chap, xvm.] PUBLIC GAMES OF THE ETRUSCANS. 327

confirmation of the fact, made known by other monuments
and by history, that the control of serpents was an art
cultivated in Etruria—probably as a means by which the
priesthood impressed a sense of its superiority on the
minds of the vulgar.

Most of these figures are naked; a few only have red
or blue tunics. In the same frieze at the corners of the
walls are stands, or platforms, on which spectators of both
sexes, richly clad, are seated, looking on at the sports;
while beneath them the lower orders, mostly naked, are
seen reclining on the ground. There is nothing here to
give us a high idea of the morality or decency of the
Etruscan plebs*

In the pediment above the banquet is a large wide-
mouthed amphora, supported (in the heraldic sense) by two
small naked figures, each with a jug and dipping-ladle ;
and each angle of the pediment is occupied by a sitting-
figure, half-draped, garlanded for the banquet, pledging his
opposite neighbour with true convivial earnestness. In
the pediment over the doorway is the usual pair of
panthers, and also a pair of geese ; which, like the former,
may be regarded as guardians of the tomb. Remember
it was

" Those consecrated geese in orders,
That to the Capitol were warders ;
And being then upon patrol,
With noise alone beat off the Gaul."

4 The figures in this frieze bear some happens, where the colour has entirely

analogy to those on the rim of a vase faded, the figure may yet be clearly dis-

published by Millingen in his " Peintures tinguished by the scratched outline.

Antiques des Vases Grecs," pi. til. and This finds an analogy in the vases of the

afterwards by Inghirami, Mon. Ktrus. earlier styles, with this difference, that

VI. tav. G. 4. the outlines on the vases are scratched

The outlines of the figures in this after the paint has been laid on, for the

frieze have been scratched in before the sake of force and detail,
colours were laid on ; so that, as it often