Culsu
Etruscan · deity · hellenistic · deity
Culsu stands at the door of the dead. She is a named figure, not an anonymous demon: the sarcophagus of Hasti Afunei from Chiusi labels her, and shows her dressed much as Vanth is, with shears in her hand. Her name is built on the same element as that of Culsans, the two-faced keeper of city gates, so that between them the pair hold the thresholds of the living world and the dead one. The shears are usually read as cutting the tie to life, which is plausible and unattested in so many words; the record says what the image shows and marks the rest as interpretation.
Domains
- underworld
- boundary
Powers
- to keep the entrance of the underworld, shears in hand
Relations
- ally: Culsans
Sources
- Sarcophagus of Hasti Afunei, Chiusi.
- Reference discussion of Culsu as gatekeeper of the underworld and female counterpart of Culsans.