Le mythe de Volta chez Pline l’Ancien et l’iconographie d’urnes étrusques du IIe siècle av. J.-C.
A series of Etruscan funerary urns from the Hellenistic period shows a particular scene where a werewolf comes out of a well and attacks a group of warriors. One of them is offering up a libation near the monster and the well. A few centuries later, the Roman author Pliny the Elder referred to an old Etruscan legend about the king of Volsinii named Porsenna who invoked a lightning strike to get rid of the monster called Volta, which had previously devastated the city’s countryside.  This research paper tries to establish relationships between the images of the different urns and the myth from the second book of the Natural History which are still being debated amongst etruscologists. Moreover, this paper will set my own position in the debate and, grounded on previous works about the subject, will cover the complete history of the urns originating from Perugia and Volterra in most cases presented. The first chapter of this paper will provide an updated historiography concerning the core subject, the interpretation of the mythical scene, and a short review relating to Etruscan funerary urns from the Hellenistic period. The second chapter will address the symbolism of the wolf and the werewolf from an anthropological view. This section will also look for any archaeological and literary evidence concerning the wolf and the werewolf during ancient times (Greece, Rome and Italic populations, Etruria) concluding that they belong to the underworld. The chapter will end with the link between the werewolf of the urns and the monster depicted in Pliny the Elder’s story. The last chapter will provide additional insights about the urns and the Plinian sources that deserve further investigation; for instance, Etruscan beliefs about the invocation of lightning, the well as a symbolic passage to the afterworld and the reference to the mythical king Porsenna. This thesis, centred on cultural history, provides an updated view of a debate that is a century old. This paper also brings new evidence to bear that the Etruscan urns could actually represent the same myth as the one from Pliny’s text. This research document also reinforces the hypothesis that this Etruscan legend had survived many centuries of exterior influences up to its spread through the Roman world during the Flavian dynasty.
Loups Lycanthropes Etruscans Etruria Etruscan religion Hellenistic cinerary urns Pliny the Elder Wolves Werewolves Well Archaic Rome