Daily Deity #238 Tinia

If I were to give an overview of what Etruscan mythology is, I would say that Etruscan mythology is the transition between Greek mythology and Roman mythology. The subject of this Daily Deity is a prime example of that. 

Tinia, also called Tin or Tinh or Tinis, was the Etruscan top god. He is also considered to be the god of the skies and is responsible for making storms. In essence, he is the Etruscan form of the Classical king of the gods, Zeus. For the most part the Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter, and Etruscan Tinia are the same god. However, there are additional aspects of Tinia that are prevalent enough to consider him apart from Zeus and apart from Jupiter as well.

While Tinia was the ruler of his pantheon, he was not the only ruling god. There were a total of nine gods that worked together to lead the rest of the pantheon. Each of these nine gods possessed a lightening bolt, which is a massive step away from the Greek and Roman pantheons. In those, only Zeus was allowed to use the thunderbolts that were crafted for him. But don't think that this makes Tinia equal with the other gods he worked with. Tinia himself had three lightening bolts which placed him in the uppermost location in his pantheon.

Even still, Tinia didn't have such a tyrannical rule as Zeus seemingly did. Tinia worked within a trinity of the nine Etruscan top gods which were made up by his wife Uni, the Etruscan form of Juno/Hera, and Menrva, the Etruscan of Minerva/Athena. This little triumvirate is a comforting aspect when thinking about mythology. For the most part, mythology is well known to have crazy gods that end up causing a lot of problems for mortals. With three gods batting around any big time decisions, it would seem that they wouldn't create issues for the people that worshiped them. 

Though Tinia is similar to Zeus in many ways, including symbolism with eagles and laurel wreaths (which the Etruscan god Apulu was also represented by) there are some very key differences between the Etruscan god and the Greek immortal. Perhaps of the most glaring differences between the two is that Tinia also seems to be a loyal husband and decent father. One of the most famous children of Zeus is the heroic strongman, Heracles/Hercules. There is also a version of this hero in Etruscan mythology, but he is called Hercle. The mother of Hercle is not completely made clear, but it is most likely Uni. 

In regards to the three pantheons that we've discussed today, the Etruscan gods almost act as the bridge between the Greek gods and the Roman gods. While it's clear that the Greek gods influenced the Etruscan gods, it's likely that the ancient peoples of Tuscany developed a different way of viewing and interpreting the original Greek gods. Their influences are also likely what lead to the Roman gods seeming to be more refined than their Greek counterparts.