Artume (also called Artemisia, Aritimi, Artames, or Artumes) was an Etruscan goddess who was the mistress of animals:โ127โ, goddess of human assemblies, and hunting deity of Neolithic origin. She was a daughter of Tinia and Letun, and she had two siblings: A brother called Turms and a twin brother named Aplu:โ130โ. Her Greek counterpart was Artemis and her Roman counterpart Diana:โ19,99โ; however, Etruscans later appropriated the Greek goddess Artemis. Aritimi was also considered the founder of the Etruscan town Aritie which is today the Italian town Arezzo.
Artemisia also appears to be the name of a particular vampire in Italian folklore, but it is unclear if this is connected to the Etruscan goddess.
Depictions and mythology
Artume may have been depicted by Etruscans as early as ca. 600 BCE, on a silvered bronze belt buckle. The image shows a woman, often referred to as Potnia Theron (The Mistress of Animals), accompanied by two male attendants with a pair of wolf pups jumping up towards her. The exact identity of Potnia Theron is unknown, as no known depictions of her have an inscribed name, and it's possible that she represents an unrelated goddess.:โ99-101โ
She is shown on two different mirrors transporting a body labeled "Esia" to Minerva and Fufluns. This may be depicting the Etruscan version of a Greek myth where after Artemis kills Ariadne, she takes her body to Dionysus to be revived and made immortal. There is also a mirror depicting the young Artume and Aplu slaying the Python of Delphi together. This differs from typical Greek mythos, where Apollo slew the python on his own.:โ104โ
In addition to the repetitively few depictions of her, Artume notably absent from the Liver of Piacenza, suggesting that she was not as well-known to the Etruscans as Artemis was to the Greeks. There are no known Etruscan temples or shrines dedicated specifically to her.:โ103โ
Artume is depicted as a male figure on several occasions, including on a mirror depicting the myth of the Golden Fleece. There is also a small bronze votive statue of a male figure inscribed with the name Aritimi.:โ100โ
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de Grummond, Nancy Thomson; Simon, Erika, eds. (2006). The Religion of the Etruscans. University of TexasPress, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819: University of TexasPress. ISBNย 0-292-70687-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
โAs Artimi, see Denise Demetriou, Negotiating Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean: The Archaic and Classical Greek Multiethnic Emporia (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 70.
ISBNย 9781316347898
books.google.com/books?id=p0qwCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA70
And Thomson de Grummond, Nancy (2006). Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. pp.ย 12, 51, 99โ103, 130โ32, 141, 149, 158. ISBNย 978-1-931707-86-2. Referred to as "Artumes".
โPittau, Massimo (2006). Toponimi Italiani di origine Etrusca. (Sassari, Magnum Edizioni). Referenced in English on the Aritimi-Rezzo connection in Flavio Carnevale and Marcello Ranieri, "Lunistices at Sesto Fiorentino: An Investigation on Geometry and Alignments of the Tholos Tombs of the Etruscan Princes", Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 16/4 (2016), 224. Online at http://maajournal.com/Issues/2016/Vol16-4/Full31.pdf
โVan Lente, Fred; Pak, Greg; etย al. (December 31, 2008). "Incredible Hercules #124". Marvel Universe. Archived from the original on September 19, 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
