Thesan

Thesan
Goddess of the dawn
An ancient Etruscan mirror depicting the goddess Thesan. Translated title: A mirror with Thesan (Eos), Tinthun or Young Semele, 3rd century BCE in Perugia, Italy
Equivalents
GreekEos
RomanAurora and Mater Matuta

In Etruscan religion and mythology, Thesan is the Etruscan goddess of the dawn.[1] Thesan is the Roman equivalent of Aurora.[2] In Etruria, she received offerings together with the sun god Usil as described in the liber linteus.[1] She was especially worshipped at Caere's harbour of Pyrgi, where a temple was dedicated to her and a singular series of "daybreak antefixes" was excavated.[1]

Thesan was depicted with wings and sometimes nude, such as a clay acroterium from Astrone valley.[3] According to scholar De Grummond: "Although Thesan is often compared with the Greek Eos and the Roman Aurora, Greek texts suggest that they understood her cult persona at Pyrgi to be rather a counterpart of Leukothea, the “White Goddess,” who had a special connection with the sea, and who in turn was assimilated to the Roman Mater Matuta, a goddess of the morning and of childbirth."[2]

Unlike Eos in the Greek religion, Thesan is worshipped in the Etruscan religion. Her name appears on the mummy wrappings of the Zagreb mummy (Liber Linteus) and on a bronze tablet from Pyrgi.[4]

  1. ^ a b c Simon, Erika (2006). De Grummond, Nancy Thomson (ed.). The Religion of the Etruscans. University of Texas Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0292721463.
  2. ^ a b De Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2006). Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. pp. 19, 54, 107. ISBN 9781931707862.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference MacIntoshTurfa-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).