23.06
2020
MuseoCity 2020
Fondazione Luigi Rovati participates to the 2020 edition of Museo City Milano with an exclusive initiative on its website, previewing an Etruscan bronze statuette of “Menerva”, dating back to the fifth century BC.
MuseoCity 2020, initially planned for March but re-scheduled to 31 July – 1 and 2 August 2020 due to the health emergency, is dedicated to women, lead characters of art and culture.
Fondazione Luigi Rovati shows for the first time an artwork from its collections that portrays an Etruscan female divinity, the goddess Menerva, one of the most important divinities of the Etruscan cult, which is identified with the Greek Athena and the Roman Minerva, also known for her ability to throw lightning. According to the Etruscans, the deities inhabited the celestial sphere. Through the phenomena and signs observed in the sky, the Etruscan priests interpreted the divine wills that controlled every aspect of earthly life.
According to the Etruscans, the deities inhabited the celestial sphere and Menerva was also known for her ability to throw lightning. Lightning was actually one of the most important signs with which Etruscan gods expressed their will, so much so that the Etruscan priests interpreted the divine summons, that controlled every aspect of earthly life, through the phenomena and signs observed in the sky.
Menerva (Athena, Minerva)
Etruscan, bronze
5th century BC
This splendid bronze statuette represents a female warrior deity ready to attack, with her right arm raised brandishing a spear and a shield in her left hand, both now lost. The imposing helmet and breastplate, and the leather cloak fastened with a Gorgon’s head to terrify enemies enable us to identify her as Menerva.
This goddess is one of the most important deities in the Etruscan religion and is the counterpart of the Greek Athena. The writers of antiquity included Menerva among the gods who hurled lightning bolts or manubiae Minervales and state that every city should have places of worship dedicated to Iuppiter, Iuno and Menerva (Jupiter, Juno and Minerva).
For the Etruscans every aspect of life, whether public or private, was controlled by the will of the gods, which was manifested through complex natural signs and phenomena, interpreted by the priests according to the Etrusca disciplina, the Etruscan divinatory science. The priests examined the entrails of sacrificed animals or used the doctrine of lightning to read the celestial vault, which was crossed by two straight perpendicular lines dividing the space into four main parts, which were then further divided into sixteen sections. Every section was inhabited by one or more deities and this scheme was also applied to the earth and used for organizing daily life.
Fondazione Luigi Rovati participates to the 2020 edition of Museo City Milano with an exclusive initiative on its website, previewing an Etruscan bronze statuette of “Menerva”, dating back to the fifth century BC.
Beneath the Etruscan Heavens
The Etruscans have been described as the most religious people of antiquity. Their cosmic system divided the celestial vault into sixteen regions and was linked to the ars fulguratoria, the doctrine of lightning strikes.
The celestial vault was divided by two straight lines that started from the four cardinal points and crossed in the centre creating four main sections. The pars àntica (the front) was to the south and the pars postica (the back) to the north, to the west there was the pars hostilis and to the east the pars familiaris. These four sections were subdivided into four parts each dedicated to a deity. The most auspicious were located to the north-east – and it is here that the highest gods Tini and Uni are found – while the parts to the north-west were occupied by the infernal gods and those of the underworld. The supernatural earthly powers were to the south-west and opposite them were the marine and solar powers.
The same division was repeated on the earth and by using this scheme the Etruscan priests interpreted divine will through the observation of lightning bolts, meteors and other phenomena.
According to the position in which they appeared in the sky, they were associated with the gods residing in that particular section. This scheme was also applied to the manifestations of life on earth and thus the haruspices by examining a sacrificial animal's liver, which was considered the seat of life, foretold and interpreted the divine will, to which humanity was totally subjected. In fact, the Etruscans followed strict rules of behaviour in order not to offend the gods, who were offered propitiatory rites and sacrifices, to ask for a favour or attempt to change the course of destiny. Divine decisions brooked no opposition. The signs sent by the gods were so crucial that if lightning struck a certain spot that place was considered holy and marked by a stone monument. The little we know of the strict Etruscan religious practices we learn from Cicero (1st century BC), who lists the works used to interpret the divine: the Libri Fulgurales for the doctrine of lightning (ars fulguratoria), the Libri Haruspicini for the doctrine of the liver (ars haruspicina) and the Libri Rituales, which comprised the Libri Ostentaria (lists of phenomena), the Libri Fatales (cosmological theories) and the Libri Acheruntici (magico-religious theories).
