Etruscan inscription on a altar stone from Bolsena detail

Tinia (also Tin, Tinh, Tins or Tina) was the sky god and the highest deity in

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 in ancie ...

, equivalent to the Roman

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

and the Greek

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

. However, a primary source from the Roman Varro states that Veltha, not Tins, was the supreme deity of the Etruscans. This has led some scholars to conclude that they were assimilated, but this is speculation. Tinia was the husband of Uni and the father of Hercle. Like many other Etruscan deities, his name is gender neutral. The Etruscans had a group of nine gods who had the power of hurling thunderbolts; they were called '' Novensiles'' by the Romans. Of thunderbolts there were eleven sorts, of which Tinia wielded three. Tinia was sometimes represented with a beard or sometimes as youthful and beardless. In terms of

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

ism, Tinia has the thunderbolt. Tinia's thunderbolts could be red or blood coloured. Like Selvans and possibly Laran,Konstantinos I. Soueref; Ariadni Gartziou-Tatti (2019). Gods of Peace and War in the Myths of the Mediterranean People. Ioannina, Greece: Ephorate of Antiquities of Ioannina - University of Ioannina. . Tinia also protected boundaries. His name appears as the guarantor on three boundary stones with identical inscriptions found in Tunisia, originally placed there by the Etruscan colonists. Some of Tinia's possible epithets are detailed on the Piacenza Liver, a bronze model of a liver used for haruspicy. These inscriptions have been transcribed as ''Tin Cilens'', ''Tin Θuf'' and ''Tinś Θne''. There have been a number of suggestions as to their meaning, but the

Etruscan language Etruscan ( ) was the language of the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria, in Etruria Padana and Etruria Campana in what is now Italy. Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually superseded by it. Around 13,000 Etruscan epigraph ...

is poorly understood and there is no scholarly consensus for the translation.

Inscriptions

Tinia appears in several inscriptions, including: * Kylix painted by Oltos (c. 500 BC): ** **This has given Venel Atelinas for the sons of Tin (ie: The Dioscuri) *On the bronze Chimera of Arezzo: **Tinscvil **A gift to Tins File:Chimera d'arezzo, fi, 03.JPG, The Chimera of Arezzo File:Chimera d'arezzo, firenze, 05 firma.JPG, ''TINSCVIL'' inscription on foreleg

References

Etruscan gods Etruscan religion Sky and weather gods Thunder gods Time and fate gods Jovian deities {{deity-stub

Inscriptions

See also

References