Etruscan Pottery - IV: Charun
In the 4th century BC, in Etruria, in addition to the production of ceramic objects intended to meet the needs of ordinary people, there was a remarkable production of luxurious and extremely sophisticated vessels like this famous drinking vase, a head-kantharos, known as Charun-cup. The head represents the Etruscan daemon of death, Charun. The daemon has a golden nose ring with an orange carnelian as a pendant and two gold hoop earrings inserted in the stretched earlobes. Circular tattoos with dots adorn the ears, whose upper ends were once pointed. His nose is exceptionally large and sharp. Deep wrinkles cross his face. The eyebrows are thick and bushy; the beard grows around his mouth. The black hair of the daemon falls in strands on the neck. Beaded lips and wide-open eyes complete his grotesque face. With his tattoos, piercings and its extraordinary physiognomy he seems extremely modern and tuned with a part of today's youth culture.
The name of Charu or Charun, as he is known since the 4th century BC, is related to the Greek daemon Charon, the boatman who for few coins, "obólos", carried the dead across the river Acheron or the Styx lagoon. In contrast to the Greek daemon, Charon must be considered as a wild daemon whose skin, sometimes, was rendered by using a dark blue color; his main iconographic attribute was the hammer used by him to ravage people. Charun, a daemon of the boundary region setting the transition between this world and the Hereafter, could be interpreted as the symbol of death terror and of the implacability of human destiny.
Greek potters, in 400 BC, created in Etruria this luxurious and exceptional drinking vessel. It joins Greek stylistic elements to an Etruscan subject with amazing results.
The head-kantharos could have been used as grave goods, or, perhaps it was used for banquets with a warning purpose, "memento mori". This vase would thus be comparable to much later Roman cups representing skeleton used for similar purposes.
Source: “Die Etrusker von Villanova bis Rom” – Catalogue exhibition.
Head-kantharos
Ca. 400 BC
Special exhibition “Die Etrusker von Villanova bis Rom”
Munich, Antikensammlungen.
Etruscan Pottery - IV: Charun
In the 4th century BC, in Etruria, in addition to the production of ceramic objects intended to meet the needs of ordinary people, there was a remarkable production of luxurious and extremely sophisticated vessels like this famous drinking vase, a head-kantharos, known as Charun-cup. The head represents the Etruscan daemon of death, Charun. The daemon has a golden nose ring with an orange carnelian as a pendant and two gold hoop earrings inserted in the stretched earlobes. Circular tattoos with dots adorn the ears, whose upper ends were once pointed. His nose is exceptionally large and sharp. Deep wrinkles cross his face. The eyebrows are thick and bushy; the beard grows around his mouth. The black hair of the daemon falls in strands on the neck. Beaded lips and wide-open eyes complete his grotesque face. With his tattoos, piercings and its extraordinary physiognomy he seems extremely modern and tuned with a part of today's youth culture.
The name of Charu or Charun, as he is known since the 4th century BC, is related to the Greek daemon Charon, the boatman who for few coins, "obólos", carried the dead across the river Acheron or the Styx lagoon. In contrast to the Greek daemon, Charon must be considered as a wild daemon whose skin, sometimes, was rendered by using a dark blue color; his main iconographic attribute was the hammer used by him to ravage people. Charun, a daemon of the boundary region setting the transition between this world and the Hereafter, could be interpreted as the symbol of death terror and of the implacability of human destiny.
Greek potters, in 400 BC, created in Etruria this luxurious and exceptional drinking vessel. It joins Greek stylistic elements to an Etruscan subject with amazing results.
The head-kantharos could have been used as grave goods, or, perhaps it was used for banquets with a warning purpose, "memento mori". This vase would thus be comparable to much later Roman cups representing skeleton used for similar purposes.
Source: “Die Etrusker von Villanova bis Rom” – Catalogue exhibition.
Head-kantharos
Ca. 400 BC
Special exhibition “Die Etrusker von Villanova bis Rom”
Munich, Antikensammlungen.