The Etruscans: A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Smith

Author:Christopher Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780191665028
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2014-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

This would prove to be a tragic failing. In the 4th century, several city-states seem to have started to revive their fortunes, concentrating on the renewed challenges from the Gauls and realizing the threat which Rome was beginning to pose. By then, however, Veii was already lost, and Rome’s power was substantial. A huge concerted effort would be needed to defend the Etruscans’ autonomy.

Chapter 8

Etruscan religion

The Etruscans were characterized in antiquity by their religious expertise. Livy called them the most religious of men, and in his own time, the haruspices, an order of priests with specific capacity to interpret signs in the entrails of sacrificed animals, held an important position in Roman religious life, and had done so for centuries. Here more than anywhere else we see the influence of Etruscan writings; they seem to have written down a great deal about their interpretative practices, and also about what happened after death. These books seem to have been much consulted, or at least the information within them was contextualized into Roman understandings of religion. Furthermore, in the place of the ‘mysterious origins’, a claim can be made for the mysteriousness of their religious practices, and in particular of the apparent fatalism of Etruscan religion; an attitude of gloomy submission to the irrevocable decisions of the gods. None of this quite describes the evidence however and we need to step back a little before arriving at such a grand conclusion.

Evidence of sanctuaries and temples shows lavish architectural expenditure from the later 6th century. Inscriptions indicate the quite formulaic and rule-bound nature of the worship; and we have more information from Latin authors on this subject than we do on most aspects of Etruscan life. However, two highly significant forms of evidence are also ones which are peculiarly Etruscan: the evidence from burials, both the sarcophagi themselves, and also the tomb paintings which decorate some surviving tombs; and mirrors. Made of bronze, one surface was highly polished to permit some reflection, and the other carefully inscribed with figures and scenes, often with the names of the actors. They may have been a common wedding gift. It is perhaps insufficiently emphasized that the grand state religion with its temples and priests, and the familial contexts of burials and boudoirs—if that was the right place for mirrors—may have reflected rather different kinds of religion. Our desperation for evidence makes us try to construct something called Etruscan religion, but that may cover many different experiences spread amongst different cities, classes, genders, and individuals.

That said, the funeral does seem to have been a focus for much expression of what one might call religious behaviour and thought. There are suggestions that in the 8th century, Villanovan culture had banquets alongside funerals. Representations of animals are frequent in funerary contexts, and some at least overtly reflect themes of fecundity and procreations—bulls and deer for instance. Sex, which tends to be somewhat obscured in later Etruscan art, is more apparent.

Whether the Etruscans imagined their deities as in human form at this stage is doubtful.

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