Eracle, Tideo e Capaneo. Dalla mitologia di Pyrgi alla “citazione visiva”

Abstract

The visual mythology of the Etruscan sanctuary of Pyrgi, based on the dialectics between the roof decorations of the earlier Temple B and the later Temple A, is the starting point for a survey of the figural documentation of Tydeus and Capaneus in Etruria. The two anti-heroes of the Theban saga, protagonists of the central relief of the rear pediment of Temple A, were often depicted in Etruscan monuments, especially on ringstones and mirrors from the fifth to the third centuries BC. The analysis of the attestations – vis-à-vis those of better known heroes such as Heracles, Ajax and Achilles – is carried on by means of the hermeneutic tools of ancient poetics and contemporary semiology, including the concept of “visual citation” within the sphere of Aristotelic mimesis. According to this hypothesis, many alleged errors and misinterpretations of Etruscan craftsmen find an explanation in the insertion of elements, schemes and characters belonging to different narratives in a mythological representation in order to introduce a comparation, an analogy or a contamination with an ethic, pedagogic and/or psychagogic purpose.

Keywords Greek mythology; Etruscan gems; Engraved mirrors; Visual citation; Visual narrative.