The Augur's Daughter: A Story of Etruscan Life

by Sybille Haynes, Massimo Pallottino

This historical novel combines archaeological knowledge with carefully-controlled imaginative sympathy. The story of the changing fortunes of Larthi, the augur's daughter, spans a period from the late 6th to the early 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization was flourishing.

Translation from the original German Die Tochter des Augurs by the author.

Genres: Historical Fiction

229 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5. Story of fictional Etruscan upper class family, around 500 B.C. and their fortunes through several generations. We follow the story of Larthi, daughter of an augur, from young girl to grandmother. Each chapter is a vignette which emphasizes some event where the author, an archaeologist, brings in various archeological artifacts. For example, the author mentions bronze mirrors where the heroine and her aunt are shopping for a beautifully decorated hand mirror; description of a chariot race, with bas relief of one from that time; funereal customs when the aunt dies; a stylus and tablet with alphabet written around the edge when Marce [Marcus?], a visitor from Ruma [Rome] is living with the family and learning how to be an augur, also reading and writing. He points out the Roman system is very similar. We follow the vicissitudes of the family, their fall, until Larthi's husband, now middle-aged and oldest son go off to battle Syracuse in Sicily. Larthi, who also has prophetic powers at times, sees in her mind's eye an inscription on a bronze helmet: Hieron, son of Deinomenes and the Syracusans to Zeus for victory over the Tyrrhenians [Etruscans].

Author's writing style is a bit pedestrian and simplistic, but this book is a painless learning experience about a culture and its customs about which I knew very little. I love how the author tied in artifacts with the story. Line drawings of artifacts noting museums where they can be seen are well done.

I could read between the lines and see where Rome got some of her institutions: funeral games evolving into gladiatorial contests; the consul system in the government arising from the Etruscan change from a king to a group of magistrates; Rome borrowed lictors, the axe-and-rod men, from the Etruscans. Some of the gods and goddesses were even adopted by the Romans, although names for the most part were different: Menerva/Minerva, goddess of wisdom, an exception. Many myths were the same or were taken from Greek mythology. A beautiful water jug from that time showed Hercules bringing Cerberus, the three-headed dog of the underworld to the king who set him the Labors. Larthi tells the story to her son, Vel. The people in the story really did not have that much personality; to me they were merely devices through which we saw the history and culture.

Recommended mainly for its educational value.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Etruscans were written about by others - their history (Livy, Herodotus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus), their architecture (Vetruvius), their geography (Strabo) - but the fragments we have from the Etruscans themselves remain tied to their material culture and consist primarily of engravings on bronze mirrors, illustrations from tomb paintings and a linen book wrapping a mummy. This book bridges that gap by relying on artifacts covering aspects Etruscan private and social life. Each vignette is connected to actual artifacts housed in a variety of collections and museums, accompanied by sketched images. It is an interpretation of these artifacts, a narrative rendition of events from the the 6th century BC based on hermeneutic theories that have come into popularity with postprocessual archaeological approaches.

The book is therefore not a novel so much as an illustrated narrative. The fragmentary nature of actual Etruscan history has made interpretation de rigueur - we can only parse through citations and opaque charts of ceramic types for so long before the individual vanishes.