Fufluns

Fufluns is usually depicted as a beardless youth, but is sometimes rarely shown as an older, bearded man. Fufluns was shown in art with the thyrsus, satyrs, maenads, and other apotropaic symbols. Fufluns is associated with several other deities in art, including Apulu (Apollo) who is considered his brother and his mother Semla. In association with them, Fufluns was sometimes seen as a chthonic deity associated with the underworld and a psychopomp that guided and protected souls. Fufluns was additionally associated with a purely Etruscan goddess named Catha. ==Myths==

Fufluns shares many myths with Dionysus, including the story of his birth, which parallels the story of Zeus and Semele. Like that myth, the pregnant Semla is killed by Tinia in the form of a lightning bolt, who then continues to bear Fufluns by sewing the infant into his thigh and later giving birth to him. However, Semla continues to appear in artwork in association with an adult Fufluns after her death, indicating either a resurrection or immortalization of his mother. Additionally, Fufluns's connection to his mother is sometimes cast as romantic, as seen in artwork that shows them in an embrace used elsewhere in Etruscan artwork to indicate erotic entanglement. The implications of the scene are based on a myth that is no longer recorded, but indicate some disagreement between Eiasun and Fufluns in which Areatha is involved. ==Notes==