D. H. Lawrence

Etruscan Places D. H. Lawrence

ETRUSCAN PLACES By D. H. LAWRENCE. Originally published in 1932. Contents include: I. CERVETERI 9 II. TARQUINIA 37 III. THE PAINTED TOMBS OF TARQUINIA 63 IV. THE PAINTED TOMBS OF TARQUINIA IO3 V. VULCI 139 VI. VOLTERRA I 71 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Tarquinia. Corner of the City with Church of S. Maria in Castello Frontispiece FACING PAGE Cerveteri. Entrance to the Chamber Tombs 22 Cerveteri. Terra-cotta Heads on Sarcophagus now in the Villa Giulia Museum, Rome 30 Tarquinia. Greek Vases with Eye-pattern and Head of Bacchus 56 Tarquinia. Tomb of the Leopards 74 Tarquinia. Tomb of the Feast 78 Tarquinia. Tomb of the Bulls 114 Volterra. Ash-chest showing Acteon and the Dogs 192. CERVETERI THE Etruscans, as everyone knows, were the people who occupied the middle of Italy in early Roman days, and whom the Romans, in their usual neighbourly fashion, wiped out entirely in order to make room for Rome with a very big R. They couldn t have wiped them all out, there were too many of them. But they did wipe out the Etruscan existence as a nation and a people. However, this seems to be the inevitable result of expansion with a big E, which is the sole raison tTStre of people like the Romans. Now, we know nothing about the Etruscans except what we find in their tombs. There are references to them in Latin writers. But of first-hand knowledge we have nothing except what the tombs offer. So to the tombs we must go or to the museums containing the things that have been rifled from the tombs. Myself, the first time I consciously saw Etruscan things, in the museum at Perugia, I was instinctively attracted to them. And it seems to be that way. Either there is instant sympathy, or instant contempt and indifference. Most people despise everything B. C. that isn t Greek, for the good reason that it ought to be Greek if it isn t, So Etruscan things are put down ....