many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner....
. The Roman historian
Roman historiography
Roman Historiography is indebted to the Greeks, who invented the form. The Romans had great models to base their works upon, such as Herodotus and Thucydides. Roman historiographical forms are different from the Greek ones however, and voice very Roman concerns. Unlike the Greeks, Roman...
Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
took note of the ritual:
CinciusCinciusCincius, whose praenomen was likely Lucius and whose cognomen goes unrecorded, was an antiquarian writer probably during the time of Augustus...
, an industrious researcher of antiquarianAntiquarianAn antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
matters, confirms that at Volsinii nails are in evidence at the temple of the Etruscan goddess Nortia, fixed to mark the number of years.
The ritual seems to "nail down" the fate of the people for the year. H.S. Versnel conjectured that it was associated with the annual meeting of the Etruscan league, and that Nortia's consort could have been Voltumna
Voltumna
In Etruscan mythology, Voltumna or Veltha was the chthonic deity, who became the supreme god of the Etruscan pantheon, the deus Etruriae princeps, according to Varro...
, the counterpart of Roman Vortumnus
Vertumnus
In Roman mythology, Vertumnus — also Vortumnus or Vertimnus — is the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees...
. The rite is analogous to, or a borrowed precedent for, a similar ritual at Rome originally held in the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, near a statue of Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
. Nortia may thus have been related to the Etruscan Menerva. At Rome, the goddess Necessitas, the divine personification of necessity, was also depicted with a nail, "the adamantine nail / That grim Necessity drives," as described by the Augustan poet
Augustan literature (ancient Rome)
Augustan literature is the period of Latin literature written during the reign of Augustus , the first Roman emperor. In literary histories of the first part of the 20th century and earlier, Augustan literature was regarded along with that of the Late Republic as constituting the Golden Age of...
Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
. In a poem addressing Fortuna
Fortuna
Fortuna can mean:*Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck -Geographical:*19 Fortuna, asteroid*Fortuna, California, town located on the north coast of California*Fortuna, United States Virgin Islands...
and acknowledging her power over all, from the lowliest to the highest, Horace pictures Necessity carrying nails large enough to drive into wooden beams, and wedges.
The ritual of the nail illuminates the otherwise puzzling iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
on the back of an Etruscan
Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum
Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum is an international project with the goal to publish all existing Etruscan bronze mirrors. The first volumes were published in 1981 and since then over 25 fascicles have been produced.-Background:...
bronze mirror
Bronze mirror
Bronze mirrors preceded the glass mirrors of today. This type of mirror has been found by archaeologists among elite assemblages from various cultures, from Etruscan Italy to China.-History:-Egypt:...
. Meleager
Meleager
In Greek mythology, Meleager was a hero venerated in his temenos at Calydon in Aetolia. He was already famed as the host of the Calydonian boar hunt in the epic tradition that was reworked by Homer....
is depicted under the wings of another Etruscan goddess of fate, identified by inscription as Athrpa, the counterpart of the Greek fate goddess Atropos
Atropos
Atropos or Aisa , in Greek mythology, was one of the three Moirae, goddesses of fate and destiny. Her Roman equivalent was Morta.Atropos or Aisa was the oldest of the Three Fates, and was known as the "inflexible" or "inevitable." It was Atropos who chose the mechanism of death and ended the life...
who is one of the three Moirai. Athrpa holds a hammer in her right hand and a nail in her left. With Meleager is his beloved Atalanta
Atalanta
Atalanta is a character in Greek mythology.-Legend:Atalanta was the daughter of Iasus , a Boeotian or an Arcadian princess . She is often described as a goddess. Apollodorus is the only one who gives an account of Atalanta’s birth and upbringing...
(both names given in the Etruscan spelling), who will be parted by his death in a boar hunt presaged at the top of the composition. Turan
Turan (mythology)
Turan was the Etruscan goddess of love and vitality and patroness of the city of Velch. In art, she was usually depicted as a young winged girl. Turan appears in toilette scenes of Etruscan bronze mirrors. She is richly robed and jeweled in early and late depictions, but consistently appears nude...
and Atunis (the Etruscan Venus and Adonis myth) also appear, as another couple whose love is destroyed by the savagery of the hunt. The hammer ready to drive in the nail symbolizes "the inexorability of human fate."
R.S. Conway
Robert Seymour Conway
Robert Seymour Conway was a British classical scholar and comparative philologist. Born in Stoke Newington, he was the older brother of Katharine St John Conway...
compared Nortia to the Venetic
Adriatic Veneti
The Veneti were an ancient people who inhabited north-eastern Italy, in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of the Veneto....
goddess Rehtia, whose name seems to be the Venetic
Venetic language
Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the North East of Italy and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps....
equivalent of Latin rectia, "right, correct." Bronze nails finely inscribed with dedications were found within a temple precinct thought to have been that of Rhetia at Ateste
Ateste
Ateste was an ancient town of Venetia, at the southern foot of the Euganean hills, 43 feet above sea-level and 22 miles southwest of Patavium...
(modern Este
Este, Italy
Este is a town and comune of the Province of Padua, in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Euganei Hills. The town is a centre for farming, crafts and industry worthy of note.-History:...
). The heads of the nails have links that attach them to small objects or charms, perhaps the "wedges of necessity" that Horace said Fortuna carried. Rehtia has been seen as a counterpart of the Roman Iustitia, the divine embodiment of justice, or the Greek goddesses Themis
Themis
Themis is an ancient Greek Titaness. She is described as "of good counsel", and is the embodiment of divine order, law, and custom. Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the verb τίθημι, títhēmi, "to put"...
or Dikē
Dike (mythology)
In ancient Greek culture, Dikē was the spirit of moral order and fair judgement based on immemorial custom, in the sense of socially enforced norms and conventional rules. According to Hesiod In ancient Greek culture, Dikē (Greek: Δίκη, English translation: "justice") was the spirit of moral...
.
Evidence
Little or no Etruscan evidence for Nortia survives. Her name is not among those of the deities on the Liver of PiacenzaLiver of Piacenza
The Liver of Piacenza is an Etruscan artifact found on September 26, 1877 near Gossolengo, in the province of Piacenza, Italy. It is a life-sized bronze model of a sheep's liver covered in Etruscan writings. The writings on the liver are names of Etruscan deities. It is believed that the bronze...
. She appears a few times in Latin literature
Latin literature
Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings of the ancient Romans. In many ways, it seems to be a continuation of Greek literature, using many of the same forms...
and inscriptions. She is mentioned in one of Juvenal
Juvenal
The Satires are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD.Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman genre of satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a...
's satires and identified with the Roman goddess
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
Fortuna, and Martianus Capella
Martianus Capella
Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a pagan writer of Late Antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education...
lists her along with other goddesses of fate and chance such as Sors
Sors
In Roman mythology, Sors was a god of luck.Although not much is said about the Roman god, he is mentioned in various stories and prayed to, or asked for assistance in certain points; "Sors, guide my arrow"...
, Nemesis
Nemesis (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Nemesis , also called Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia at her sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon, was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris . The Greeks personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess: the goddess of revenge...
, and Tyche
Tyche
In ancient Greek city cults, Tyche was the presiding tutelary deity that governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny....
. Tertullian
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
names Nortia twice in Christian polemic
Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views...
.
A name has been deciphered as possibly Nortia among those of other deities in an inscription
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
found within an Umbri
Umbri
The Umbri were an Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is currently occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria....
an sanctuary at the Villa Fidelia, Hispellum
Hispellum
Hispellum was an ancient town of Umbria, Italy, north of Fulginiae, on the road between it and Perusia.Hispellum is mentioned in Pliny , Strabo , and Ptolemy's Geography , but apparently by no earlier author: the town seems to have been established by Augustus, who at any rate founded a colony...
. The 4th-century writer and consul
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
Avienus
Avienus
Avienus was a Latin writer of the 4th century AD. According to an inscription from Bulla Regia, his full name was Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius.He was a native of Volsinii in Etruria, from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi...
, who was from Nortia's seat in Volsinii, addressed the goddess in a devotional inscription:
Nortia, I venerate you, I who sprang from a Volsinian larLaresLares , archaically Lases, were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries or fruitfulness, hero-ancestors, or an amalgam of these....
, living now at Rome, boosted by the honor of a doubled term as proconsulProconsulA proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
, crafting many poems, leading a guilt-free life, sound for my age, happy with my marriage to Placida and jubilant about our serial fecundity in offspring. May the spirit be vital for those things which, as arranged by the law of the fates, remain to be carried out.
The ancient location of Volsinii is vexed, and the Etruscan town was refounded by the Romans. At Bolsena
Bolsena
Bolsena is a town and comune of Italy, in the province of Viterbo in northern Lazio on the eastern shore of Lake Bolsena. It is 10 km north-north west of Montefiascone and 36 km north-west of Viterbo...
, the most likely candidate for the new Volsinii, there is a ruin outside the Florence gate that is known locally as the Tempio di Norzia, but as George Dennis
George Dennis (explorer)
George Dennis was a British explorer of Etruria; his written account and drawings of the ancient places and monuments of the Etruscan civilization combined with his summary of the ancient sources is among the first of the modern era and remains an indispensable reference in Etruscan studies.-...
pointed out in the 19th century, no evidence other than the existence of the cult of Nortia supports this identification, and the architecture is Roman.
External links
- Nortia The Obscure Goddess Online Directory