- Simona Rafanelli –
Figure 28.10 Cinerary urn in tufo. Volterra, Museo Etrusco Guarnacci, inv. no. 212. Second half of the
second century bc (after CUE II 1, 176 n. 240).Funeral sacrifi ces addressed to the souls of the dead and to an infernal-chthonic Dionysos,
are probably recognizable in the sacrifi cial friezes reproduced on the Plikasna situla, on the
funerary cippus from Perugia and on the panels of the Chiusine sarcophagus in the Louvre,^132
regarding, in the last two cases in particular, monuments strictly connected with the
funerary sphere. Characterized by a purpose distinct from the merely purifi catory-expiatory
or simply propitiatory, the sacrifi cial rituals presented in these monuments were thus aimed
specifi cally at satisfying the catachthonic gods and at “restoring” the dead to life through
the conjoined action of sacrifi ce, music and dance. Perfectly interrelated within the ritual,
in equal measure, were blood sacrifi ce, orchestral choruses, the sound of the fl ute, ritual
armed combat, each in the specifi city of their expressive language, in “recalling” to life.
This is the guiding principle of the whole funeral ceremony, which fi nds its main references
in the divine persons of a Ceres, understood as a pan-Italic divinity, and of a Dionysos clad in
the infernal-chthonic valences connected to the implications of rebirth and salvation.
Masterfully analyzed by I. Krauskopf,^133 the Etruscan dimension of the Afterlife, which
formed the subject of the Libri Acheruntici, on whose contents only the passages of Arnobius
and Servius mentioned above can throw any light, was marked ever since as the oldest
conception of Etruscan funerary ideology by elements symbolic of passage identifi able in
the doors depicted on wall frescoes in the tombs of Tarquinia, or symbolic of boundary,
detected, for example, in the Tomb of the Blue Demons, in the representation of the boat
and the cliffs placed so as to close at its two ends the journey made by the deceased, in
that sort of interim space between the World of the Living and the Kingdom of the Dead,
identifi ed by Krauskopf (2006: 773–76) with a sort of Antechamber of Hades (vestibulum
Orci). Within what we might almost interpret as a space of “return,” the deceased could,
assimilated post mortem to the divine fi gures of the twin sons of Zeus, guardians and guides
of the dead in their passage between the two “worlds,” through the implementation of
certain sacrifi cial rituals cross back over the threshold of Hades in the direction of that
“anteroom,” sometimes located inside the burial chamber itself, in order to assist his
family members and to receive the honors bestowed on him through certain ceremonies.
The existence, proven by the passages in ancient authors, of particular sacrifi cial rites
capable of ensuring the attainment of immortality, even deifi cation, by departed souls
may substantiate the possible occurrence of different rituals, alongside those of expiatory-
purifi catory and propitiatory character, intended to appease the “wrath” of the dead, and
aimed at infusing new strength and life-blood^134 into the souls of the departed, enabling
them to reach the goal of the eternal banquet arranged in the Underworld, having survived
a journey fraught with dangers and populated by monstrous demons.