Spector
Umbrian · deity · Iguvine Umbrian religion; 3rd 1st c. BCE · Recorded classification
Spector is known from a single line of the Iguvine Tablets, where a victim brought from elsewhere is offered to him in the remedial sacrifice of Tabula II. His name means 'the one who watches', and the related adjective speturie belongs to the language of augury and of the inspection of entrails, which is the whole of the evidence for his function: the tablets describe no act of his. The comparison with the Etruscan threshold-guardian Culśanś rests on that sense of the name. The record is kept deliberately thin, since padding it would mean inventing a god out of an etymology.
Variant accounts
- Spector has been compared with the Etruscan Culśanś.The watchman sense of the name has prompted comparison with Etruscan Culśanś, a double-faced guardian of thresholds. The comparison is typological and is recorded as such; no identification is encoded, and there is no Culśanś record merged with this one.Lexical discussion comparing Spector with Etruscan Culśanś as a possible double-faced watchman deity. (secondary)
- The adjective speturie need not refer to the god.speturie is read by most as 'augural, pertaining to the inspection of entrails', and only less often as 'belonging to the god Spector'. The record therefore rests on the dative theonym speture, not on the adjective.Lexical discussion of Umbrian speturie and its two readings. (secondary)
Domains
- augury
- protection
Powers
- to watch — the function carried by the name itself, 'the one who observes'
Relations
- ally: Vesticius SanciusCo-recipient with Vesticius Sancius in the remedial sacrifice of Tabula II; the two are named in consecutive lines of the same rite.Iguvine Tablets, Tabula IIa 4-5 — named in consecutive lines as recipients within the same remedial sacrifice. (primary)
Sources
- Spector (Umbrian speture, dative) is a divine recipient in the remedial sacrifice of Tabula II of the Iguvine Tablets; the name derives from Proto-Italic *spek-tor, 'the one who watches'.: Iguvine Tablets, Tabula IIa 5. (primary); Lexical discussion of Umbrian speture < Proto-Italic *spek-tor and of the adjective speturie; the comparison with Etruscan Culśanś as a watchman deity. (secondary)