- Nancy T. de Grummond –
at 59 words, gives an epitaph of a priest from Tarquinii, L(a)ris Pulenas (circa 250–200
bce).^6 It reveals that he wrote a book on haruspication (ziχ neθśrac) and served as a priest
of Catha and Pacha (counterpart to Bacchus). The inscription lists his genealogy more
fully than usual in Etruscan epitaphs, perhaps to indicate that he came from a family of
seers.
A good many representations of Etruscan divination and priests have survived, along
with realia in the form of excavated artifacts pertaining to ritual, that give glimpses of the
appearance and practices of haruspication and augury.^7 Fundamental is the engraving on a
bronze Etruscan mirror from Tuscania that shows a young haruspex labeled Pava Tarchies
(Fig. 26.1), standing with a liver in his left hand, propped on his upraised left leg, in turn
braced on a tall rock. He wears the hat with apex typical of the Etruscan priest. A group
of deities and mortals crowd around him, including a certain Avl Tarchunus, who rests
his chin upon his hand in an intent attitude of contemplation. He, too, has the apical
hat, though it is not placed on his head; hanging behind him, it suggests that he may be
preparing to become a haruspex and then will offi cially wear the hat. It is worth noting
that Pava Tarchies is a youth, and seems to be instructing the older man.^8 They may be
legendary or mythological fi gures. A goddess labeled Lasa Vecuvia, also seen on a gold
ring bezel from Todi, where she is naked (Fig. 26.2), and on a bronze mirror, where she
is called Lasa Vecu and dressed and winged, seems to have been an important Etruscan
divine prophetic fi gure, called Nymph Vegoia by Roman writers, who recorded her as
the source of books on lightning.^9 There are many other scenes on mirrors and gems
that allude to divination, including an Etruscan mythical or legendary prophetic fi gure
named Umaele, who reads a liver on one mirror and tends an oracular head on others.^10
He is thus far unknown in the ancient literary record; there is no evidence that he was
the author of any books.^11 Another prominent prophet is Cacu, seen on a mirror and in
Figure 26.1 Mirror with Pava Tarchies from Tuscania. Early third century bce Florence, Museo
Archeologico Nazionale (after Torelli, 1988, Fig. 1).