Etruscan Symbols in Greek Literature
Etruscan Symbols in Greek Literature

Summary/Abstract: There has been no systemic study of the representation and interpretation of the Tyrrhenian (Etruscans) influence on Hellenic civilization. The article is dedicated to an account of the innovative ideas and forms that have sprung up in one of the highly developed civilizations of the Mediterranean and the specifics of their transformation in Greek literature, which itself prepared the ground for their metamorphosis into symbols and their eventual spread into world culture. The most interesting of these symbols are the Tyrrhenian pirates, the Tyrrhenian trumpet, and Tyrrhenian sandals, which find their reflection in many Greek literary works. The research is based on a close study of Antique literary sources (passages from the literary works of Hesiod, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Pausanias etc.), as well as archaeological sources and academic literature. The different spheres and innovations of Tyrrhenian civilization were of great interest to the Greeks, which subsequently found their reflection in Greek literature. They gained a newly found value and via Graeca became Etruscan symbols in the literary culture of the following ages. Respective literary “clichés” have specifically been built on these very characters or symbols. Finally, we can say with some confidence that Etruscan innovations in Greek sources have undergone certain transformations and have been turned into innovative Greek literary symbols. In this case we do not talk about the Hellenization of the Etruscan but about the emergence of qualitatively new literary characters which have given birth to a multiplicity of new reflections and receptions in world literature.

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