Kottabos — Etruscan wine custom
„Despite the depth of Hades
Still dancing and drinking
only an Etruscan can do“
While in the past the afterlife was mostly imagined with loneliness and mourning, gnashing of teeth and howling, there was at least one cheerful people who exemplified a different idea.
The Etruscans were the bearers of culture in central Italy before the Romans came to power. After long wars they were finally swallowed by Rome.
What is striking for us still visiting them in museums and underground tombs, is the representation of drinking parties with dancing and music, even after death. Some of these tombs (hypogaeum = “underground”) are designed that such a symposion(Greek)/symposium(Latin)(= drinking together) still seems possible in the afterlife — even with the reclining beds of those times made of tuff and the matching cushions sculptured out of the same stone.
To me, one Etruscan artifact seems particularly significant: the Kottabos. This is a device that allows elaborate drinking games among revelers. As a burial gift thus also in the afterlife — and in tombs it stands in a prominent position!
In the Kottabos game, a bronze bowl should be brought down with splashed wine. The Kottabos consists of an approximately 2m long metal central axis with at least one applied bronze plate on top, depending on various designs, more plates are possible at half height.
Drinkers who sipped the wine from bowls with two handles could hurl the remaining contents toward the tip of the kottabos by hooking their index finger in a handle and spraying the risidual liquid in the direction of the kottabos with a hurling motion. Whoever brought down the tip bowl was the winner. (The winner of what? This remains still in question).
It can be assumed that the mess that followed such a contest was work of the servants/slaves. Although until today the Etruscan writing is legible, the language remains unknown. We know about these rules only thanks to the Greek settlers living in Sicily at the same time, and they loved the same pastime — and slave owners they were too.
P.S.: During your next vacation in Italy, Etruscan necropolises are ready for your visit:
Near Perugia (where my pictures are made), near Orvieto, in Cervetri (north of Rome) — the last area shows around 1000 tombs !..
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Museum Villa Giulia in Rom ==> https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187791-d208583-Reviews-Museo_Nazionale_Etrusco_di_Villa_Giulia-Rome_Lazio.html
https://www.sitiarcheologiciditalia.it/en/cerveteri-etruscan-necropolis/
Cenciaioli, Luana. Ipogeo dei Volumni e Necropoli del Palazzone di Ponte San Giovanni (with english text). Perugia 2013
Mommsen, Theodor. Römische Geschichte I. — Könige und Konsuln; Berlin 1998
