Cupra

Cupra is the best-attested Umbrian goddess outside the Iguvine Tablets, and the only one in this batch documented by inscriptions rather than by a liturgy. Four dedications from Plestia, in the 4th century BCE, call her 'Cupra, mother of the Plestini'; a bronze plaque from Aja della Croce near Fossato di Vico, in the Umbrian language, dedicates a cistern to Cubrar Matrer. Her name is taken to mean 'the Good', making Cupra Mater 'the Good Mother'. She began as a Picene warrior goddess protective in life and death, and as her cult spread into Umbria with merchants and transhumant shepherds she lost the martial attributes and kept the association with water and springs; two towns in Picenum, Cupra Marittima and Cupramontana, still carry her name. Comparisons with Bona Dea and Venus are old and are recorded here as comparisons only.

Variant accounts

• Cupra Mater has been compared with Bona Dea and with Venus.Because the name is read as 'the Good (Mother)', Cupra Mater has been set beside Roman Bona Dea, and the Fossato di Vico plaque has been discussed in connection with Venus as well. The census disposition is explicit that comparisons with Hera, Venus or Bona Dea require distinct evidence and do not justify merging records; the comparison is kept in prose and no identification is encoded.F. Marcattili, 'Tra Venere, Bona Dea e Cupra. Note a margine della lamina di Fossato di Vico', in Forme e strutture della religione nell'Italia mediana antica (2016), 469-489 — cited in the Lane 1 Umbrian census as the study supporting the Fossato di Vico sanctuary and the Bona Dea comparison. (secondary)
• Cupra's cult is Picene in origin and Umbrian by diffusion.The cult is traced from Iron Age Picenum into Umbria along the routes of merchants and transhumant pastoralists, the goddess shedding her martial attributes as she became 'mother Cupra' at the Umbrian sanctuaries. The record is filed under Umbrian because the Umbrian-language dedications at Plestia and Fossato di Vico are its documentary basis, with the Picene sanctuaries recorded as cult sites.Study of the cult of Cupra in Picenum and Umbria, on its spread via mobile populations and its Umbrian transformation. (secondary)

Domains

• motherhood
• springs
• protection

Powers

• to stand as mother to a named community, the Plestini

Epithets

• Matres (Mater)Plestia dedications, cupras matres pletinas; the later form cubrar matrer on the Fossato di Vico plaque. (epigraphic)

Sources

• Cupra is a goddess of shared Umbrian and Picene cult, invoked at Plestia as 'Cupra, mother of the Plestini' on four 4th-century BCE dedications and as Cubrar Matrer on a bronze plaque from Fossato di Vico dedicating a cistern; originally a Picene warrior goddess, in Umbria she is worshipped as mother and retains an association with springs.: Plestia dedications (4th c. BCE); bronze plaque from Aja della Croce near Fossato di Vico (2nd c. BCE), Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Perugia. (epigraphic); Study of the presence and transformation of the cult of Cupra in Picenum and Umbria from the Iron Age to the Roman imperial period, on her Picene martial origin, her Umbrian maternal form and her link with springs. (secondary); S. Marchesini, 'Cubrar matrer: goddess of the Picenes?' — on the name-forms and the goddess's Picene identity. (secondary)