- chapter 30: The sanctuary of Pyrgi –
a cult most likely directly imported by the Greek sailors who landed on the Caeretan
coast. This is not at odds with the passage of Aelian, author of the third century ad, who
recounts how Syracuse, perhaps in the course of the raid of 384 bc, had carried off “the
riches of Apollo and of Leucothea,” also taking possession of the silver trapeza (“table”)
consecrated to the god; this leads to the conclusion that the second sanctuary can be
ascribed to the god Apollo. The rich corpus of dedicatory inscriptions mentions mainly
a pair of titulary divinities: in the fi rst place the goddess Cavatha, assimilated to the
Greek Kore, daughter of Demeter, and the paredros (“companion”) Śuri, equated by G.
Colonna originally to Faliscan Apollo Soranus, a deity with double aspect, both oracular
and chthonic, and then assimilated to the god Hades, the husband of Kore.
In this sanctuary we do not fi nd the interest in monumental organization that was
evident in the northern sanctuary; the entire area is characterized by simple buildings,
by modest equipment, and by altars made with different techniques, some with simple
stone mounds, scattered at random. At fi rst sight, it seems that altars and shrines have
been made without any connection to a prearranged plan, but rather to meet the needs
of worship dictated by temporary circumstances and details. This small shrine was in
operation at the same time as the great offi cial sanctuary, probably welcoming non-
Etruscan visitors coming to the port to the north. The different stages of its life played
out roughly parallel to those of the monumental sanctuary.
After an initial phase, indicated by the discovery of archaic antefi xes with female heads,
datable around 540 bc, at the close of the sixth century bc the cult appears concentrated
in the center of the area, where there are gathered three basic elements from the point
of view of ritual: the sacellum β, the altar ν, and the deposit ρ. The shrine was probably
dedicated to two titulary divinities (as a foundation offering, beneath the left cella were
found a pair of gold earrings, referring to the goddess Cavatha); an exceptional pair of
busts of rampant Acheloos, placed on the corners of the roof as lateral acroteria, portray
the mythical river-god symbolizing the strength of river waters conquered by Heracles
in the course of his Labors, evocative of the work of controlling the watercourses next
to the sanctuary. Covered at the top by a stone slab, altar ν was located inland, facing
the entrance room of the shrine, a couple of meters from the deposit ρ, which perhaps
constituted the foundation deposit. The latter, found intact, is one of the complexes of
interest in the southern area, not only in terms of the interpretation of worship but also
for the quality and the number of the offerings – made up of 46 vessels all complete when
reconstructed, all deposited according to a precise ritual, inside a cylindrical cavity about
80 cm in diameter and about one meter deep. It is clear that the vases were placed in a
circular pattern surrounding an Attic black-fi gured amphora, containing a number of
valuable female ornaments (including a pendant in sheet silver in the form of a tortoise),
arranged in three layers. In the two lower layers, the forms chosen are drinking vessels
(kylikes), vases for pouring wine (olpai) and vases containing perfumed oils (lekythoi). With
particular attention, they had tried to preserve the association of vases for drinking with
vases for pouring, safeguarding in this way a precise memory of the various actions of
libations with liquids (wine?) fi rst poured from the olpe into the kylix, and from this
onto the earth. In the top layer were deposited vases of larger dimensions, especially
amphorae, which we may assume contained the liquids used in the performance of the
ceremony. Almost all the vessels used in the performance of the ritual consist of Attic
pottery, thanks to which it is possible to determine a good approximation of the date of
the formation of the deposit, dating at least to the beginning of the fi fth century bc. The