Nethuns

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In Etruscan mythology, Nethuns was the god of wells, later expanded to all water, including the sea. The Etruscan conception of the deity affected Roman Neptune. The name 'Nethuns' is likely cognate with that of the Celtic god Nechtan and the Persian and Vedic gods sharing the name Apam Napat, all based on the Proto-Indo-European word *népōts "nephew, grandson".

Nethuns is mentioned on the Piacenza liver, a third century BCE bronze model of a sheep's liver used for divinatory rites, as Neθ., an abbreviation for his full name. As a patron god his profile, wearing a ketos (sea monster) headdress, appears on a coin of Vetulonia, circa 215 - 211 BCE; he is accompanied by his trident between two dolphins.

NETHUNS is engraved on a bronze Etruscan mirror in the Museo Gregoriano in the Vatican

Notes

References

• Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicum, VII (Zurich and Munich:Artemis) 1994. The basic professional reference.

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