Çerfus Martius
Umbrian · deity · Iguvine Umbrian religion; 3rd 1st c. BCE · Recorded classification
Çerfus Martius is an Umbrian deity of growth and increase whose name comes from the Indo-European root *ker- 'to grow' (the same root behind Roman Cerus and Ceres), qualified by the epithet Martius that ties him to Mars. In the lustration of Iguvium he receives boars at Fontuli, and he is the focal god of the so-called Çerfian deities: the protectress Prestota Çerfia and the boundary-goddess Tursa Çerfia are both described as belonging to Çerfus Martius. He represents the agrarian and protective doubling of the martial sphere, presiding over the flourishing of the city's people, fields and flocks.
Domains
- growth and fertility
- martial protection
Powers
- to make the people, fields and herds of Iguvium grow and increase
Epithets
- MartieGiacomo Devoto, Tabulae Iguvinae, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1940), s.v. Cerfus. (secondary)
Relations
- ally: Mars GraboviusClosely bound to Mars through his epithet Martius; the Çerfian complex doubles the martial-agrarian sphere of Mars Grabovius within the city gates.James W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (1959), pp. 252-268. (secondary)
Sources
- Çerfus Martius (Umbrian Çerfe Martie) is an Umbrian growth-and-increase god of Iguvium associated with Mars, the patron deity to whom the goddesses Prestota Çerfia and Tursa Çerfia belong.: James W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (American Philological Association / Oxford University Press, 1959). (secondary); Michael Weiss, Language and Ritual in Sabellic Italy: The Ritual Complex of the Third and Fourth Tabulae Iguvinae (Brill, 2010). (secondary)