Śuri

Śuri, Latinized as Soranus, was an ancient Etruscan infernal, volcanic and solar god, also venerated by other Italic peoples – among them Capenates, Faliscans, Latins and Sabines – and later adopted into ancient Roman religion.

Name and attributes
The Etruscan theonym Śuri, Latinized as Soranus, means both 'black' and 'from the black [place]', i.e. the underworld. The root is.

Śuri was a chthonic solar deity, the oracular god of light, fire and darkness, lord of volcanoes and the underworld, with powers over health and plague. Furthermore, as god of volcanic lightning, he was considered to be among the Novensiles, the nine Etruscan thunder gods.

His sacred animals were wolves and goats.

and
Because of his multiple attributes, the Etruscan fire god Śuri bore many epithets, among them – consistently associated with kingship over the Manes (underworld deities), infernal and volcanic attributes, fire, lightning, wolves and goats – like Manth (, Latinized as Mantus), Vetis (, also spelt, Latinized as Vēdiovis), Calu , lit. 'dark' or 'darkness' or 'underworld', and – by interpretatio graeca – the equivalent foreignerism Aita (, also spelt ), from , lit. 'Hades' or 'underworld', syncretised with Roman Dīs Pater; as well as – consistently associated with solar and volcanic attributes, fire, lightning, wolves and goats – like Rath, Usil , lit. 'light' or 'sun', and the equivalent foreignerism Apulu (, also spelt ), from the Greco-Roman Apollo, later syncretised by the Romans as Apollo Soranus or Apollo Soractis. These theonyms were also associated on Pyrgi inscriptions.

Cult centers
The center of his cult was Mount Soracte (Monte Soratte), a sacred mountain located north of Rome, in an area characterized by deep karst cavities and secondary volcanic phenomena; these phenomena were associated in antiquity with underworld deities, hence the area was sacred to underworld gods, such as the Roman Dīs Pater, with whom Śuri (Soranus) is sometimes identified.

Other centers dedicated to this deity were the ancient twin cities of Surina (Soriano) and Surina (Viterbo), in the present-day province of Viterbo, Lazio, and the city of Sorano, in the province of Grosseto, Tuscany.

Furthermore, his epithet Manth (Mantus) is thought to be the eponymous of Mantua (Mantova), the birthplace of Virgil, who also mentioned the volcanic god in the Aeneid. This name was primarily used in the Po Valley, as described by Servius, but a dedication to Manth from the Archaic period was found in a sanctuary in Pontecagnano, southern Italy.

Worshippers
The priests of Soranus were called Hirpi Sorani, lit. 'Wolves of Soranus' (from ). They were considered skillful ornithomantists and firewalkers; during the ceremonies, they walked on hot coals, holding the entrails of sacrificed goats. Furthermore, during the annual festivities in honor of Apollo Soranus and Feronia, they walked barefoot among burning logs without being burned, for which they were forever released by the Roman Senate from military service and other liturgies. The Lupercalia, in the Roman religion, probably derive from these priests.

Servius has preserved the following legend about them: once, during a sacrifice to Dīs Pater, several wolves ran up to the altar and stole the sacrificial pieces. The shepherds gave chase and ran to a cave – into Mount Soracte – from which such suffocating fumes emanated that those who pursued fell dead. The pestilence that soon spread throughout the country was connected with the death of the shepherds, while the oracle, to whom they turned for advice on how to get rid of the plague, replied that the plague would stop as soon as the inhabitants, like wolves, began to lead a robber life. These people took the name Hirpi Sorani (from ) and devoted themselves to the cult of Soranus, later identified with Dīs Pater due their shared volcanic and underworld attributes.

Partners
Śuri has been historically associated with two female partners: the aforementioned Faliscan goddess Feronia, considered to be his sister-in-law, whose major sanctuary (Lucus Feroniae) was located near Mount Soracte; and the Etruscan goddess Catha, considered to be his consort, goddess of the moon and the underworld.

Since Śuri bore multiple solar and infernal epithets, Catha's ones varied accordingly, e.g.: the theonym Manth (Mantus) was paired with Mania, whereas the theonym Aita was paired with Persipnei , also spelt Phersipnai , equivalent to the Greco-Roman theonym Persephone (Proserpina).

Under the solar theonym Usil (lit. 'light' or 'sun'), Śuri is named alongside Catha on the right lobe (convex face) of the bronze Liver of Piacenza, which is separated into two lobes. Initially, some researchers supposed that the first lobe, where the gods of the lights and heavens are listed, could represent him, whereas the second an hypothetical partner named Tiur. In fact, his name appears next to the word tiur (lit. 'moon' or 'month'), that was purported to be the name of a lunar goddess, allegedly his consort, but since tiur actually meant "moon" and "month" (lunar month, equivalent to Greek mēnē), that inscription was most likely meant as a datation, as in the Pyrgi Tablets, while his consort, also known by multiple epithets, was actually named Catha.

Norse mythology
The Etruscan theonym Śuri, lit. 'black', is somehow cognate to Old Norse Surtr, lit. 'black'. In Norse mythology, Surtr – king of the fire giants of Múspell, birthplace of the Sun and other stars – is "a mighty giant who ruled the volcanic powers of the underworld" and will cover the Earth in fire during Ragnarök, causing the entire world to burn. Rudolf Simek notes that jötnar – frost and fire giants – are usually described as living to the east in Old Norse sources, yet Surtr is described as being from the south. Indeed, Surtr is mentioned twice in the poem Völuspá, where a völva divulges information to the god Odin. The völva says that, during Ragnarök, Surtr will come from the south with flames, carrying a sword brighter than the sun:

These and other apparent coincidences inspired the hypothesis that Surtr's mythic south could be identified in Śuri's Etruscan Italy, but, despite the archaeological findings confirm ancient exchanges among the Tyrrhenians and the Proto-Germanic peoples, systematic studies of compared mythology and linguistics, as well as additional archaeological surveys, may still be needed to confirm deeper connections.