Tages
- an Etrurian divinity, grandson of Jupiter; he sprang from the ploughed earth in the form of a boy, and taught the Etrurians the art of divination, Cic. Div. 2, 23, 50; Ov. M. 15, 558; Amm.21, 1, 10; Stat. S. 5, 2, 1; Luc. 1, 637; Col. 10, 345; Serv. ad Verg. A. 8, 398; Censor. de Die Nat. 4.
- —Hence, Tăgētĭcus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Tages: sacra, Carmin. ap. Macr. S. 5, 19 med.
a mysteious Etruscan being, who is described as a boy with the wisdom of an old man. Once when an Etruscan ploughman, of the name of Tarchon, was drawing a deep furrow in the neighbourhood of Tarquinii, there suddenly rose out of the ground Tages, the son of a genius Jovialis, and grandson of Jupiter. When Tages addressed Tarchon, the latter shrieked with fear, whereupon other Etruscans hastened to him, and in a short time all the people of Etruria were assembled around him. Tages now instructed them in the art of the haruspices, and died immediately after. The Etruscans, who had listened attentively to his instructions, afterwards wrote down all lie had said, and thus arose the books of Tages, which, according to some. were twelve in number. (Cic. de Div. 2.23; Ov. Met. 15.588; Festus, s. v. Tages ; Isidor. Orig. 8.9; Serv. ad Aen. 6.808.) [L.S]
The son of a Genius Iovialis, and grandson of Iupiter, said to be a boy with the wisdom of an old man, who, at Tarquinii, in Etruria, suddenly rose out of a freshly ploughed field. He taught the chiefs (lucumones) of the twelve Etruscan tribes, who were summoned by the ploughman Tarchon, how to interpret the sacrifices, together with the lore of thunder and lightning and other kinds of divination which in later times were practised by the haruspices. Having done this, he disappeared again as suddenly as he had appeared. The lore of Tages was at first transmitted orally from generation to generation in the chief families, but was afterwards handed down in a comprehensive literature (Cicero, De Div. ii. 50, 51; Ovid, Met. xv. 558 foll.; Lucan, i. 637).