The Etruscans are one of history's great mysteries -- a sophisticated society that flourished at the heart of the Classical world and then vanished, leaving relatively few archaeological remains and few records of their culture. The Etruscans were adept at magic, and Etruscan books of spells were common among the Romans but they have not survived. While greatly influenced by the Greeks, the Etruscans retained elements of an ancient non-Western culture, and these archaic traits contributed greatly to the civilization once thought of as purely Roman (gladiators, for example, and many kinds of divination). Leland retrieves elements of Etruscan culture from the living popular traditions of remote areas of the Italian countryside where belief in "the old religion" survives to an astonishing degree. Recorded when many of these secret beliefs and practices were fading away, this remarkable volume deals with ancient gods, spirits, witches, incantations, prophecy, medicine, spells, and amulets, giving full descriptions, illustrations, and instructions for practice.
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Cast a spell against gossips, deflect unwanted romantic attention, or bring the dead back to life. The renowned 19th-century folklorist and expert on witchy cultures Charles Leland believed he had uncovered the secrets of practical domestic magic as the ancient pagans of Italian Tuscany performed it, and he shared all in this classic 1892 study. Considered by the author to be his own masterwork, this enthralling work--one still the subject of heated debate among modern pagans, some of whom embrace it while others deny its accuracy--here are detailed examinations of the "gods and goblins" of the region as well as the time-honored incantations, divinations, medicines, and amulets of the Tuscans.
Part One of the book offers complete and detailed insight in the Etruscan and Roman rooted pantheon of the Tuscan Streghe (witches). Part Two describes many of their spells, incantations, sorcery and several lost divination methods. Much information in this book, Leland received first hand from the Tuscan witches Maddalena and Marietta.
Expanding the study of Etruscan habitation sites to include not only traditional cities but also smaller Etruscan communities, Cetamura del Chianti examines a settlement that flourished during an exceptional time period, amid wars with the Romans in the fourth to first centuries BCE. Situated in an ideal hilltop location that was easy to defend and had access to fresh water, clay, and timber, the community never grew to the size of a city, and no known references to it survive in ancient writings; its ancient name isn’t even known. Because no cities were ever built on top of the site, excavation is unusually unimpeded. Intriguing features described in Cetamura del Chianti include an artisans’ zone with an adjoining sanctuary, which fostered the cult worship of Lur and Leinth, two relatively little known Etruscan deities, and undisturbed wells that reveal the cultural development and natural environment, including the vineyards and oak forests of Chianti, over a period of some six hundred years. Deeply enhancing our understanding of an intriguing economic, political, and cultural environment, this is a compelling portrait of a singular society.
In The Etruscan Cities and Rome, H. H. Scullard examines the cities of Etruria, the dominant power on the Italian peninsula just prior to the ascendancy of Rome. Though eventually conquered by the Romans, the Etruscans exerted enormous influence on Roman political and social institutions. Scullard describes the mysterious origins of these people, their years of conquest and expansion, and their encounters with Greeks, Romans, Celts, and others. Generously illustrated, the book admirably captures the distinct qualities of Etruria's various urban centers - from the southern cities, where art and handicrafts flourished, to the metal-working northern cities, to the outlying Etruscan areas of Latium and Campania.
An excerpt of a review from, The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review and Oriental and Colonial Record: The saying of Dionysius of Halicarnassus with reference to the Etruscans, namely that they are unlike any other nation as regards language and customs, still holds good, as far as the language is concerned; Prof. Krall's discovery, however, of an Etruscan "linnen book" folded round a mummy in an Egyptian tomb, may give reasonable hope that the time is not far distant when important clues to the ultimate decipherment of the language will be available. Old Etruria was a veritable home of augury and divination. Spirits and ghosts played a prominent role in the Etruscan religion. In the liber linteus we frequently meet the word "Hinthu"—a ghost— which is one of the few Etruscan words that can be translated. (See Krall, die Etruskishen Mumienbinden des Agramer National Museums, 1892.) It is Mr. Leland's merit to have devoted many years of untiring research to the task of throwing light on the old religion and sorcery which is still alive among the peasantry of the Tuscan mountains. The author's remarkable gift for eliciting the secrets of the "old faith" from his informants, who appear to hold it in even greater reverence than they do the saints of their churches, renders him pre-eminently successful in these and similar researches; as much of this strange traditional creed is on the verge of dying out Mr. Leland's labours were most opportune and deserve our thanks. It appears that this Etruscan witchcraft—"stregeria"—though less than what might be termed a faith, is certainly something more than a mere system of sorcery; Mr. Leland has even rediscovered the names of the old Etruscan gods, such as Tinia or Jupiter, Faflau or Bacchus and Terams or Tunus (Mercury) as we read them on the Etruscan mirrors, and abundant proof is produced that these ancient deities yet live in the memories of the Tuscan peasantry. The mass of material collected by the author, consisting of invocations, legends, incantations and the like, reproduced in the original Italian and in translation, is really astounding. Mr. Leland's statement that the difficulties of "extracting" witchcraft from the Italian Strege far surpass those he experienced in collecting "volumes of folk-lore among very reticent Red Indians and reserved Romanys" is fully credited by us; we have good reason not to doubt it. The distinguished compiler's descriptions and quotations leave the impression of being derived from original sources and in the preparation of the work he had moreover the advantage of advice from Senatore Comparetti, one of the greatest living Italian scholars. To judge from the comments, notes and explanatory passages generally, Mr. Leland is thoroughly acquainted with the existing literature on the subject of Etruria, in Latin, Italian, German and English.
