Cloth
| 7 x 10"| 256 pp. + CD
180 figs | notes | biblio.
ISBN 1-931707-86-3
ISBN 978-1-931707-86-2
$59.95
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Etruscan
Myth, Sacred History, and Legend
Nancy
Thomson de Grummond |
This volume is the first comprehensive account of Etruscan mythology,
an elusive and difficult subject because no Etruscan textual
narratives have survived from antiquity. In order to interpret
the myths and make the Etruscans come alive for us today, deGrummond
acts as an archaeological detective piecing together evidence
from representations in art, from archaeological sites, and
from indirect accounts of Etruscan lore in Greek and Roman texts.
She starts with the purely Etruscan material, beginning with
their stories of the prophets and ending with their very particular
view of the Underworld. She probes the relationship between
myth and ritual, as well as what myth reveals of Etruscan attitudes
about politics and in particular about their society, as well
as statements about gender and the human body made through myth
and art. Specific topics include an overview of the Etruscan
geographical setting; a review of questions of origins and of
general Etruscan chronology, especially as it relates to the
development of myth; our written sources, with a short discussion
about what is known of the Etruscan language (largely through
inscriptions), and the media in art that are most useful for
the study of Etruscan myth, especially engraved bronze mirrors.
Annotated representations in art and of other evidence from
archaeology illuminate Etruscan mythology, and an appendix essay
on Studying Etruscan Mythology lays out the history of the study
of Etruscan myth and the principal publications on the subject.
Authorities and students involved with front-line research on
the Etruscans, Classicists who study and teach the mythology
of ancient Greece and Italy, and scholars of world myth interested
not only in the comparanda but also in the methodology for studying
myth without the illumination of local written narrative will
benefit from this book.
Nancy Thomson de Grummond is M. Lynette Thompson Professor of
Classics at Florida State University.
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