Etruscan Symposia

This essay will look at the Etruscan symposia. It would look at what the symposia might have meant to the Etruscans. It would do so by looking at the role of women in Etruscan symposia, what influence Greeks played on the Etruscan symposia, via analysis of the pottery that was found in Etruscan thumbs, what role symposia played in the Etruscan funeral context, how the symposia changed over time and what the Etruscans might have ate at the symposia.

 

The Etruscan symposia were very similar to the Greek symposia but with some differences. One noteworthy defense is the presence of women at Etruscan symposia. The only women who attended Greek symposia were hetaerae (female companions who are sometimes compared to prostitutes). Unlike Greek symposia, respectable Etruscan women attended symposia and not just hetaerae, but respectable married women. This led Greeks to believe that Etruscan women were completely immoral. The Greek writer Theopompus, for example, makes this observation that “they reclined publicly with men other than their husbands. They even took part in the toasting — traditionally reserved for men and regulated by strict formalities at Greek symposia” (Larissa Bonfante Warren, 2018. 92). According to this Etruscan women played an important role at symposia. This statement is supported by Etruscan art, where one oftentimes sees Etruscan women reclining with men. An example of this is the wall painting of an Etruscan symposium found in “The Tomb of The Leopards” in Tarquinia, dating back to 475 BC (Nigel Spivey, 1997. 14).

 

Greek symposia did have an influence on the Etruscan symposia. One of the things that was adopted into Etruscan symposia from Greek symposia is Greek pottery. In fact, most of the Greek vases we have in modern times come from Etruscan tombs (Nigel Spivey, 2007. 229). It would seem that many of the used vases were specially created for the Etruscan market. A possible example of this is “The Eurytios Krater” found at Cerveteri dating back to about 600 BC. This Krater contains images from everyday life, such as horse riding and someone preparing meat for a sacrifice, but there is another more intriguing image. An image of Herakles at a feast. This image is a very specific part of Herakles’s myth and not part of Herakles’s is not directly connected to his twelve labors and therefore is quite an obscure part of Herakles’s story. This tells us that the Etruscans were in fact familiar with Greek myth and therefore also with Greek culture (Nigel Spivey, 2007. 234). It also tells us that the Etruscans were not only familiar with these myths but that they also had their own preferences as to what myths they wanted to see depicted on pottery and they did not necessarily consider the same myths that the Greeks did as being important. They even had their own versions of some myths. An example of this would be a scene from “The Tomb of The Bulls” found in Tarquinia and dating back to about 530 or 520 BC. This scene depicts an alternate version of a part of Achilles' story (Nigel Spivey, 1997. 74). The Greeks accounted for the Etruscans' preference for myths by making pottery that specifically accommodated the Etruscan market. What effect does this have on your own understanding of the Etruscan symposia? It tells us that the Etruscans did not simply take Greek ideas and make them their own. They took Greek ideas and changed them to suit their own culture. Thus, this means that an Etruscan symposium would look different from a Greek symposium even though many of its aspects were based on Greek symposiums. The pottery was not the only thing that looked different. Images on Greek pottery usually depicted the drinking of wine. In Greek symposia eating and drinking were done separately. They ate the food first and then they went on to the drinking. In Etruscan Symposia this was not the case. They ate the food and drank at the same time (Graeme Barker and Tom Rasmussen, 1998. 241). This could also be seen in Etruscan artwork. Were the vases that were in Etruria uses in the way that they were intended to be used in Greece? According to Nigel Spivey there is enough archaeological evidence to sagest that they did. One thing of note is that all the kraters that were found in Etruscan tombs there were no metal craters. This is something one would expect, seeing as the Greeks made use of kraters made of bronze and other metals. It is however possible that Etruscans did use such vessels, but that none of them survived. However it is also possible that the Etruscans simply were not interested in metal Kraters.

 

Symposia also seems to have played an important role in the funeral context. It would seem that the dead were given one last symposium at their funerals. Food was placed with the dead and was buried along with them as if they were going to eat it It would seem that there was a funerary meal in which the dead were thought to participate and that the dead would continue to participate once the tomb is sealed. Another important part of the symposia is music and dancing. Many details of the Etruscan dances were derived from Greek practice. It would seem that music and dance also played an important role in the funeral context. Dancing is something we see frequently in Etruscan funeral art. Some Etruscan tombs also had rock-cut couches. It is possible that these were viewed as banqueting couches. The dead are also often shown as reclining. As if for a symposium. (Graeme Barker and Tom Rasmussen, 1998. 248-253)

 

The Etruscan Banquet changed over time. Between the fifth and sixth BC, the Etruscans relied heavily on imports for their pottery. This changed in the fifth century BC. Historians have said that this was due to the battle of Cumae in 474 BC. Seeing as due to this Greek trade routes to the Tyrrhenian coast were disrupted (Nigel Spivey, 2007. 243). Around the fifth century BC Etruscans largely had to make their own pottery. Instead of largely relying on Greeks for their pottery as before. It was customary in early Etruscan symposia to eat the meals seated. Evidence of this is an urn fund in Montescudaio near Volterra. The first signs of reclining at banquets are on Corinthian pottery that dates to around 600 BC. Signs of reclining at banqueting in Etruria came soon afterward. The Greeks called a couch for reclining a Kline. This word also means a bed for dyeing in. This double meaning seems to be apparent in Etruscan funerary art where the dead are often reclining for Symposia (Graeme Baker and Tom Rasmussen, 1998. 248). An example of this is “The Sarcophagus of the Married Couple”, found at the Banditccia necropolis at Cerveteri, which dates to the sixth century BC (Nigel Spivey, 1997. 90-91). This might indicate that the Etruscans got the idea of reclining at symposia from the Greeks. During the Hellenistic Etruscan funerary art was highly focused on the symposium, but this soon changed. Images of daemons and of the transition to the afterlife start to appear. Examples of these images are “The Tomb of The Blue Daemons” found in Tarquinia dating to 510 BC (Nigel Spivey, 1997. 90-91), and “The Querciola II Tomb” found in Tarquinia (Graeme Barker and Tom Rasmussen, 1998. 241). This transition took place during the fifth century BC. In the Tomb painting “The Querciola II Tomb” we see two depictions of the daemon Charun. It is likely that this figure is related to the Greek mythical character Charon (the ferryman that carries the souls of the dead over the river Styx and to the realm of Hades). It is likely that this daemon served the same purpose as Charon, but he seems more belligerent than Charon. He does not ferry the dead over a river like Charon, but “instead threatens the dead with a heavy hammer” (Graeme Barker and Tom Rasmussen, 1998. 240). It is as if the Tomb paintings reflected the state of the Etruscans. Wen at war with the Romans images of symposia (and thus the good life) disappear and are replaced with images of death.

 

Through archaeological analysis, we know what the Etruscan diet might have looked like and therefore also what the Etruscans ate at their symposia. The diet was not always the same. It improved as agricultural methods improved. Italy already had a long history of agriculture by around 1300 or 1200 BC and production was not very intensive, but after 1200 BC things changed and by 1000 BC the Etruscans had developed a sophisticated mixed economy. BY 600 BC they intensively farmed in grain, vines, and olives. We have found food refuge in the form of carbonized seeds and can therefore say that the Etruscans had quite a variety of plant species at their disposal. Their main domesticated animals were sheep goats and pigs. These species were used much more than any other species. Only ten percent of the animal remains that were found belonged to species that did not belong to these four species. These species predominantly were wild animals such as badgers, deer, wild boar, hares, and tortoises. With the exception of some other domesticated animals such as dogs and horses. It would seem that Etruscans ate some wild animals in addition to domesticated animals. It would seem that these four animal species were farmed as early as the Neolithic period. Later the Etruscans not only exploited the animals for their meat but also used them for other things such as milk and cheese. Of the four species that were mentioned sheep, goats, and pigs were much more used for their meat than cattle. It would seem that cattle possibly were generally more used as beasts of burden than for their meat. At archaeological sites we generally find that between 35 to 60 percent of the remains belong to sheep and goats, between 15 and 40 percent belong to pigs and between 10 and 45 percent belong to cattle. We can see how well the Etruscans are by analyzing the cooking equipment at their disposal. “Pottery is strongly related to eating and drinking” (Nigel Spivey, 1990. 72). There are three main types of vessels: those used for ritual occasions, those used for cooking, and those used for storage. Most of the Etruscan pottery we have today have been found in tombs and therefore are not for everyday use. We can however say that the Etruscans had several cooking instruments at their disposal. They for example had different types of cooking stands for varied heat intensity. This technology can be traced back to the bronze age. The Etruscans were therefore capable of cooking quite sophisticated meals (Nigel Spivey, 1990. 62-75).

 

Greek banquets were occasions for displaying the wealth and status of the most powerful families as well as being a social gathering. It would seem that Etruscan symposia served much the same parous. Greek symposia’s participants were individual males, but Etruscan symposia’s participants were couples. This seems to be the major difference between the Greek and the Etruscan symposia. It would seem that the symposia were quite important to Etruscan culture. Unlike in Greek society, it seems to have rang true for all parts of society: men and women and the living and the dead.

References

Barker, G. & T. Rasmussen The Etruscans (Oxford 1998).

Spivey, N. J. Etruscan Art (London 1997).

Spivey, N.J. and S. Stoddart Etruscan Italy. An Archaeological History (London 1990).

Spivey, N.J. ‘Volcanic landscape with craters’, Greece & Rome 54 (2007), 229-253.

Warren. L.B. 2018. ‘THE WOMEN OF EUTRURIA’, Women In Antiquity 6, 91-101

Image taken from World History Encyclopedia: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1024/etruscan-banquets/

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