Editing Nortia (section)

==Evidence==
Little or no Etruscan evidence for Nortia survives. Her name is not among those of the deities on the [[Liver of Piacenza]].<ref>Luisa Banti, ''Etruscan Cities and Their Culture'' (University of California Press, 1973, originally published 1968 in Italian), p. 185.</ref> She appears a few times in [[Latin literature]] and inscriptions.<ref>Evidence gathered by Karl Otfried Müller, ''Die Etrusker'' (Stuttgart, 1877), vol. 3, pp. 52–53 [https://books.google.com/books?id=hn4bAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22vor+allen+andern+Gottheiten+die+Nortia%22&pg=PA52 online.] Unless otherwise noted, ancient sources given in this article are those listed by Müller.</ref> She is mentioned in one of [[Juvenal]]'s satires and [[interpretatio romana|identified with]] the [[Religion in ancient Rome|Roman goddess]] [[Fortuna]],<ref>Scholion to [[Juvenal]], ''Satire'' 10.74.</ref> and [[Martianus Capella]] lists her along with other goddesses of fate and chance such as [[Sors]], [[Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis]], and [[Tyche]].<ref>[[Martianus Capella]] 1.88, the "Betrothal" book of ''[[The Marriage of Philology and Mercury]]'': "And then the most talkative of girls came flaunting and jumping about with nimble lightness, constantly unstable, extravagant now one way, now the other; some call her [[Sors]], some [[Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis]], many [[Tyche]], and others Nortia," English translation by William Harris Stahl with E.L. Burge, ''Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts: The Marriage of Philology and Mercury'' (Columbia University Press, 1977), vol. 2, p. 30.</ref> [[Tertullian]] names Nortia twice in [[Christian apologetics|Christian polemic]].<ref>Once when he protests that the Romans permit [[freedom of religion]] to other people, but not to Christians, and gives the Volsinian cult of Nortia as an example of a freely practiced religion (''Apologeticus'' 24; see also ''"[[Religio licita]]")''. Elsewhere Nortia appears in a catalogue of deities Tertullian mocks because he finds them pointlessly obscure (''Ad nationes'' 2.8).</ref>

A name has been deciphered as possibly Nortia among those of other deities in an [[epigraphy|inscription]] found within an [[Umbri]]an sanctuary at the [[Villa Fidelia]], [[Hispellum]].<ref>Guy Bradley, ''Ancient Umbria: State, Culture, and Identity in Central Italy from the Iron Age to the Augustan Era'' (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 100 and 201, citing F. Coarelli, "La Romanizacion de Umbria," in ''La Romanizacion en Occidente'', edited by J. Blázquez and J. Alvar (Madrid, 1996), p. 63.</ref> The 4th-century writer and [[Roman consul|consul]] [[Avienius]], who was from Nortia's seat in Volsinii, addressed the goddess in a devotional inscription:

<blockquote>Nortia, I venerate you, I who sprang from a Volsinian ''[[Lares|lar]]'',<ref>The ''lar'' was a household deity, used here as a [[metonymy]] for one's home or place of birth.</ref> living now at Rome, boosted by the honor of a doubled term as [[proconsul]], crafting many poems, leading a guilt-free life, sound for my age, happy with my marriage to Placida and jubilant about our serial fecundity in offspring. May the spirit be vital for those things which, as arranged by the law of the fates, remain to be carried out.<ref>[[Teuffel]], ''History of Latin Literature'' (English edition of 1892), vol. 2, p. 362, citing ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' 6.537 (= ''[[Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae|ILS]]'' 2944). See also [[Jacob Burckhardt]], ''The Age of Constantine the Great'' (University of California Press, 1949, reprinted 1983), pp. 129–130. In Latin:<br>''Nortia, te veneror, lare cretus Vulsiniensi,<br>Romam habitans, gemin[o] proconsulis auctus honor[e]<br> carmina multa serens, v[i]tam insons, integer aevum,<br>coniugio laetus Placidae numeroq[u]e frequenti<br>natorum exsultans. Vivax sit spiritus ollis<br>cetera composita fato[r]um lege trahentur.''<br>Text as construed by J. Mangas and D Plácido, ''Avieno: Ora martima: Descriptio orbis terrae; Phaenomena'' (Ediciones Historia, 2000), p. 16.</ref></blockquote>

The ancient location of Volsinii is vexed, and the Etruscan town was refounded by the Romans. At [[Bolsena]], the most likely candidate for the new Volsinii, there is a ruin outside the Florence gate that is known locally as the ''Tempio di Norzia'', but as [[George Dennis (explorer)|George Dennis]] pointed out in the 19th century, no evidence other than the existence of the cult of Nortia supports this identification, and the [[Ancient Roman architecture|architecture is Roman]].<ref>[[George Dennis (explorer)|George Dennis]], ''The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria'', (London, 1878), vol. 2, p. 24.</ref>