Images

A 17th century CE oil painting by Matthias Stomer depicting the legendary Etruscan king of Chiusi Lars Porsenna and the Roman hero Mucius Scaevola. Porsenna attacked Rome c. 508 BCE and the captured Mucius put his hand in a fire to prove...

The Rape of Lucretia by Titian (1490-1576 CE). Lucretia was raped by Sextus, son of the Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. The incident, according to legend, brought about the downfall of the monarchy and the beginning of the Roman republic...

A terracotta bust of the Etruscan god Tin/Tinia, head of the pantheon and equivalent to Zeus/Jupiter. 300-250 BCE. (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)

A relief of Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator on one of the pillars in the courtyard of the Temple at Kom Ombo.

A detail of a wall painting in the Etruscan Tomb of the Funerary Bed at Tarquinia. The two men are dining, as indicated by their low one-armed chairs. c. 460 BCE.

A scene from a stone Etruscan sarcophagus showing a drinking party. Chiusi, 6th century BCE. (Staatliche Museum, Berlin)

A scene from a stone Etruscan funerary urn depicting a banquet scene. Chiusi, 5th century BCE. (British Museum, London)

An Egyptian apotropaic knife made from a hippopotamus tusk and designed to ward off evil in a nursery. (Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago)

A faience amulet of the Egyptian protective deity Bes. Egypt, 950-700 BCE. (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA)

A serpentinite and gold heart scarab pendant. Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Tomb of Hatnefer and Ramose, Mummy of Hatnefer. Thebes. Egypt, 18th Dynasty, c. 1492-1473 BCE. The text inscribed on the back of the scarab calls for Hatnefer's heart not...