CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

GREEK MYTH IN ETRUSCAN CULTURE

Erika Simon

G

reek myth is present in all phases of Etruscan fi gural art. As far as we know, the

fi rst medium for mythical scenes were vessels of clay, and the earliest depictions

represented adventures of the Argonauts and of Odysseus – no wonder in a country of

seafaring people.^1 According to Homer’s Odyssey (12.70), Argo, the ship of the Argonauts,

was “in all men’s minds” at that time.

In 1988 a bucchero jug from an Etruscan grave in Cerveteri (ancient Caere), an

olpe (Fig. 24.1) came to light. It is dated by context and style towards 630 bce.^2 The

decoration – in fl at relief and engraved – shows (among unnamed fi gures) two persons

with inscribed mythical names: Metaia, Taitale (Fig. 24.1), in Greek Medea, Daidalos.

They do not belong to the same myth, therefore they are not represented in the same

scene. Medea, a princess from Kolchis (north-east of the Black Sea), used her magic power

to help Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, to get the golden fl eece.^3 He took her to

Greece as his wife. On the bucchero jug she is shown at a magic kettle rejuvenating a

man, perhaps her husband Jason. Daidalos was of Athenian origin and a famous artist,

architect and inventor.^4 He built the labyrinth for Minos, the king of Knossos, and fl ew

from Crete to Sicily with self-made wings. He also came to the island Sardinia,^5 not far

from the Etruscans. The bucchero jug shows him winged and running with lifted arms

(Fig. 24.1). In archaic style this is fl ying – a dream of mankind.

About two generations earlier, the Etruscans had learned letters from Greek colonists

at the bay of Naples. However, name inscriptions on Etruscan clay vessels remained rare.

Many more mythical names are found on bronze mirrors (see Figs. 24.12, 24.15, 24.18,

24.19). It is interesting that those names in Etruscan art often seem to be derived from

Dorian dialect.^6 This was not the language of Homer but of the Greek chorus song, even

on the theater stage of classical Athens. Therefore, we should consider that the Etruscans

not only knew about Greek myths from epic poetry but also from lyric song.^7 According

to ancient historians the noble Corinthian Demaratos emigrated from his (Dorian

speaking) home town to Tarquinii with a group of people^8 and among them were artists.^9

There are other mythical scenes on early clay vases, but without names. An amphora

of about 670 bce (Fig. 24.2)^10 shows a fi gural frieze: a man holding a seven-stringed lyre

and a plektron stands between fi ve acrobatic dancers. They wear breastplates and some of