Pyrgi (Pyrgus in Etruscan) was originally an ancient Etruscan town and port in Latium, central Italy, to the north-west of Caere. Its location is now occupied by the borough of Santa Severa. It is notable for the discovery here of the gold tablets, an exceptional epigraphic document with rare texts in Phoenician and Etruscan languages, and also the exceptional terracotta pediment statues from the temple.
Excavations by Sapienza University of Rome since 1957 have focussed on the large sacred district, including the Monumental Sanctuary of Uni (Phoenician Astarte) and a Demetriac cult area, the most ancient so far known in Etruria, dedicated to the pair of deities Sur/Suri and Cavatha. [1] In 2009 a block of ceremonial buildings north of Temple A was found. [2]
The foundation of the settlement was ascribed to the Pelasgi [3] and dates from the end of the 7th century BC. [4] The connection between the great Etruscan city of Caere and the coast was ensured by the Caere-Pyrgi road, an impressive work of engineering, 10 m wide and 12 km long, comparable to that between Athens and Piraeus. [5] Caere had three important ports: Punicum (Santa Marinella), Pyrgi and Alsium. Pyrgi's development was closely linked to its favourable position along the Tyrrhenian shipping routes, [6] and it became the main port of Caere and hosted its naval fleet. The abundance of imported objects in the votive deposits highlights the role of Pyrgi as a gateway to the sea under the control of Caere and its openness to international contacts with the frequentation of the area by foreign merchants.
The city was raided by Dionysius in 384 BC who, landing his troops in the night, plundered the temple of Ilithyia [7] from which he is said to have carried off an enormous sum of 1000 talents in gold and silver. [8]
In about 273 Caere was threatened by the Romans with war [9] and to ensure peace it surrendered half its territory. [10] The Romans then established a colonia maritima [11] at Pyrgi around that time against Etruscan pirates and against potential Punic invasion. [12] [13] [14] The colonia was built as a rectangular fort. At the same time the temple buildings were ritually dismantled and worship continued outdoors. [15]
Later the town supplied fish to Rome, and became a favourite summer resort for rich patricians as did also Punicum to the north-west, where are many remains of large ancient villas. Both were stations on the Via Aurelia coast road. [16] In 416 AD its site was occupied only by a large villa. [17]
Pyrgi extended along the shore with two urban districts separated a pebbled road and each facing one of the two ports. The northern district was the arx built on the rocky promontory which was later occupied by the Roman colony. The southern district included buildings and possibly an agora bordered to the south by another wide pebbled road. [18] Nearby, to the south of the town, was the religious sanctuary, one of the most important in Etruria visited by Greeks and Phoenicians.
Remains exist of its Etruscan defensive town walls in polygonal blocks of limestone and sandstone, neatly jointed. They enclosed a rectangular area of some 200 x 220 m. The south-west extremity has been destroyed by the sea.
The 1957 excavations found the remains of a large temple (temple A) with a triple-cella arrangement and with exceptional terracotta statues. [19] The temple was later found to be within the (northern) sanctuary dedicated to Ilithyia and Cavatha (Greek Leucothea) in an area of 6,000 m2 bounded by a side wall and with two monumental temples, the oldest of which is “B”.
Temple B was commissioned around 510 BC by the king of Caere, Thefarie Velianas and consisted of a single cella of Greek inspiration surrounded by columns on all sides. According to the inscriptions of the gold tablets, the temple was dedicated to the Phoenician goddess Astarte (or Uni in Etruscan according to the tablets), warrior goddess and dispenser of love associated with the Greek Ilithyia. Connected with the temple was a wide building with twenty cells where the deitys' priestesses lived. The poet Lucilius referred to them as the "prostitutes of Pyrgi" (scorta Pyrgensia). [20]
On the left of the temple a small precinct "C" with cylindrical altar contained a pit consecrated to the underworld cult of Tinia (the Etruscan version of Jupiter) who is mentioned along with Uni in one of the bronze inscriptions found in the same enclosure together with the gold sheets.
Temple A, more imposing than "B", was built around 470-460 BC also on the initiative of the City of Caere to reaffirm its dominion after being defeated by the Syracusans at Cumae in 474 BC. It was dedicated to Thesan, the Etruscan goddess of dawn, associated with Leucothea, goddess of the sea and sailors. It had an Etruscan plan with cella and alae at the back, three rows of columns at the front, and was decorated with the magnificent mythological high relief of the "Seven against Thebes" in which Tydeus devours the skull of his opponent Melanippus.
The terracotta pediment at the back of the temple faced the entrance to the sanctuary. It portrayed the two most dramatic episodes in the Greek myth "The Seven against Thebes".
The high relief dates to the years 470-460 BC. The standard of its composition and style is particularly high and it is considered one of the masterpieces of all time. [21] Firstly the overlapping of the two scenes has no equivalent in archaic relief tradition, and secondly the style of its specific ”tuscanic” tradition is still of late-archaic inspiration which is a precious testimony of the diffusion of the Greek myth in Etruria. The reproduction of drapery, hair and beards already denotes the manneristic style.
In the mid-upper section, Zeus attacks Capaneus who has climbed one of the gates of Thebes. Struck by divine thunder, the Argive hero clumsily backs away, his right hand raised in vain to strike, while shouting his anger and pain. In the background the Theban Polyphontes is held down by the god. In the foreground, below and all along the picture, is the ”grim repast”: Tydeus, fallen to the ground and dying, catches by the shoulders the Theban Melanippus, also dying, and is about to devour his skull. On the left Athena backs away, queasy because of the scene, and holds in her right hand the cruet containing the potion of eternal life that Zeus had made for Tydeas.
There are no known iconographical sources to serve as models by the unknown master who designed and moulded the clay for the relief by hand. The version of the saga which inspired the artist is not the one contained in the works of the great tragedians who related the stories of the Theban cycle in the fifth century BC; it is more likely the one recently attributed [22] to Stesichorus of Himera, the poet who lived between Sicily and Magna Graecia in the archaic period. The theme chosen by the commissioning party reveals a deep knowledge of the Greek myth. Their message is thus explicit: with the help of the gods, the Thebans who had been unfairly assaulted triumphed over the ferocity and arrogance (hybris) of the Argive antagonists. The relief bears evidence of the condemnation of tyrannical hybris and exaltation of divine justice (dike) by the City of Caere, to which the sanctuary belonged. Its use as propaganda by the new political regime in Caere is also clear from its clearly visible location to those arriving at the coast along the road from Caere.
A second sanctuary was discovered in 1983 to the south of the monumental one. It is characterised by the absence of large religious buildings, but by different types of altars and chapels without an overall plan and using building techniques and construction materials similar to local houses. The layout and finds suggest the practice of mysterious and Demetrical cults of which it is the oldest and most elaborate example in Etruria.
The most ancient structure, the sacellum "Beta" (530-520 BC), has a roof adorned with acroteria of busts of Achelous, a river divinity with a human head and bull's horns, ears and body, and female-headed antefixes perhaps representing the Nymphs. Votive deposits of Greek vases with Etruscan inscriptions attested to their dedication to the cult of the divine couple, Cavatha (similar to the Greek Kore-Persephone) and Sur/Suri (identifiable with an underworld Apollo). [23]
Following the Dionysian looting, the southern sanctuary was abandoned and ritually sealed and the activity moved to the northern sector, with the creation of a new square, at the ends of which are located the quadrangular building Alpha (a) and the aedicula Pi (p) originally adorned with votive statues.
The gold Pyrgi Tablets of Thefarie Velianas, “king of Caere”, containing rare texts in Phoenician and Etruscan languages, were found here in 1964. [24] [25]
Etruscan was the language of the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria, in Etruria Padana and Etruria Campana in what is now Italy. Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually completely superseded by it. The Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions that have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length; some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek, or Phoenician; and a few dozen purported loanwords. Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study, with it mostly being referred to as one of the Tyrsenian languages, at times as an isolate and a number of other less well-known theories.
Etruria was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria.
Seven Against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea. It concerns the battle between an Argive army, led by seven champions including Polynices who were called the Seven against Thebes, and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia. The trilogy's first two plays, Laius and Oedipus, as well as the satyr play Sphinx, are no longer extant.
In Etruscan Religion and mythology, Thesan is the Etruscan goddess of the dawn, divination, and childbirth and was associated with the generation of life. Romans identified her with their Aurora and Mater Matuta and Greeks with Eos and Leucothea. In Etruria, she received offerings together with the sun god Usil in the liber linteus. She was especially worshipped at Caere's harbour of Pyrgi, where a temple was dedicated to her and a singular series of ‘‘daybreak antefixes’’ was excavated.
The Pyrgi Tablets are three golden plates inscribed with a bilingual Phoenician–Etruscan dedicatory text. They are the oldest historical source documents from pre-Roman Italy and are rare examples of texts in these languages. They were discovered in 1964 during a series of excavations at the site of ancient Pyrgi, on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy in Latium (Lazio). The text records the foundation of a temple and its dedication to the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who is identified with the Etruscan supreme goddess Uni in the Etruscan text. The temple's construction is attributed to Tiberius Velianas, ruler of the nearby city of Caere.
Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology and a goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad, centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.
Astarte is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar.
Tarquinia, formerly Corneto, is an old city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, Central Italy, known chiefly for its ancient Etruscan tombs in the widespread necropoleis, or cemeteries, for which it was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status.
Cerveteri is a town and comune of northern Lazio in the region of the Metropolitan City of Rome. Known by the ancient Romans as Caere, and previously by the Etruscans as Caisra or Cisra, and as Agylla by the Greeks, its modern name derives from Caere Vetus used in the 13th century to distinguish it from Caere Novum.
Uni is the ancient goddess of marriage, fertility, family, and women in Etruscan religion and myth, and was the patron goddess of Perugia. She is identified as the Etruscan equivalent of Juno in Roman mythology, and Hera in Greek mythology. As the supreme goddess of the Etruscan pantheon, she is part of the Etruscan trinity, an original precursor to the Capitoline Triad, made up of her husband Tinia, the god of the sky, and daughter Menrva, the goddess of wisdom.
Caere is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50–60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra, to the Greeks as Agylla and to the Phoenicians as 𐤊𐤉𐤔𐤓𐤉𐤀.
Idalion or Idalium was an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District. The city was founded on the copper trade in the 3rd millennium BC. Its name in the 8th century BC was "Ed-di-al" as it appears on the Sargon Stele of 707 BC, and a little later on the Prism of Esarhaddon.
The Heraion of Samos was a large sanctuary to the goddess Hera, on the island of Samos, Greece, 6 km southwest of the ancient city of Samos. It was located in the low, marshy basin of the Imbrasos river, near where it enters the sea. The late Archaic temple in the sanctuary was the first of the gigantic free-standing Ionic temples, but its predecessors at this site reached back to the Geometric Period of the 8th century BC, or earlier. As a testimony to the mercantile and naval power of Samos during Archaic Greece, and its exceptional architecture, the site of temple's ruins, with its sole standing column, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the nearby archeological site Pythagoreion in 1992.
Santa Marinella is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Lazio, located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) northwest of Rome.
The National Etruscan Museum is a museum of the Etruscan civilization, housed in the Villa Giulia in Rome, Italy.
In the modern study of the culture of ancient Greece and Magna Graecia, a pinax (πίναξ), meaning "board", is a votive tablet of painted wood, or terracotta, marble or bronze relief that served as a votive object deposited in a sanctuary or as a memorial affixed within a burial chamber. Such pinakes feature in the classical collections of most comprehensive museums.
Usil is the Etruscan god of the sun, shown to be identified with Apulu (Apollo). His iconic depiction features Usil rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved Etruscan bronze mirror in late Archaic style, formerly on the Roman antiquities market. On Etruscan mirrors in the Classical style, Usil appears with an aureole.
Etruscan sculpture was one of the most important artistic expressions of the Etruscan people, who inhabited the regions of Northern Italy and Central Italy between about the 9th century BC and the 1st century BC. Etruscan art was largely a derivation of Greek art, although developed with many characteristics of its own. Given the almost total lack of Etruscan written documents, a problem compounded by the paucity of information on their language—still largely undeciphered—it is in their art that the keys to the reconstruction of their history are to be found, although Greek and Roman chronicles are also of great help. Like its culture in general, Etruscan sculpture has many obscure aspects for scholars, being the subject of controversy and forcing them to propose their interpretations always tentatively, but the consensus is that it was part of the most important and original legacy of Italian art and even contributed significantly to the initial formation of the artistic traditions of ancient Rome. The view of Etruscan sculpture as a homogeneous whole is erroneous, there being important variations, both regional and temporal.
Śuri, later latinized as Soranus, was an ancient Etruscan deity, also venerated by other populations of central Italy and later adopted into ancient Roman religion.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Ashby, Thomas (1911). "Pyrgi". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 689.
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