The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

c h a p t e r 2 3: Numbers and reckoning

Figure 23.5 The Liver of Piacenza (from M. Cristofani [ed.], Gli Etruschi. Una nuova immagine,

Florence, Giunti, 2000).

Figure 23.6 Division of sky, with sixteen regions corresponding to as many divinities, according to the

outer ribbon of the Liver of Piacenza (middle circle), compared with a passage of Nigidius Figulus (inner

circle) and the list of gods provided by Martianus Capella (outer circle: some correspondences, following

the mark “ + 2,” have been moved two regions forward).

The development of the doctrine of the sky from four to eight and from eight to
sixteen partitions seems to have been a specific Etruscan peculiarity, depending on the
acknowledged skill of the haruspices in most specialities of divination.
In fact, evidence of such a doctrine is given by the position of the first tombs dug
within the Orientalizing tumuli in Caere and elsewhere in Etruria, constantly occurring
within the north-west quadrant,44 and probably also by the peculiar symbolic program
of the famous “lampadario di Cortona” (the “Cortona Lamp”) consecrated in a funerary
context, which has sixteen lights set among mythological figures.45
An attempt to reconcile the Etruscan system of sixteen with the near-eastern astrological
system of twelve (linked to the zodiac and the months) can be perhaps recognized in the

luppiter,

NocturnusNocturnus

Veiovis luppiter

Saturnus cilensl

caelestis

luno

vetisl luppiter

Penates

Inferorum

Penates

lovis

Penates

mortalium

hominum

Penates

tluscv Neptuni tecvm

Genius \

lunonis

y-iospitae*2 fufluns

Veris

Fructus*2

REGIONES

MAXIME

DIRAE

REGIONES

SUMMAE

FELICITATIS

REGIONES

MINUS

PROSPERAE

W

N

E

S

REGIONES

MINUS

DIRAE

luno+*

Celeritas

Liber*2 Solis filia+:

leQns

selva

cae

nee

Ivsl

uni

mae

tinso

ne

tin

Quf

tin

cilen

cvl

alp

cels

5

9 ]

'■13

,16^22

2

2

2

2

(^22)
2
2
2
2