Description
Book SynopsisProfessor Larissa Bonfante’s great gift is the ability to evoke in a fresh, immediate, and convincing way the experiences, beliefs, and thoughts of people living more than two thousand years ago.
Images and Translations communicates the sensations of other times and places, from the day to day to the solemnly ritualistic.
Trade Review“In this brilliant volume, Bonfante reminds us that the scope and influence of the Etruscan people were far greater than that reflected in mere literature of their Greek and Latin counterparts. With a perspective gained over a vibrant career, we see here the essential interconnectedness of the people of central Italy with wider communities of the ancient Mediterranean and European worlds.” —Anthony Tuck, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“Images and Translations is a tour de force that compellingly presents the Etruscans as an influential cultural force in the Mediterranean and in Northern Europe. Bonfante has long advocated the view that the Etruscans were not a passive society that simply absorbed Greek and other influences. In this book she effectively demonstrates that the visual record reveals far more than most earlier scholars have recognized. She proceeds through careful analysis of the artistic evidence, inscriptions, Greek and Roman literary sources, and geographic factors, to show that the Etruscans were in constant contact with other cultures, and that their artworks and customs transformed ‘imported’ visual images to suit their cultural needs.” —Elaine Gazda, University of Michigan
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Editor’s Note
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 An Alphabet of Images: Greek and Etruscan Myth
- Chapter 2 Families and Gender
- Etruscan Women
- Men and Women
- The Etruscan Upper Class
- The Use of Myths
- Etruscan Mirrors: Reflections of Marriage
- Etruscan Couples
- Gestures of Love
- Mothers, Myth, and Metaphor
- Toddlers and Children
- Women’s Literacy
- Chapter 3 What Happened to the Kouros?
- The Celtic World
- The Greek Model
- Etruscan Transformations
- Etruscan Ancestors
- The Kouros Goes North
- Celtic Burials
- Chapter 4 Amber, Runes, and Situla Art
- Amber
- Runes
- The Chiusi Connection and the Gauls
- Situla Art
- Situla Motifs
- Chapter 5 The Final Journey
- Tombs and Houses
- Ancestors
- Writing and the Dead
- Angels and Demons
- Erotic Art
- Till Death Do Us Part
- Boundaries, Human and Divine
- Journey to the Afterworld
- Blood for the Dead: Human Sacrifice
- Afterlife and the Underworld
- Chapter 6 Echoes from Classical Antiquity, Some of Them Etruscan
- Etruscans in Rome
- Christian Symbols
- Romanesque Art
- The Renaissance
- Classical Nudity and Its Power
- Conclusions and Controversies
- References
- Illustration Sources
- Index
