Etruscan religion Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greece, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and religion. As the E ...

, the ''dii involuti'' ("veiled" or "hidden gods", also ''di involuti'' or ''dii superiores et involuti'') were a group of gods, or possibly a principle, superior to the ordinary pantheon of gods. In contrast to the ordinary Etruscan gods, including the ''

Dii Consentes The ''Dii Consentes'', also known as ''Di'' or ''Dei Consentes'' (once ''Dii Complices''), is an ancient list of twelve major deities, six gods and six goddesses, in the pantheon of Ancient Rome. Their gilt statues stood in the Roman Forum, an ...

'', the ''dii involuti'' were not the object of direct worship and were never depicted. Their specific attributes and number are unknown; suggests that they may represent either an archaic principle of divinity or "the very fate that dominates individualized gods". The sky-god

Tinia In Etruscan religion and mythology, Tinia (also Tin, Tinh, Tins or ''Tina'') was the god of the sky and the highest god in Etruscan mythology, equivalent to the Roman Jupiter and the Greek Zeus. However, a primary source from the Roman Varr ...

was believed to require their consent to cast the thunderbolt that announced disasters. According to Seneca in his ''

Naturales quaestiones ''Naturales quaestiones'' (''Natural Questions'') is a Latin work of natural philosophy written by Seneca around 65 AD. It is not a systematic encyclopedia like the ''Naturalis Historia'' of Pliny the Elder, though with Pliny's work it represent ...

'', The ''dii involuti'' may be identical with the "Secret Gods of Favour" mentioned by

Martianus Capella Martianus Minneus Felix Capella (fl. c. 410–420) was a jurist, polymath and Latin prose writer of late antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education. He was a nati ...

References

Etruscan religion Etruscan deities Time and fate deities Aniconism {{religion-stub