DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0322
220 BOMARZO. [chap. xiv.
knocked out his eye;" and this one-eyed monster is un-
doubtedly of demon breed.1
Hippocampi and water-snakes are symbols frequently
found in Etruscan tombs, rarely indeed depicted on the
■walls, but sculptured on sarcophagi and urns. They are
generally regarded as emblematic of the passage of the
soul from one state of existence to another, an opinion con-
firmed by the frequent representation of boys riding on
their backs. This view is, moreover, borne out by their
amphibious character—horse and fish, snake and fish—
evidently referring to a double state of existence. The
dolphins, which form a border round the apartment, painted
alternately black and red, are a common sepulchral orna-
ment, and are supposed to have a similar symbolical
reference ;2 though they have also been considered as
emblematic of the maritime power of the Etruscans, the
" sea-kings" of antiquity.3 The rolling border beneath
them represents the waves, in which they are supposed to
be sporting—
circnm clari delphines in orbem
iEquora verrebant caudis, sestumque secabant.
1 Typhon is here, as elsewhere, used terrified the crew that they leaped into
conventionally, to express a divinity of the sea, and were transformed to dol-
Etruscan mythology, whose name has phins. Apollod. III. 5,3. cf Ovid. Met.
not yet been ascertained, but who bears III.o75,etseq. Serv. Mn. I.67. Hyginus,
some analogy to the Typhon of Egyptian 134. Nonnus, Dionys. XLV. p. 1164. ed.
and Greek mythology. SeeChap. XVIII. Hanov. 1605. Eurip. Cycl. 112. But it
2 GoriMus. Etr. II. p. 236. Inghi- is clear that these pirates were Tyrrhene
rami Mon. Etrus. I. p. 160. Some have Pelasgi, of the Lydian coast, not Etrus-
imagined that the dolphins so frequently cans. See Niebuhr, I. p. 42. Miiller,
introduced on Etruscan sepulchral Etrus. einl. 2, 4, and I. 4, 4. The dol-
monuments have reference to the story phin was called from this fable—Tyr-
of Dionysos, told by the Homeridan rhenus piscis—Seneca, Agam. 451. cf.
Hymn to that god, who when seized by Stat. Achil. 1.56. The dolphin is also an
some Tyrrhene pirates, assumed the emblem of Apollo, who once assumed
form of a lion (v. 44), or, as Apollo- its form, and drove a ship from Crete to
dorus has it, turned the mast and oars Crissa. Horn. Hym. Apol. 401, et seq.
into serpents, and filled the ship with a Tu^ijvol 6<Mmttokp*tovvt&. Diod.
ivy and the music of pipes, which so Sic. V. p. 295, 316. Strabo V. p. 222.
knocked out his eye;" and this one-eyed monster is un-
doubtedly of demon breed.1
Hippocampi and water-snakes are symbols frequently
found in Etruscan tombs, rarely indeed depicted on the
■walls, but sculptured on sarcophagi and urns. They are
generally regarded as emblematic of the passage of the
soul from one state of existence to another, an opinion con-
firmed by the frequent representation of boys riding on
their backs. This view is, moreover, borne out by their
amphibious character—horse and fish, snake and fish—
evidently referring to a double state of existence. The
dolphins, which form a border round the apartment, painted
alternately black and red, are a common sepulchral orna-
ment, and are supposed to have a similar symbolical
reference ;2 though they have also been considered as
emblematic of the maritime power of the Etruscans, the
" sea-kings" of antiquity.3 The rolling border beneath
them represents the waves, in which they are supposed to
be sporting—
circnm clari delphines in orbem
iEquora verrebant caudis, sestumque secabant.
1 Typhon is here, as elsewhere, used terrified the crew that they leaped into
conventionally, to express a divinity of the sea, and were transformed to dol-
Etruscan mythology, whose name has phins. Apollod. III. 5,3. cf Ovid. Met.
not yet been ascertained, but who bears III.o75,etseq. Serv. Mn. I.67. Hyginus,
some analogy to the Typhon of Egyptian 134. Nonnus, Dionys. XLV. p. 1164. ed.
and Greek mythology. SeeChap. XVIII. Hanov. 1605. Eurip. Cycl. 112. But it
2 GoriMus. Etr. II. p. 236. Inghi- is clear that these pirates were Tyrrhene
rami Mon. Etrus. I. p. 160. Some have Pelasgi, of the Lydian coast, not Etrus-
imagined that the dolphins so frequently cans. See Niebuhr, I. p. 42. Miiller,
introduced on Etruscan sepulchral Etrus. einl. 2, 4, and I. 4, 4. The dol-
monuments have reference to the story phin was called from this fable—Tyr-
of Dionysos, told by the Homeridan rhenus piscis—Seneca, Agam. 451. cf.
Hymn to that god, who when seized by Stat. Achil. 1.56. The dolphin is also an
some Tyrrhene pirates, assumed the emblem of Apollo, who once assumed
form of a lion (v. 44), or, as Apollo- its form, and drove a ship from Crete to
dorus has it, turned the mast and oars Crissa. Horn. Hym. Apol. 401, et seq.
into serpents, and filled the ship with a Tu^ijvol 6<Mmttokp*tovvt&. Diod.
ivy and the music of pipes, which so Sic. V. p. 295, 316. Strabo V. p. 222.