page_title: Uni (mythology)
section_title: Regional placement in Heaven
hierarchical_section_title: Uni (mythology) / Regional placement in Heaven
caption_attribution_description: English: Diagram of the inscriptions of the Liver of Piacenza (TLE 719). The arrangement of the lettering is reproduced with an Etruscan Unicode font; it's a transcription and does not directly imitate the shape or placement of the individual letters. Note that many of the readings are highly uncertain and different authors will give different reconstructions. The readings in this particular diagram are those of Alessandro Morandi, Nuovi lineamenti di lingua etrusca, Massari, 1991. (note that they are not taken from the publication directly, but via this pdf document (pp. 63-65) at etruschi-tirseni-velsini.it and need to be verified c.f. also Nancy Thomson De Grummond, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History and Legend (2006), p. 50). sixteen "houses" on the circumference, beginning in the "north" (on the right-hand side on this diagram) and running clockwise 1. tin/cil/en 2. tin/θvf 3. tins/θne(θ) 4. uni/mae 5. tec/vm 6. lvsl 7. neθ 8. caθ 9. fuflu/ns 10. selva 11. leθns 12. tluscv 13. cels(c) 14. cvl alp 15. vetisl 16. cilensl eight items in "tabular" arrangement (bottom right) 17. tur 18. leθn 19. la/sl 20. tins/θvf 21. θufl/θas 22. tins/neθ 23. caθa 24. fuf/lus four items on the elevated "wedge" 25. θvnθ(?) 26. marisl/latr 27. leta 28. neθ two items to the left of the "wedge" 29. herc 30. mar six items in "circular" arrangement on the left 31. selva 32. leθa 33. tlusc 34. lvsl/vel(x)? 35. satr/es 36. cilen two on either side of the semi-circular structure in the center 37. leθam 38. meθlvmθ two at the point of the "wedge", to the left of the "tetrahedron" structure 39. mar 40. tlusc
context_page_description: Uni is the ancient goddess of marriage, fertility, family, and women in Etruscan religion and myth, and the patron goddess of Perugia. She is identified as the Etruscan equivalent of Juno in Roman mythology, and Hera in Greek mythology. As the supreme goddess of the Etruscan pantheon, she is part of the Etruscan trinity, an original precursor to the Capitoline Triad, made up of her husband Tinia, the god of the sky, and daughter Menrva, the goddess of wisdom.
  She is often depicted with a goatskin cloak and sandals whilst holding a shield, similarly to Juno, wearing a bridal veil, or completely nude.
  Livy states that Juno was an Etruscan goddess of the Veientes, who was adopted ceremonially into the Roman pantheon when Veii was sacked in 396 BC. This seems to refer to Uni. She also appears on the Liver of Piacenza.
context_section_description: In a practice that has been argued by scholars as having originated in Etruria, Etrusca disciplina divided the Heavens into sixteen different cosmological regions. Reflected in the Piacenza Liver, deities were assigned respective ‘houses’ where labels were inscribed into the sixteen sections of the bronze work. Etruscan temples held no unified orientation; temples dedicated to Uni have commonly been found to be oriented southwest, and dedications to Tinia oriented south, unlike Greek temples which have been found to all be usually directed east. It is clear that the placements of deities in the Liver of Piacenza held influence over orientation and places of worship, however there has been some debate towards interpretation of the plate. Two predominant schools of thought have largely dominated readings of the regions of the Liver, however a third theory which somewhat reconciles the two mutually exclusive views has emerged as suggested by Stevens. This theory demonstrates Uni’s placement in heavenly region number four as flexible with the seasons and in alignment with the difference in sunset and sunrise positions throughout the year. Where the temple of Fontanile di Legnisina dedicated to Uni found in Vulci, is located in the fixed terrestrial region number 10, and its entrance is opposite to region number 2 rather than 4, the non-corresponding position by two regions is explained by this theory of a “rotating Etruscan heaven”. Similarly, at Pyrgi, the orientation of a temple belonging to Uni is southeast. This positioning places it in fixed terrestrial regions 10 and 11 where opposite to the entrance, Uni’s heavenly region number 4 is still evident in the terrestrial region number 2 to allow for seasonal fluctuation.
caption: Diagram of the inscriptions on the Liver of Piacenza - Uni is representative of the fourth "house".
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