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there is not a wealth of literary narrative or archaeological evidence from which to draw
information for each of the gods treated in this dissertation.
The idea that there could be different types of divine figures is one that is perhaps odd to
a modern audience not acquainted with the study of ancient religions. In the Mediterranean
world, though, there were a great many divine beings and not all of them are easily classified.
This is the reason for the qualification in my title “deities and demons,” as the figures discussed
in this dissertation do not all possess the same characteristics. For example, do they receive cult?
Are they prominent in both the Greek and Roman world? In this context, I use the word
“demon” in a broad way as well, to denote the function of a mythological character and not
necessarily a creature with a malevolent nature.
This dissertation addresses a wide chronological span beginning with evidence for the
earliest Etruscan and Roman rituals (roughly 800 BCE) and stretching into the high empire (2 nd
C CE). The reason for such a wide chronological range is that later material may preserve traces
of earlier religious practices that did not otherwise survive. 94 This dissertation also addresses the
breadth of the Italian peninsula even though there are a number of distinct tribes that developed
there. The Romans, Etruscans, Sabines, Samnites and other tribes possessed a “shared body of
Italian experience and religious practice” 95 and thus must be treated together. Some gods, such
as Apollo Soranus, Etruscan uri, and Juno Sospita qualify as Pan-Italic in the same way that
Zeus was a Panhellenic deity. These cultures influence each other in a dynamic way, trading
ideas as well as objects, amongst themselves. This study presents a modern survey of the
therianthropic gods of Italy organized according to the animals they represent. The gods
discussed in this study were chosen because of their significance in the art, religion, and myths of
Italy and are organized as follows.
The serpent (Chapter Two), which was one of the most widely diffused cultic symbols, 96
is represented in Italy by the imported god Aesculapius, 97 the Etruscan “death demon” Charu(n),
94
Bevan (1986, 12) uses similar logic in her study Representations of Animals in Sanctuaries of Artemis and Other
Olympian Deities.
95
De Grummond (2006a, xii) makes this statement in reference to the Etruscans and Romans, but I suggest that it is
possible to extend this idea to include other Italic tribes as well.
96
Mundkur 1983, 41. While I do not agree with all of Mundkur’s theories, he is certainly right that the serpent
enjoyed considerable standing (albeit holding different meanings) in a great many cultures around the world.
97
The importation of the god Aesculapius into Italy is substantially different from the import of other foreign gods.
Aesculapius is brought from Epidaurus to Rome at the behest of the Roman Senate. As we shall see in Chapter
Two, his entry into Rome was sanctioned by a prophecy taken from the Sibylline books. He, like the Magna Mater,
was “naturalized” by the Romans in a way which other therianthropic deities in the ancient world were not. A
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