- chapter 24: Greek myth in Etruscan culture –
Vessels like kraters and cups were used for festive drinking. This is the reason why
vases often show the world of Dionysos (Fufl uns). An Etruscan black-fi gure hydria (earlier
in Toledo/Ohio) is decorated with a scene from the Homeric hymn to Dionysos (500 bce,
Fig. 8.1).^48 In this poem the god’s ship is attacked by Tyrrhenian – i.e. Etruscan – pirates.
The god transforms them into dolphins. The hydria shows six fi gures upside down above
waves. Most of them still have human legs and heads of dolphins, but a human bust with
a dolphin’s tail appears to the left side, together with ivy, the holy plant of Dionysos.
There are special Dionysian scenes in the private world of Etruscan mirrors. An
inscribed one from the second quarter of the fourth century bce in Berlin (Fig. 24.18)^49
shows Apollo (Apulu) with a laurel staff and Dionysos (Fufl uns) who is embraced by his
Figure 24.17 Terracotta votive from Veii. Statuette of Aeneas carrying his father Anchises. Rome,
Villa Giulia (n. 47).Figure 24.18 Bronze mirror. Apollo (Aplu) and Dionysios (Fufl uns) who is embraced by his mother.
Berlin, Staatl. Mus. (n. 49).