Tursa Iovia, Boundary-Goddess of Jupiter

Tursa Iovia is the 'Jovian' aspect of the Umbrian boundary-goddess Tursa, attested in the oldest of the Iguvine Tablets (Tablets III and IV). She forms a paired deity with Tursa Çerfia: the two represent the goddess of fright and rout stationed at the city's augural boundaries, Tursa Çerfia invoked outside the sacred limit (pomerium) and Tursa Iovia within it. In this role she resembles the Roman boundary-god Terminus, marking and defending the augurally significant edges of Iguvium. Her epithet Iovia attaches this inner-boundary aspect to the sovereign sphere of Jupiter, just as Tursa Çerfia belongs to the circle of Çerfus Martius.

Domains

• boundary
• fear and rout

Powers

• to hold the inner sacred boundary of Iguvium and turn back what crosses it

Epithets

• Iovia

Relations

• twin sibling: Tursa Çerfia, Goddess of Rout
• subordinate to: Jupiter Grabovius

Sources

• James W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (American Philological Association / Oxford University Press, 1959).
• Michael Weiss, Language and Ritual in Sabellic Italy: The Ritual Complex of the Third and Fourth Tabulae Iguvinae (Brill, 2010).