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Menrva

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Menrva
Goddess of war, art, wisdom, and health
Menrva on a Roman As from Etruria
ParentsUni and Tinia
Equivalents
GreekAthena
RomanMinerva

Menrva (also spelled Menerva or Menfra) was an Etruscan goddess of war, art, wisdom, and medicine. She contributed much of her character to the Roman Minerva. She was the child of Uni and Tinia.

Although Menrva was seen by Hellenized Etruscans as their counterpart to Greek Athena,[1] Menrva has some unique traits that make it clear that she was not an import from Greece. Etruscan artists under the influence of Greek culture, however, liked to portray Menrva with Gorgoneion, helmet, spear, and shield, and, on one mirrorback, as bursting from the head of her father, Tinia.[2] Also, she commonly is seen as the protector of Hercle (Heracles) and Pherse (Perseus).[3] On a bronze mirror found at Praeneste, she attends Perseus, who consults two Graeae,[4] and, on another, holds high the head of Medusa, while she and seated Perseus and Hermes all gaze safely at its reflection in a pool at their feet.[5] These images are more likely to reflect literary sources than any cult practice. On a bronze mirror from Bolsena, c. 300 BCE, she is portrayed attending a scene of Prometheus Unbound with Esplace (Asclepius), who bandages Prometheus' chest.[6]

Often, Menrva is depicted in a more essentially Etruscan style, as a lightning thrower. Martianus mentions her as one of nine Etruscan lightning deities. Etruscan style works often depict Menrva with a thunderbolt; the thunderbolt imagery seems to be unique to Etruscan Menrva images.[7]

Menrva seems to have been associated with weather phenomena. The Greeks never attributed an association with weather to Athena,[8] making this another important difference between the two religious cults that demonstrates their separate characteristics.

Menrva's name is indigenous to Italy and might even be of Etruscan origin, stemming from an Italic moon goddess, *Meneswā 'She who measures'.[9] It is thought that the Etruscans adopted the inherited Old Latin name, *Menerwā, thereby calling her Menrva. However, this has been disputed.[10] Carl Becker suggests that her name appears to contain the PIE root *men-, which he notes was linked in Greek primarily to memory words (cf. Greek "mnestis"/μνῆστις 'memory, remembrance, recollection'), but which more generally referred to 'mind' in most Indo-European languages.[11]

Menrva often was depicted in the Judgement of Paris, called Elcsntre (Alexander, his alternative name in Greek) in Etruscan, one of the most popular Greek myths in Etruria.[citation needed]

Menrva was part of a triple deity with Uni and Tinia, later reflected in the Roman Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva.

References

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  1. ^ The process, by analogy with interpretatio graeca, was termed interpretatio etrusca by L. B. van der Meer, Interpretatio Etrusca: Greek Myths on Etruscan Mirrors(Amsterdam) 1995.
  2. ^ E.g. on a bronze mirrorback, c. 450–425 BCE, from Praeneste, illustrated in Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling, Etruscan Myths (Series The Legendary Past, British Museum/University of Texas), 2006, fig. 28, p. 43.
  3. ^ de Grummond, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History and Legend, page 76
  4. ^ Illustrated in Bonfante and Swaddling 2006, fig. 30, p. 45.
  5. ^ Illustrated in Bonfante and Swaddling 2006, fig. 31, p. 46.
  6. ^ Bonfante and Swaddling 2006, p.38, fig. 23.
  7. ^ Dhar, Rittika (2022-11-03). "Minerva: Roman Goddess of Wisdom and Justice | History Cooperative". Retrieved 2024-02-26.
  8. ^ Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History and Legend, (Philadelphia, 2006) p.71.
  9. ^ Cinaglia, Tiziano. "Minerva et Diana, quas ais pariter colendas ovvero, la connotazione lunare di Minerva". In: Dialogues d'histoire ancienne, vol. 45, n°2, 2019. pp. 222-223. www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_2019_num_45_2_4775
  10. ^ de Grummond, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History and Legend, page 71
  11. ^ Becker, A Modern Theory of Language Evolution 2004, p. 190: mentions *MN preserved in Greek as "Mnemosyne"/μνημοσύνη, and Minerva.
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  • Media related to Menrva at Wikimedia Commons
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