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Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University

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ecent discussion of the perception of this god of the vine and fertility appears in a treatment of<br />

the well-known megalographic frieze in Room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries. D. Wilburn notes<br />

the difficulty in choosing a name for the reclining god on the east wall of this room. This god<br />

might have been recognized as Dionysos, Liber, Fufluns, or perhaps Loufir depending on the<br />

chronology and culture of the viewer. 499 On the other hand, Etruscan mirrors dating to the 4 th C<br />

BCE indicate that Fufluns became associated with traditional tales of Dionysos, such as being<br />

born from the thigh of Zeus (Etruscan Tinia) and journeying to the underworld to rescue his<br />

mother Semele (Etruscan Semla). 500<br />

In any case, Fufluns/Liber was likely one of the most prominent gods in Etruria and his<br />

presence was known in central Italy by the 7 th C BCE. 501 Altheim further notes there were<br />

country Liberalia/Dionysia in Italy in the 6 th C BCE. 502 Another indicator of Fufluns/Liber’s<br />

popularity is his presence among the Eleusinian gods, Demeter, Iacchos, and Persephone, who<br />

are found on Italian soil under the names Ceres, Liber, and Libera, the Aventine Triad,<br />

introduced to Rome in 496 BCE. 503 Iacchos remains a puzzling figure, who could have either<br />

originated as an incarnation of Bacchus or became syncretized with him over time; in any case,<br />

Bacchus was firmly associated with the Underworld in Italy. 504 The Locri plaques serve as<br />

visual evidence for this connection, 505 and Fufluns also appears on a portion of the Piacenza liver<br />

that suggests his nature as a chthonic deity. 506 One might expect to find evidence of Dionysos’<br />

taurine nature in these associations due to his close connection to the earth, yet it does not appear<br />

here.<br />

499<br />

Wilburn 2000, 14-15; Wilburn 2000, 50-8. Loufir, mentioned here for the first time, was a Samnite god that may<br />

be the same as Latin Liber.<br />

500<br />

De Grummond 2006a, 116.<br />

501<br />

Bonfante 1993, 222; De Grummond 2006a, 113.<br />

502<br />

Altheim 1938, 159-60. Altheim (1938, 125) also sums up his position on the nature of Dionysos as follows: “All<br />

those details, in which hitherto his [Liber] special character as an Italian deity has been seen, are revealed on closer<br />

scrutiny as allusions to Dionysos.”<br />

503<br />

Bruhl (1953, 13,15) mentions the adoption of the cult of the Aventine Triad in 496 BC by the order of the<br />

Sibylline Books and states that the festival of the Liberalia was more ancient than the Cerealia indicating an<br />

indigenous cult dedicated to Liber. Nilsson (175, 12) further notes the popularity of the Eleusinian gods in Magna<br />

Graecia, and that representations of Orpheus and the underworld appear on Apulian vases from the beginning of the<br />

third century BCE and the plays of Plautus reference Bacchants and the Bacchanalia in the 2 nd C BCE. In<br />

conjunction with this other evidence, Nilsson cites an inscription (Nilsson 1975, Fig. 1) from Cumae, “forbidding<br />

those who have not been initiated to Bacchus to be buried in a certain place.” This inscription dates to the first half<br />

of the fifth C BCE.<br />

504<br />

Nilsson 1975, 118.<br />

505<br />

Nilsson 1975, 120.<br />

506<br />

De Grummond (2006a, 44) notes that Fufluns is present in houses 9 and 24 on the liver. House 9 is in a region of<br />

the liver associated with infernal gods.<br />

102

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