416 Nancy T. de Grummond
Figure 27.3 Etruscan tomb painting with servants in the kitchen. Orvieto, Golini Tomb I, fourth
centuryBCE. Courtesy of Scala / Art Resource, NY.
foodstuffs (Figure 27.3;Pittura etrusca a Orvieto, 1982, pl. 21). One of the helpers,
labeled Thrama Mlithuns (ETVs 7.3)—obviously not the name of a noble person—is
nicely dressed in a yellow see-through blouse and bordered skirt or wrap. Another female
servant nearby wears dangling earrings, a necklace, a mantle, and a skirt with purple
borders. The rather rare depiction of Etruscan female servants in Golini Tomb I tends to
confirm the remark attributed to Aristotle, that Etruscan slaves dressed better than was
customary (in Athenaeus, Gulick 1927–41, vol. 1, p. 103).
There did come a point at which the public appearance of an upper-class Etruscan
closely resembled that of a contemporary Roman, probably through a process of mutual
exchange that had lasted for centuries. The best example of this is the first-centuryBCE
bronze statue found near Perugia known as “The Orator” (Figure 27.4), an image that
would probably have been dubbed Roman were it not for the inscription on the hem of
the garment, revealing the individual’s name: Aule Meteli, son of Vel and Vesi (ETPe
3.3). He has the close-cropped hair worn in the Late Republic by Pompey and others,
and sports a rather full—for an Etruscan—toga over a tunic with stripes, indicated by
a change in the bronze alloy. The high-strapped boots are of a type worn by Roman
senators. Even the gesture, with hand raised to command attention, recalls Roman ora-
tory. The face is intriguing, because it seems to be truly individual, as are so many
portraits of Etruscans on ash urns from Volterra and of Romans of the Late Repub-
lic, done in the “veristic” manner. But if it does indeed show the actual facial features
of Aule Meteli, he does not appear to be so very different from contemporary Romans.
With this image and several other true portraits of the Late Etruscan period, as with
the bilingual inscriptions that are close in date, it is no longer possible to be sure about
Etruscan ethnicity.