18 May 2025Â
Anmpile 18, 3 days post Feast of LaranÂ
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).Â
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.Â
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.Â
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:Â
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.Â
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!Â
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.Â
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.Â
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. :-)
Åšin 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
Godchecker guide to Usil, the Etruscan God of the Sun 🌞 from Etruscan mythology. Sun God on the rise
Usil - World Mythos
Turan, Aritimi, Usil et l'énigmatique Letham... - A la recherche des Etrusques…
February 9, 2018 – The History Blog
