Tursa Çerfia, Goddess of Rout
Umbrian · deity · Iguvine Umbrian religion; 3rd 1st c. BCE · Recorded classification
Tursa Çerfia is an Umbrian goddess of fear and rout, one of the Çerfian deities of Çerfus Martius. Her name comes from a root meaning 'to frighten, put to flight', echoed in her cult-verb tursitu 'let her rout', and she functions as a deity of the city's boundary: in the Iguvine ritual she appears as a paired figure with Tursa Iovia, the former invoked outside the augural limit (pomerium) and the latter within it, recalling the Roman boundary-god Terminus. Together with Prestota Çerfia she is summoned in the great imprecation that the enemies of Iguvium be seized with terror and driven in flight. She receives heifer-calves in sacrifice.
Domains
- fear and rout
- boundary
Powers
- to strike fear into the enemies of Iguvium and put them to flight
Epithets
- Çerfer MartierGiacomo Devoto, Tabulae Iguvinae, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1940), s.v. Tursa. (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: Çerfus MartiusNamed 'of Çerfus Martius' (Çerfer Martier), she belongs to the divine circle of the growth-god Çerfus Martius.James W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (1959), pp. 285-300. (secondary)
- companion: Prestota Çerfia, the ProtectressPaired with Prestota Çerfia among the Çerfian goddesses invoked together in the defensive imprecation of the lustration.Michael Weiss, Language and Ritual in Sabellic Italy (Brill, 2010), pp. 170-210. (secondary)
- twin sibling: Tursa Iovia, Boundary-Goddess of JupiterDoublet of the same boundary goddess Tursa: Tursa Çerfia is invoked outside the pomerium and Tursa Iovia within it, the two forming a paired boundary-deity of the city's augural limits.Michael Weiss, Language and Ritual in Sabellic Italy (Brill, 2010), pp. 200-240. (secondary)
Sources
- Tursa Çerfia (Umbrian Tursa Çerfia Çerfer Martier) is the Umbrian goddess of fear and rout belonging to Çerfus Martius, invoked outside the sacred boundary of Iguvium to scatter its enemies.: 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)