Of the two men reclining on the couch the foremost holds a drinking-bowl and an egg. In the Ny Carlsberg facsimile he is represented as beardless, but no doubt wrongly. It is an elderly man; his face is one of the earliest examples of naturalism in Etruscan portraiture. The other, full-bearded, holds a flat, fluted vessel without foot, presumably one of the celebrated Etruscan golden vessels which are more minutely characterized in a symposium in the Tomba della Pulcella; they were even introduced into Athens, where, side by side with Corinthian works in bronze, they formed part of the decoration of a wealthy house, and they are eulogized in a poem by Critias,[63] one of Athens’ finest beaux esprits.
TOMBA GOLINI AT ORVIETO
In this painting in the Tomba Golini the inscriptions give us much valuable information as to the connexion between the two persons.[64] Above the first we read: ‘Vel lecates arnthial ruva larthialisa clan velusum nefs marniu spurana eprthnec tenve mechlum rasneas cleusinsl zilachnve pulum rumitrine thi ma[l]ce clel lur.’ In translation the text runs: ‘Vel Lecates, Arnth’s brother,[65] son of Larth, and descendant of Vel. He held the offices of Maro urbanus (spur means town) and Eprthne (secular official title) and was Zilach (dictator) of the Etruscan people in Clusium....’ The rest is unintelligible. It is interesting in the inscription to come across the name by which the Etruscans called themselves, rasneas; Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i. 30) was therefore justified in saying that the Etruscans called themselves Rasenas. The name Larth is common in Etruscan inscriptions. The Romans knew it and called the well-known Etruscan king by his full name, Lars Porsenna (in Etruscan, Larth Pursna).[66]
Fig. 31. SYMPOSIUM IN THE TOMBA GOLINI AT ORVIETO
Fig. 32. WALL-PAINTING IN THE TOMBA GOLINI
TOMBA GOLINI