- Simona Rafanelli –
through rituals that purify, placate and sanction the end of the life cycle, and the so-called
“deposit of inscription” that associates the sacrifi ce of the piglet, characterized by the
same ritual fi nality, with the burial of the bases of statues and of altars. Accumulation of
purifi catory, expiatory, propitiatory valences, and the species of swine, notably in the form
of a suckling piglet, present its candidature as an appropriate animal victim recurring
in sacrifi cial rituals marked by such purposes and intended for a divine personage also
characterized by chthonic and cata-chthonic/infernal connotations.
To the divine catachthonic couple, Dis Pater – Ceres we may assign respectively the
offerings of sheep/goats and swine, to which may be added those of rooster and tortoise
for the female deity with strong Demetriac values, widely attested in the sanctuary of the
Acropolis of Volterra,^108 assimilated by virtue of the presence of oikoi, courtyards, bothroi,
vases turned upside down and buried, vessels for the pressing of vegetal offerings (wine?),
but above all of pierced clay pipes for conveying liquid offerings, bloody and bloodless,
into the depths of the earth, at the Orvietan sanctuary of the Cannicella, also sacred to
Demeter/Vei, at the Veian Campetti sanctuary, attributed to the same goddess, and, in
Siceliote territory, to the Demeter sanctuary of the Malophoros at Selinus (Sicily).
The link to a cult of Demeter-Ceres seems apparent also in the rural sanctuary of
Cetamura del Chianti, where the occurrence of newborn piglets and puppies^109 in two
open refuse pits in the naturally rocky hillside, in full consonance with the ritual evidence
that characterizes the sacred area of Pian di Civita at Tarquinia, since the end of the
Bronze Age centered on the centrality of worship at the so-called natural cavity, reveals
the sacrality of the same rocky plain, beyond the scope of the expiatory and purifi catory
character of the ritual actions.^110
IMAGES AND RITUALS
“A sacrifi cial ritual is defi ned exclusively, differentiated from the others, in relation
to the combination of gestures that make up its internal structure, implemented
according to an order and precise arrangements, primarily involving differential
treatment of the object sacrifi ced.”^111Formulated by Jean Rudhardt about the Greek world, these observations show in even
greater extent their validity when applied to the Etruscan sacrifi cial sphere, where the
overall assessment of real and pictorial documentation has highlighted the diffi culty
of identifying the various sacrifi cial types on the basis of victim, equipment and altar
used in the sacred action. If in fact the possible correlation of a raised altar, surmounted
by fl ames, with an infernal-chthonic deity prevents establishing a fi xed relationship
between the altar-bomos and the celestial divinity, the indiscriminate use of the same
instruments of death for the different animal species sacrifi ced, or the presence of crowns
and fl utes in all types of context (funerary or not), also precludes the establishment of a
clear correspondence between a particular sacrifi cial rite and the categories of “objects”
both animate and inanimate involved in ritual action. Ignoring the nature of the latter,
the specifi c appearance assumed by a rite will depend therefore on the modes and forms
of their combination and interaction within the ritual, which vary depending on the
purpose pursued by the action of sacrifi ce. Apart from defi ning the types of sacrifi ce, the
attempt to grasp the various purposes proposed for the fulfi llment of the sacrifi cial rite
becomes fundamental, determining the intrinsic confi guration of the ritual act.