- Marjatta Nielsen –
banquet: her magical potion is already transforming them into animals. At the corners,
we see strong Centaurs abducting naked Lapith women. The rest of their equine bodies
fi ll the short sides where we can see that they are mounted by young riders. Centaurs and
Lapiths have nothing to do with the story of Odysseus and Circe, but the Centaurs, too,
are “mixed creatures,” as Odysseus’ companions at the moment of their metamorphoses
(see Chapter 25). At the same time, they may refer to the Centaurs framing the scene of
the Calydonian Boar Hunt, the main monument in the place of honor at the centre of the
back wall (though inconveniently invisible behind the central pillar, cf. Fig. 9.3).^18 The
Centaurs do not belong to this scene either but represent the wild forces comparable to
that of the boar (and of death itself).
Returning to the Odysseus and Circe relief, its lower front border has an unusual
frieze, showing a horse race without mythical elements: symmetrically, from the left and
from the right, three chariots pulled by two horses are heading in full gallop towards a
central meta. On both sides, one of the horse pairs is stumbling and going to fall. This is
perhaps the closest we come to a representation of “real” horse races (apart from Tarquinian
wall-paintings). They probably formed a part of the expiatory rites in connection with
funerals. Keeping Volterra’s situation on the hilltop in mind, such chariot races must
have been a very risky business, indeed.
The many theatrical motifs on the chests – by and large corresponding to Hellenistic
adaptations of Euripides’ tragedies and the developments of early Roman drama – strongly
speak in favor of theatrical performances as making part of funerals and ritual festivals in
Etruria, as “modernized” variants of the old-day expiatory games (see Chapter 45).
THE LAST ETRUSCANS – FOLLOWING
ROMAN FASHIONSIn the Inghirami tomb, chests from the last phase of Volterran production are few.
Perhaps the Atis were among those who abandoned the Etruscan customs – or the town.
On the other hand, the tomb was fi lled up, and subsequent generations had to be buried
elsewhere.^19 Some workshops began to produce quite different, more Roman-style chests
without lid fi gures, parallel with the last Etruscan workshops. The Etruscan traditions
were fading out, but not yet extinct.
Yet even this fi nal period of Etruscan funerary art was not without novelties. A new
version of the motif of the “Journey to the Underworld” had been introduced earlier
in the century, namely the journey of the deceased in a carpentum, a covered wagon not
unlike wagons of the American Wild-West. This motif became the most popular one in
the workshop that was still producing at a relatively large scale. In several of these reliefs
women and girls are represented wearing a hairstyle called “nodus” (cf. Tibullus 2.5.8), as
do many female lid fi gures produced in the same workshop (Fig. 9.7). The name does not
refer to the usual knot at the top of the head or at the neck, but to the bun at the centre
of the forehead.^20 It had been introduced by Augustus’ sister Octavia and his wife Livia,
and worn by all the leading ladies of the Second Triumvirate and the Augustan age. With
their images – coin portraits and statues – the “nodus” spread all over the Roman world.^21
Elsewhere in Etruria, it only appears on clearly Roman portrait sculpture and funerary
reliefs (e.g. at Chiusi and Arezzo), but Volterra was the only place where the Etruscan
style funerary sculpture was still vigorous and receptive enough to adopt it – as certainly
did also the living women.^22