So Nico, what is the context for all these man-faced bulls in the VI century BC? From what you are saying, it sounds like they were not predominant in Etruscan artwork before the VI century. As far as you can tell, is that the case?
John, the context.. very arduous to describe in brief.
About the social organization of the state... there was a kind of federation, without a single center of power. Ancient sources mention of twelve city-states, governed by so many kings (called "Mechl"). They held both civil and religious power. These kings were flanked by noble groups. The monarchical system survived longer than in
Greece, probably until the
Roman conquer.
However, the VI century b.C. was the heyday of the Etruscan civilization.
Etruscans, since the
VIII b.C., they enjoyed a strong
maritime power, which subsequently became a real commercial and
military supremacy in the Tyrrenian
Area, from Corsica to
Campania. They developed their economic and
military power, taking
part in the so-called "sea routes of metals", which hooked up the eastern and the western Mediterranean since the
bronze age (and determined, expecially during the VIII-VII b.C., the so-called "orientalizing" period of
Etruscan art). The contacts of the Tyrrhenian populations with
Cyprus (probably also mediated by Phoenicians and Euboeans) are also attested by Cypriot copper ingots found in Sardinia.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the evidences concerning the cult of
Achelous (symbol of
fertility, power and
abundance) coincide with the period of maximum flowering.
About the mfb in ancient literature... here some examples.
Latin:
Ovidius
Naso, Metamorphoses:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0074%3Abook%3D9%3Acard%3D1 (clic on "load" at the upper right of the screen for the original text).
Ovidius never describes
Achelous (so named at IX, 68 and 96 ) as a "manfaced
bull", but only describes
his transformation into a "Tauro", a
bull (IX, 80, 81): "
Sic quoque devicto restabat tertia tauri forma trucis: tauro mutatus membra rebello." ("Then thirdly did remayne the shape of
Bull, and quickly tho I turning to the shape of
Bull rebelld ageinst my fo.").
Vergilius Maro, Georgicon:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0059%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1He names
Achelous at line 9 of the incipit during the initial invocations, without describing
his mfb shape.
"Vos, o clarissima mundi
lumina, labentem caelo quae ducitis annum,
Liber et alma
Ceres, vestro si munere tellus
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista,
poculaque inventis Acheloia miscuit uvis;"
("O universal lights
Most glorious! ye that lead the gliding year
Along the sky,
Liber and
Ceres mild,
If by your bounty holpen earth once changed
Chaonian acorn for the plump wheat-ear,
And mingled with the grape, your new-found gift,
The draughts of
Achelous")
Greek:
Hesiod, Theogony
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0129%3Acard%3D337He names Ἀχελώιόν at 340, in a list of deities, without any further description.
Sophocles, Trachiniae:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0195Here is the closest thing I found concerning the MFB, however... we have not yet.
Ἀχελῷον is named at line 9, and immediately after the dramatist he describes the transformation:
"μνηστὴρ γὰρ ἦν μοι ποταμός, Ἀχελῷον λέγω,
ὅς μ᾽ ἐν τρισὶν μορφαῖσιν ἐξῄτει πατρός,
φοιτῶν ἐναργὴς ταῦρος, ἄλλοτ᾽ αἰόλος
δράκων ἑλικτός, ἄλλοτ᾽ ἀνδρείῳ κύτει
βούπρῳρος: ἐκ δὲ δασκίου γενειάδος
κρουνοὶ διερραίνοντο κρηναίου ποτοῦ.
My suitor was the river Achelóüs,
who took three forms to ask me of my father:
a rambling
bull once - then a writhing
snake of gleaming colors - then again a
man with ox-like
face: and from
his beard's dark shadows
stream upon stream of water tumbled down.
So...
Achelous μορφάω (moulded) into ἐναργὴς ταῦρος (
bull in bodily shape)... and later a
man with ox-like
face.
Again, no trace of MFB.
I am increasingly convinced that the MFB was a creation of visual artists (sculptors, painters and engravers) who tried to give in this way the idea of the transformation (how to freeze a moment of it, like the single frame of a movie) from
man to
bull, described by the myth (first orally, then with written texts).
Of course this is just my idea, and I can't wait to find a literary source to contradict myself.
But, if my hypothesis is correct, not only a mfb is the deity, but also a simple
bull, at the final stage of the transformation... and maybe we should reconsider many
bull types on greek coinage as representations of
river gods?
Any comment is welcome.
Bye friends
Nico
