Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
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Pan or Faunus, 327 but Inuus seems to have a more sinister aspect. Inuus, who could also be<br />
multiplied to create Inui, was a god of nightmares who entered the dreams of sleeping women in<br />
order to rape them. 328 These nightmares have been associated with the feeling of strangulation,<br />
which returns us to the meaning of the root dhau- as “wolf” or “strangler.” The connection<br />
between Faunus as Inuus and a demon of nightmares also fits with the chthonic character of<br />
Faunus and his association with the Lupercalia. Holleman points out that the beginning and<br />
ending of the course of the Lupercalia at the Lupercal could be interpreted as the loosing from<br />
and returning to the underworld (the chthonic realm of the wolf) of the savage Luperci. 329<br />
This evidence forms the basis for previous scholars’ attempts to link the gods Faunus and<br />
Silvanus to wolves, and it would be wise not to rule out the interpretation of Faunus and Silvanus<br />
as wolf-gods based only on their syncretic connections to the Greek god Pan. It must be<br />
remembered that for the Etruscans and Romans, the nature of the gods was not static, and there<br />
seems to have been a certain vagueness in their forms, nature, and attributes. 330 One may also<br />
turn to the Egyptian prototype of animal worship in order to find gods who are represented by<br />
more than one animal. The god Thoth, god of magic, knowledge, and countless other spheres of<br />
influence, was often represented with the head of an ibis or in the form of an ibis; however, this<br />
was not the sole animal associated with this god. He could also take the form of a baboon, and it<br />
was possible for the god to appear several times, in different form, on one object. 331 We must be<br />
careful not to forget that polyvalency is a common characteristic of pagan deities.<br />
I would like to add two further pieces to the list of evidence for sustaining the lupine<br />
nature of these gods. I believe that I have isolated a mythic narrative and an image that tell a tale<br />
of the god Faunus. In literature, the myth appears in Ovid’s Fasti 3.291-326, and in art, it<br />
appears on a series of Etruscan cinerary urns (Figs. III.10-12) featured in this study. These urns<br />
have been known for some time, and there are several other interpretations that must first be<br />
refuted before progressing to my own. These urns also demonstrate how one divinity may be<br />
represented in all three categories of theriomorphic and therianthropic iconography: wholly in<br />
the form of an animal, a human wearing an animal skin, and also a hybrid blending the anatomy<br />
327 Livy 1.5.2<br />
328 Holleman 1974, 95. August. De civ. D. 15.23, attributes this function of the god to Silvanus as well.<br />
329 Holleman (1974, 98.) suggests that the Luperci were representatives of the dead ancestors of the Romans.<br />
330 Pallottino 1975, 140. Faunus in particular possessed a vague nature. Besides a problem distinguishing between<br />
his lupine or caprid nature, Babcock (1961, 15) notes that, by the time of Augustus, Faunus was the king of the<br />
Latins, one of the race of Fauni, an oracular power, and also conflated with Pan.<br />
331 Smelik and Hemelrijk 1984, 1861.<br />
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