- Tom B. Rasmussen –
features the deceased at the center, fl anked by two Charuns, as he approaches the rock
and, just beyond, the Greek hero Sisyphus who is threatened by a Vanth as he crouches
by the boulder that he is doomed continually to roll uphill (Roncalli 1996). But other
scenes, such as battles between Greeks and Amazons, are harder to interpret in a funerary
light. So too with the subjects on ash-urns: some, such as the journey to the Underworld
on a mule-driven cart, are clearly linked to the purpose of the urn; others, such as scenes
with local heroes we know as the Vibenna brothers, are more diffi cult to connect. But
it is likely that as the scenes on burial containers are studied in more detail, so further
Underworld connections will be made.
In summary, the burial containers apart, it seems that a minority of items found in
Etruscan tombs were made specifi cally for them, or ordered for them in the case of imported
objects, others were not. In the case of pots, Etruscans put Etruscan pottery in their tombs,
but preferred – if they could get it – Greek, because they must have appreciated its superior
quality. It should, however, be borne in mind that Etruscan red-fi gure ware continued
through the fourth century bc when Athenian fi gured ware was much less readily available.
Apart from exceptional products such as the Perizoma Group, most of the Athenian
imagery is neither tomb- nor Etruria-specifi c. For the most part, what was utilized, whether
Etruscan or Greek, was simply what came to hand; often this was perhaps from among the
deceased’s possessions, and then it was a matter of choosing what was iconographically most
appropriate, if the range of material allowed it. The idea of an Etruscan hanging around the
port of Tarquinia for the latest shipment of pornographic pots from Athens, because these
images harmonized with his views of death, seems an unlikely scenario. On the other hand,
pots with erotic pictures were in circulation in Etruria, and from their number suitable
items could be chosen for inclusion in burial. Similarly, pots with other kinds of scene
might be selected from a household’s possessions that offered a particular funerary spin.
More generally, Etruscan taste in Greek pots seems to have coincided very much with
our own today. Few, if any, Etruscans would have heard of the name of the Athenian vase-
painter Oltos, even though he was among the very best of his contemporaries, yet many
almost unerringly sought out the pots of highest quality. Etruscan purchasers might have
been canny operators in the salesrooms of today, though they would have been staggered
at current prices. For it is clear from all the evidence available that the Etruscan who
originally purchased the Oltos cup, later to be put in a tomb, would have given for it no
more than he might have paid a craftsman for a day or two’s work.
Why the pot was placed in a tomb is the big question, and why indeed often scores of
pots, together with other objects, were placed in single tombs. Perhaps one should not
expect a simple logical answer to be available. To quote E. R. Dodds (1951: 137): “There
is no domain where clear thinking encounters stronger unconscious resistance than when
we try to think about death” – a remark that has relevance far beyond the Greek context
for which it was made.
BIBLIOGRAPHYBeazley, J. D. (1947) Etruscan Vase Painting. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
——(1963) Attic Red-fi gure Vase-painters, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Becatti, G. and Magi, F. (1955) Monumenti della pittura antica scoperti in Italia. Sezione prima: la
pittura etrusca. Tarquinii fasc. III–IV: Le pitture delle Tombe delle Auguri e del Pulcinella. Rome:
Libreria dello Stato.