Usil, the Etruscan god of the sun

Usil, the Etruscan god of the sun, is equated with the Greek and Roman Helios/Sol Invictus. Appliques depicting the god usually depict the deity with spread wings and a nimbus of rays surrounding his head which is also adorned with a diadem.  On such a plaque obtained by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the figure merges into a broad plate decorated with undulating lines, suggesting the sea from which the sun emerges at daybreak and sinks at dusk.

 "Ornamental reliefs such as this functioned as fittings on funeral carts and chariots, which often accompanied the burials of Etruria’s equestrian elite. Probably affixed to the sides of the vehicle, the winged god reflects the imagery of a celestial divinity driving the chariot of the sun across the sky, which was common in Greek and later Etruscan art. The earliest Usil plaque, in the Vatican Museums, was reportedly found at Roma Vecchia between 1760 and 1775 and was illustrated by Francesco Piranesi in 1778. In 1845, four similar plaques were discovered in the Tomb of the Quadriga at Vulci, which preserved the skeletons of horses. Among the appliqués held in the National Etruscan Museum of the Villa Giulia in Rome, the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, and other museums, some may belong to that burial. Although displaying slight variations in size, facial features, form of the plate, and position of the rivets, all are associated with a preeminent bronze-casting workshop in Vulci." - J. Paul Getty Museum 

Other depictions of the Etruscan god feature Usil rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved Etruscan bronze mirror in late Archaic style and with a halo on Classical style Etruscan mirrors.

While Usil is depicted most often as male, there are also feminine depictions equating Usil with another indigenous Etruscan goddess, Catha, which is often interpreted as having a solar character. Usil is also shown in close association with Thesan, the dawn goddess, something almost never seen with Helios and Eos.

Appliqué depicting the Sun God Usil, Etruscan, 500 - 475 BCE, made in Vulci, Italy, Bronze, courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Pacific Palisades, California

A low relief bronze mirror crafted using the wax method said to depict the winged Greek goddess Eos (Aurora) running or in flight with Kephalos, a young hunter hero that is the son of Hermes and Herse in her arms. However, as this mirror is from the Etruscan workshop in Vulci crafted between 480- 470 BCE, it may equate the winged figure to the Etruscan goddess Thesan or Usil in a female aspect. Now in the collections of the Vatican Museums.

Etruscan mirror from Orvieto depicting the Etruscan sun god Usil fising from the waves, juggling balls of fire, circa 500 BCE now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts courtesy of the museum.

Outline of Etruscan mirror from Orvieto depicting the Etruscan sun god Usil fising from the waves, juggling balls of fire, circa 500 BCE now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Nancy T. de Grummond

Outline of an engraved bronze mirror from Tuscania. From left to right, Nethuns, Usil, Thesan. In the lower exergue a winged anguiped demon who holds up a dolphin in each hand. Now in the collections of the Vatican Museums' Museo Gregoriano Etrusco in Vatican City courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Nancy T. de Grummond

 

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Calchas and the prophesies of the Iliad

Despite the addition of a head of Serapis, recut and restored in the 18th century CE, the overall scene of a relief at the J. Paul Getty Museum portrays Calchas, the Argive soothsayer to whom Apollo had given the gift of prophecy. In Homer’s Iliad (II.300-30), the seer foretold that the Trojan War would last for nine years after observing a snake devour a mother sparrow and her eight chicks. The eclectic style of the relief combines the form of a late Classical Attic stele with landscape elements drawn from the Hellenistic repertoire. It was discovered in 1774 at Roma Vecchia in the Villa dei Sette Bassi, which belonged to the senatorial family of C. Bellicus Calpurnius Apolaustus. Such a panel may have decorated a library assembled by a cultured patron well versed in Greek literature. On the underside is a Latinized Greek inscription that reads XEANTHE—likely a version of Xanthe, the former name for Troy.  

It was Calchas who prophesied that in order to gain a favourable wind to deploy the Greek ships mustered in Aulis on their way to Troy, Agamemnon would need to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigeneia, to appease Artemis, whom Agamemnon had offended. Calchas also tells the Greeks that the captive Chryseis must be returned to her father Chryses in order to get Apollo to stop the plague he has sent as a punishment: this triggered the quarrel of the hero Achilles and Agamemnon, the main theme of the Iliad. As kings may do as they please, Calchas finds it necessary to lean on the support of a champion, Achilles, who opposes Agamemnon in assembly. Agamemnon refuses to accept the edict of Apollo that he should give up his prize, but bypasses it by taking Achilles’ prize. There follows "the wrath of Achilles," which is righteous anger on behalf of the divine will. With the help of the gods, Achilles struggles to restore righteousness.

Depictions of Calchas have also been found on 5th century BCE Etruscan mirrors and Calchas along with other characters of the Trojan War were popular subjects of 16th century tapestries.

Relief depicting Calchas observing a serpent attacking a nest of birds, 140-160 CE at the J. Paul Getty Museum. On this relief, a bearded man is seated in right profile on a four-legged stool (diphros) with carved legs and a cushion, and rests his feet on a footstool. With his left hand raised to his check in a contemplative gesture, he supports his left elbow on a gnarled staff held in his right hand. Beneath the chair is a griffin, the symbol of Apollo, god of prophecy. Over his left shoulder he wears a himation that covers his lower body, and sandals. Coiled around the tree in front of him is a snake, which menaces a nest of fledglings and two adult birds perched in the branches. The Pentelic marble head is ancient but does not belong to the original relief; it was recut and restored in the 18th century. The hairstyle and sober expression belong to a divinity, and a hole in the crown for the attachment of a kalathos identifies it as the head of the god Serapis.

Etruscan mirror depicting Calchas in the form of a haruspice, from Vulci, 5th century BCE, at the Vatican Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Waterborough.

The Prophecy of Calchas from a set of tapestries depicting The Story of Troy. late 16th century, from Macao, China, silk and gilt paper, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

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The Anthropological Implications of Laconian Art

When scholars seek to show the role of Spartan austerity in the evolution of artistic production, they often limit themselves to objects of luxury and high prestige, supposedly condemned by the egalitarian civic ideology of the homoioi.  This raises the question, then,  of who among Spartan citizens actually produced the art.  Did Spartan citizens participate or was the art produced by the "perioikoi," a group of residents, sometimes referred to as mercenaries, living within the body of Lacedaemonians but not equal to Spartiates and yet distinct from the oppressed helots. Classicist Conrad M. Stibbe thinks we should also consider a third possibility, that Laconian art production was not a privilege of one social class or another but rather a branch of artistic industry open to all inhabitants of Laconia, whether free, less free, or unfree.

Stibbe poses that archaic Sparta of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE was an open society in which artists of all kinds could freely move and produce whatever art objects they wished with no other social restrictions than those which applied to all other aristocratic societies of Greece at the time. In the latter half of the sixth century to the middle of the fifth century, however, a hero-cult developed in Laconia and began to be reflected in both sculpture and vase painting.

Among distinctive art objects produced in Laconia were both hand and stand mirrors.  Sixth century mirrors feature figures associated with religious ritual while figural decoration of the fifth century are less religious in character.  Sixth century mirrors are embellished with sculptures of prepubescent girls wearing ritual sashes or gymnastic garb sometimes with castanets identifying them as temple dancers, acrobats or officiants possibly connected with shrines such as Artemis Orthia's in Sparta or robed, powerful women with idealized features whose bearing and attributes, including doves, pomegranates, sirens, and sphinxes, identify them as goddesses,  such as Aphrodite in the form of the Oriental Earth Mother, or priestesses.  Were these, then, produced by craftsmen employed in religious sanctuaries, or individuals otherwise exalted but separate from the aristocratic power structure? 

In the fifth century BCE, however, the idealized features were replaced with individualized women accompanied by an assortment of creatures such as rabbits, roosters, dogs, frogs and foxes around the rim or on the base.  Art historian Lenore O. Keene Congdon thinks this evolution appears to point toward owners that were preoccupied with love, beauty, and all that Aphrodite represented. Complex stand mirrors produced during this time required experts in miniature sculpting as well as casting and joining separately casted pieces, up to fifteen or more in a single mirror.  Mirror disks were also precisely crafted - convex on the front and concave on the back to make enlarging or diminishing images. This all points to a non-warrior, highly trained social class no longer associated with religious centers but was probably not part of the hero-worshiping, martial elites.

By the late fifth century, though, possibly as a result of the financial drain of the Peloponnesian Wars, these complex mirrors disappeared and were replaced by more utilitarian handleless box mirrors decorated with less demanding repoussé motifs. These mirrors proliferated throughout the Hellenistic period and even through the Roman period. This makes you wonder if the social class of highly-skilled craftsmen also diminished, perhaps due to a new emphasis on military service.

 

Bronze mirror with a support in the form of a nude girl, Laconian, 2nd half of the 6th century B.C.E. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The girl stands on a curled-up lion, and griffins springing from her shoulders help support the mirror disk. She holds a pomegranate in her left hand and is nude except for a necklace and a strap from which hang a crescent-shaped amulet and a ring. Her nudity and the animals that surround her bring to mind images of the Mistress of Animals, an ancient Near Eastern deity who contributed characteristics to two Olympian goddesses, Aphrodite and Artemis. As a mirror handle, the figure may simply evoke the powers of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty; alternatively, she might be connected with Artemis Orthia, whose cult was important at the Laconian city of Sparta.

Bronze mirror support in the form of a nude girl, Laconian, ca. 540–530 B.C.E. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  The girl stands on a frog, and the traces of feline feet at her shoulders must have belonged to animals that helped in the support of the mirror disk. She wears a band decorated with a ring and amulets and holds cymbals in her hands. 

Bronze mirror of the Caryatid type, from ancient city of Halieis, 490-470 BC. Archaeological Museum of Nafplion courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Zde (digitally enhanced)

Greek mirror possibly from Sicyon, 470-460 BCE, at the Cleveland Museum of Art courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Daderot.

Mirror with Siren, about 450-400 BCE, Greek, Locri Epizephirii, necropolis, Lucifero district, bronze at the Cleveland Museum of Art courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Daderot.

Box mirror cover with relief of Pan late 4th century BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Greek mirror depicting Aphrodite (?) with flanking Erotes (cupids) said to be from an Etruscan tomb 465-450 BCE Bronze that I photographed at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City Missouri

The handle of this mirror is the goddess Aphrodite, a logical choice for an object where beauty is the central theme. The goddess is accompanied by two flying Erotes, gods of love. Surrounding the mirror flowers and pigeons adorn it, they are symbols befitting Aphrodite. Bronze, Peloponnesus (?), c. 460 BCE (inv. 566) at the Allard Pierson Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Dick Osseman.

Greek mirrors and handle attachments from the mid 5th century BCE. 7565- Bronze statuette of a female figurine wearing a heavy tunic (peplophoros). From the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore Karpophorol at Agios Sostis, Arcadia. Probably represents Artemis with a torch. Peloponnesian work with attic influence. About 450-425 BCE. National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece. --- 6197. Bronze statuette of a female figurine wearing a heavy tunic (peplophoros). From Elis. The figure supported a mirror. Argive workshop. About 455 BCE. 15226. Bronze mirror. Provenance unknown. The mirror is supported by a female figurine wearing a heavy tunic (peplophoros) with a bird. Figurines of cocks and a hare at the top of the disk. Local variant of the Argive-Corinthian type. About 470-460 BCE. --- 12449. Bronze mirror. From Ioannina. The mirror is supported by a female figurine wearing a heavy tunic (peplophoros) with a bird. Disk with attached figurines of a hare and a dog. Work of a Corinthian workshop. About 465-460 BCE. At the National Archaeological Museum in Athens courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Tilemahos Efthimiadis (digitally enhanced).

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Gifts with subtle messages

The British Museum points out although mirrors, such as these early Greek examples dating to the 4th century BCE, were usually owned by women, they were often a gift from male lovers and often depicted scenes of abduction and male dominance to reflect the subordinate place women held in society.  Here we see Herakles attempting to abduct the nymph Auge from Corinth about 330-300 BCE, an Amazon fighting a bearded Greek from a tomb in Elis, about 350 BCE (some think it may be Dionysos, though, in a short tunic, high boots, and nebris fighting a giant in a Phyrgian helmet), Nike sacrificing a bull from Megara, about 350 BCE, and the abduction of Ganymede.  Three of the four mirrors represent male dominance.  The sacrifice scene celebrates male achievement as the victory represented by Nike may refer to an athletic contest or victorious battle.  The scene also decorated the Temple of Athena Nike at Athens.

I photographed the first three mirrors at the British Museum and the last mirror at the "Bodies Beautiful in Ancient Greece" exhibit assembled by the British Museum.

Herakles attempting to abduct the nymph Auge from Corinth about 330-300 BCE

An Amazon fighting a bearded Greek from a tomb in Elis, about 350 BCE 

Nike sacrificing a bull from Megara, about 350 BCE

Abduction of Ganymede, Etruscan, from Palestrina

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The First Mirrors

The earliest manufactured mirrors were pieces of polished stone such as obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass. Examples of obsidian mirrors found in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) have been dated to around 6000 BCE. Mirrors of polished copper were crafted in Mesopotamia beginning around 4000 BCE, and in ancient Egypt from around 3000 BCE. Polished stone mirrors from Central and South America date from around 2000 BCE onwards. Some of the earliest examples of Bronze Age copper mirrors were produced by the Qijia culture (2200 BCE-1600 BCE)  distributed around the upper Yellow River region of Gansu (centered in Lanzhou) and eastern Qinghai, China.

Glass began to be used for mirrors in the 1st century CE, with the development of soda-lime glass and glass blowing. The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder claims that artisans in Sidon (modern-day Lebanon) were producing glass mirrors coated with lead or gold leaf in the back. The metal provided good reflectivity, and the glass provided a smooth surface and protected the metal from scrathes and tarnishing. However, no archeological evidence of glass mirrors dating  before the third century CE have been found.

Socrates urged young people to look at themselves in mirrors so that, if they were beautiful, they would become worthy of their beauty, and if they were ugly, they would know how to hide their disgrace through learning.

Image: Greek bronze box mirror with relief of a woman wearing a silver earring from the last quarter of the 4th century BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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