Vegoia (Etruscan: ''Vecu'') is a

sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local trad ...

, prophet, or

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ...

within the Etruscan religious framework who is identified as the author of parts of their large and complex set of sacred books, detailing the religiously correct methods of founding cities and shrines, draining fields, formulating laws and ordinances, measuring space and dividing time; she initiated the Etruscan people to the arts, as originating the rules and rituals of land marking, and as presiding over the observance, respect, and preservation of boundaries. Vegoia also is known as ''Vecu'', ''Vecui'', and ''Vecuvia'', as well as ''Vegoe''; her name is also given as ''Begoe'' or ''Bigois''.

In the Etruscan religious framework

The Etruscan religious system remains mostly obscure. There being few bilingual documents comparable to the

Rosetta stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Anci ...

that could facilitate translation, the Etruscan language is poorly understood. Therefore, the existing ancient Etruscan documents of the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries BCE that would reveal their religious concepts, do not yield much. Moreover, during the later period of the fifth through the first centuries BCE, Etruscan civilization heavily absorbed elements of Greek civilization and eventually, it was diluted in the Greco-Roman cultural mix with their powerful Roman neighbors. Lastly, while the Etruscans formalized their religious concepts and practices in a series of "sacred books", most no longer exist and they are known only through commentaries or quotes by Roman authors of the late first century, and hence, may be biased. Two mythological figures have been set by the Etruscans as presiding over the writing of their sacred books: Vegoia, the subject of this article, and

Tages Tages was claimed as a founding prophet of Etruscan religion who is known from reports by Latin authors of the late Roman Republic and Roman Empire. He revealed a cosmic view of divinity and correct methods of ascertaining divine will concerni ...

, a monstrous childlike figure gifted with the knowledge and prescience of an ancient sage. Those books are known from Latin authors under a classification pertaining to their content according to their mythological author (whether delivered through speeches or lectures, such as

, or inspiration).

The attributes of Vegoia

The figure of Vegoia is almost entirely blurred in the mists of the past. She is known mostly from the traditions of the Etruscan city of Chiusi (Latin: Clusium; Etruscan: Clevsin; Umbrian: Camars) (now in the province of Siena). The revelations of the prophetess Vegoia are designated as the ''Libri Vegoici'' that included the ''Libri Fulgurales'' and part of the ''Libri Rituales'', especially the ''Libri Fatales''. She is barely designated as a "nymph" and as the author of the ''Libri Fulgurales'', that give the keys to interpreting the meaning of lightning strokes sent by the deities using a cartography of the sky that, as a sort of property division and use assignment, is attributed to Vegoia.
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Her assignment of sectors of the horizon to various deities is paralleled in the microcosm that is interpreted using the liver of a sacrificed animal. The sacred divisions also seem to have a correspondence in the measurement and division of land that, since the very dawn of Etruscan history, obeyed religious rules. Her dictates taught the correct methods of measuring space. Vegoia also was depicted as lording over the observation of these rules, to be upheld under threat of dire woe or malediction. Thus, she was established as the power presiding over land property and land property rights, laws, and contracts (as distinct from commercial contract laws). She also is indicated as having established the laws relative to hydraulic works, thus having a special relationship to "tamed" water.

Influence of Etruscan sacred books

This imposing system of "revealing" and "sacred texts" left a significant imprint on the neighboring italic peoples. There is ample evidence of the

Etruscan culture The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rough ...

having heavily permeated the less-advanced communities of their Latin and Sabine neighbours. For example, the Etruscan alphabet that was derived from the Greek one, is solidly established as having inspired the Latin alphabet. The principles and structural rules of the Etruscan decimal numeral system, likewise, are recognized as the origin of the Roman numerals that are a simplified version of the Etruscan system. Similarly derived are the symbols of supreme power (see

Etruscan civilization The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roug ...

), the structure of the

Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the dictator Julius Caesar and emperor Augustus in the late 1stcenturyBC and some ...

, and the Etruscan ''Craeci'' is the source for the word "Greeks" (who self-identified as ''Hellenes''), etc.

Relationship to Sibylline books

While the Roman religion has precious little written basis, they nonetheless had a very abstruse set of texts known as the

Sibylline Books The ''Sibylline Books'' ( la, Libri Sibyllini) were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, that, according to tradition, were purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and were consulted at ...

that were under the exclusive control of special religious figures, the

duumviri The duumviri ( Latin for "two men"), originally duoviri and also known in English as the duumvirs, were any of various joint magistrates of ancient Rome. Such pairs of magistrates were appointed at various periods of Roman history both in Rome i ...

(then

decemviri The decemviri or decemvirs (Latin for "ten men") were some of the several 10-man commissions established by the Roman Republic. The most important were those of the two Decemvirates, formally the " decemvirate with consular power for writing ...

). The books were resorted to solely in times of ultimate crisis. The devolution of these "sacred books" to the Romans through a rocambolesque scene, was attributed to an Etruscan,

Tarquinius Superbus Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (died 495 BC) was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning 25 years until the popular uprising that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. Livy, ''ab urbe condita libri'', I He is commonly know ...

, the last of the legendary kings of Rome. Hence, their relationship to Vegoia.

Relationship to Egeria

Likewise, one may suspect that the legend of Egeria is related to Vegoia. Egeria is the name of the nymph who inspired the second legendary king of Rome,

Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political institutions ar ...

(in Latin, "numen" designates "the expressed will of a deity"), who succeeded its founder, Romulus, when she dictated to him the rules that established the original framework of laws and rituals of Rome that also are associated with "sacred books". Numa is reputed to have written down the teachings of Egeria in "sacred books" that he caused to be buried with him. According to

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

, when a chance accident brought them back to light some 500 years later, the books were deemed by the Roman Senate to be inappropriate for disclosure to the people and they ordered that the books be destroyed. What made these sacred books 'inappropriate' was certainly of a "political" nature, but precisely what that was, had not been handed down by

Valerius Antias Valerius Antias ( century BC) was an ancient Roman annalist whom Livy mentions as a source. No complete works of his survive but from the sixty-five fragments said to be his in the works of other authors it has been deduced that he wrote a chroni ...

, the source that

was using. However, sacred books were the source used to interpret the abstruse omens of deities (episode of the omen from

Faunus In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the rustic god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan, after which Romans depicted him as a ...

). Sacred books also were associated with beneficial water, which also would have been linked to Vegoia.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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{{Authority control Etruscan mythology Etruscan goddesses Etruscan religion Wisdom goddesses Classical oracles Prophets