The Etruscan Goddess Catha

Abstract The Etruscan goddess Catha has long been regarded as a solar deity. G. Thulin (1906) was one of the first to characterize Catha as a solar deity based on inscriptions referencing Catha on a mirror from Orbetello and on the Piacenza Liver. Although Thulin’s interpretations of these inscriptions have been challenged, the goddess Catha is still perceived to be a solar deity. Evidence from the goddess’s cult site at Pyrgi, where she was known as Kautha, inscriptions on artifacts that bear her name, and bucchero vessels that appear to display the goddess as a potnia theron suggest that the idea of Catha/Kautha as a solar deity should be set aside. Instead, the Etruscan goddess Catha/Kautha should be viewed as a chthonic fertility deity, of particular importance to elites in Orientalizing Etruria, who appealed to her to guide the spirits of the dead into the afterlife and to protect young mothers and infants, who would ensure the hereditary succession of their class.