Etruscan tomb (number 8)

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Etruscan tomb (number 8), Italy, 7th century B.C., Nye Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen, Denmark). Made with Memento Beta.

A winged woman lies on the lid. The divine Status of the figure is suggested by a dove and a snake possibly symbolising the goddess of love, Turan or her attendant , Lasa and Vanth, who together with the snake belong in the underworld. All are creatures whose beneficence it was hoped could ease existence in the afterlife. The front shows the meeting of two processions. From the left come horsemen and a man - perhaps the one resting in the coffin - in a carriage drawn by a team of horses, on its way into a gap representing the entrance to the realm of the dead. Waiting here are three women - perhaps relatives already dead? - in a horsedrawn cart - followed by a woman ready with sacrificial wine in a jug. Behind them stands a demon of death with a mallet. The horses to the left are thin, those in the underworld are well fed, reflecting the expectations of a rich life in the other world.