CHAPTER SIXTY

ANIMALS IN THE ETRUSCAN

HOUSEHOLD AND ENVIRONMENT

Adrian P. Harrison

INTRODUCTION

I

t is now some 80 years since D. H. Lawrence, accompanied by his friend the artist Earl
Brewster, set off in April of 1927 to visit the Etruscan sites. In his inevitable fashion,
Lawrence details his travels and his descent into the lost world of the Etruscans, whilst
all the while interjecting his observations with personal interpretations of the images and
artifacts he fi nds, helped by a liberal dose of artistic license.

...the tomb called the Grotta Bella is interesting because of the low-relief carvings

and stucco reliefs...the dog who is man’s guardian even on the death journey, the

two lions that stand by the gateway of life or death, the triton, or merman, and the

goose, the bird that swims on the waters and thrusts its head deep into the fl ood of the

Beginning and the End...

Etruscan Places, Chapter 1 (Lawrence, 1972)

Lawrence paints an idyllic and often romantic portrait of life for an Etruscan, with
banqueting, music, sports and hunting as the norm. However, this can only have been
the case for a chosen few, an elite, and would not have been something experienced by
the everyday Etruscan man or woman. It is perhaps easy to understand the view adopted
by Lawrence as what we know today of the Etruscan civilization is more often than not
derived from the rich ruling class, expensive tombs, costly grave goods etc.
Lawrence also argues for a very “black and white” civilization understood from the
perspective of life versus death, of a world of the living and a world of the dead, an
underworld. He discusses the animal motifs he fi nds in tombs and on pottery in the
context of this black and white world, with animals as protectors of grave goods, albeit
mythical animals more often than not, and symbols of the world of the living.