ROMAN PERCEPTION OF ETRUSCAN RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE: THE GOD VOLTUMNA
Roman commentators cited as “famous” some Etruscan doctrines for which no archaeological correlates are known; in some cases, this may be due to the late date of the authors, who saw dilapidated sanctuaries and could not read Etruscan texts.
Literary treatment inadvertently makes formal precepts out of what may have been quite diverse beliefs. One issue is the identity of the god Voltumna, who to Varro was deus Etruriae princeps, “the primary god of Etruria” {On the Latin Language V.46). Propertius {Elegy 4.2) had the statue of Vertumnus proclaim that he was Tuscan-born, from a maple stump, but pleased to have come as booty from Volsinii to Rome. He shifts age, occupation, gender and character according to his costume. The legend of Vertumnus seducing Pomona disguised as an old woman (Ovid Metamorphoses 14.623-771) supports this connotation of a gender-shifting or gender-neutral force, perhaps as an attribute of Tinia whose myths show him performing gender-reversed acts such as giving birth (to Menrva and Fufluns, de Grummond 2006c: 63-72). The site of Campo della Fiera outside Orvieto (Volsinii) was probably the fanum Voltumnae (“shrine of Voltumna”), site of religious fairs for the Etruscan Dodecapolis and backdrop for conspiracies of war (Livy 4.25.7, 4.61.2, 5.17.6, 5.23.5, 6.2.2; Stopponi 2002-3). This sanctuary survived the destruction of Volsinii and continued beyond Roman times.
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