DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0430
chap. xviii.J GROTTA DELLE BIGHE—A SYMPOSIUM. 325
This banquet differs from those in the tombs already
described, in the absence of the fair sex; so that it is
rather a symposium than an ordinary feast. The absence
of edibles on the tables confirms this view. The guests,
however, though all males, recline in pairs, on three
couches; and are attended by two naked slaves and a
subulo playing his pipes. Beneath the couches are several
blue ducks.
The dancers are of both sexes, distinguished by their
colour; the women draped, with tunic and chlamys; the
men with merely a slight scarf round their loins. All,
as well as the banqueters, have chaplets of myrtle round
their brows. In action and character they are very similar
to those in the Grotta Marzi, yet inferior in spirit. One
girl playing the pipes is very good, a true
meretrix tibicina cujus
Ad strepitum salias terra gravis.
The dance was continued on three sides of the tomb, but
is now scarcely distinguishable on more than one, the
paintings having been greatly injured bj the damp.
The ground of this frieze has the peculiarity of being a
deep red; whereas in the upper and smaller frieze it is
left of the colour of the rock, a creamy white. This
small band is more remarkable than the other. It con-
tains a multitude of figures scarcely more than a foot
in height, and not fewer originally than one hundred
in number, though not so many are now remaining. They
represent the public, probably the funeral, games of the
Etruscans.1 On one wall are several bigce, or two-horse
of the ceiling. This beam is painted lower frieze of figures is 3 ft. in height,
with ivy-leaves, and circles, not unlike the upper only 18 inches,
compass-dials ; the slopes on either • If such scenes as these, which occur
hand are chequered with various not unfrequently in the painted tombs
colours, as in the Grotta Marzi. The of Etruria, especially in those of Chiusi,
This banquet differs from those in the tombs already
described, in the absence of the fair sex; so that it is
rather a symposium than an ordinary feast. The absence
of edibles on the tables confirms this view. The guests,
however, though all males, recline in pairs, on three
couches; and are attended by two naked slaves and a
subulo playing his pipes. Beneath the couches are several
blue ducks.
The dancers are of both sexes, distinguished by their
colour; the women draped, with tunic and chlamys; the
men with merely a slight scarf round their loins. All,
as well as the banqueters, have chaplets of myrtle round
their brows. In action and character they are very similar
to those in the Grotta Marzi, yet inferior in spirit. One
girl playing the pipes is very good, a true
meretrix tibicina cujus
Ad strepitum salias terra gravis.
The dance was continued on three sides of the tomb, but
is now scarcely distinguishable on more than one, the
paintings having been greatly injured bj the damp.
The ground of this frieze has the peculiarity of being a
deep red; whereas in the upper and smaller frieze it is
left of the colour of the rock, a creamy white. This
small band is more remarkable than the other. It con-
tains a multitude of figures scarcely more than a foot
in height, and not fewer originally than one hundred
in number, though not so many are now remaining. They
represent the public, probably the funeral, games of the
Etruscans.1 On one wall are several bigce, or two-horse
of the ceiling. This beam is painted lower frieze of figures is 3 ft. in height,
with ivy-leaves, and circles, not unlike the upper only 18 inches,
compass-dials ; the slopes on either • If such scenes as these, which occur
hand are chequered with various not unfrequently in the painted tombs
colours, as in the Grotta Marzi. The of Etruria, especially in those of Chiusi,