Empowered Etruscan Women
Etruscan Woman
Image | Wikimedia Commons
I am facing the most difficult task as a writer with Guide Collective so far. The March 2021 theme is “Women,” and as I am a male, I already know that no matter how hard I work on it, I will probably be WRONG when writing about females! However, being a history buff, I hope that history will help me to minimize my potential mistakes.
Three years ago, I accompanied my grandmother to an event where the City Council of Siena in Tuscany gave her a commendation for having been among the first women to vote after the Second World War—it’s hard to believe but it took 2500 years to obtain such a fundamental right! We are, for many reasons, so proud of our western civilization. The truth is, though, that from a woman’s point of view, there are far more shadows than bright spots.
Women living at the time of Plato and Socrates were, for all intents and purposes, your father’s property. Unless you were from an aristocratic family, you had no access to an education, were given in marriage to a man whom you did not love, and if you did not deliver a male child, it was legitimate grounds for divorce. Some even resorted to prostitution for survival.
In comparison, the Etruscan woman in what is today Tuscany had a completely different belief system. When looking at all the ancient societies, the Etruscans were the freest: refined, elegant, beautiful, and most importantly, independent.
Terra cotta sarcophagus of a beautiful Etruscan woman
Image | Thomas Ihle, Wikimedia Commons
The high level of economic wellbeing in Etruscan society meant that, already in the Archaic period (from the 6th century BC), women began to "leave" the home to participate more actively in public life. This is especially true for the area of Etruria proper (Tuscany, upper Lazio and Umbria) between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. Unlike a Grecian Penelope and Andromache, Etruscan women were not satisfied with waiting patiently at home for their spouse to return but rather legitimately took part in all the pleasures of life.
In contrast to the Romans, Etruscan women retained their maiden names and were not considered their husband’s possession. A first important aspect of Etruscan women consists in the fact that, as numerous inscriptions attest, they had their own names. In Rome, on the other hand, the women were identified exclusively by their first name (Tullia, Iulia, Cornelia) and if there were two women in the same Roman family, perhaps they were just given numerals, (prima, secunda, tertia) or called “major” and “minor” if there were two girls.
“Thania”— a common Etruscan name for a woman
Image | G.Dallorto, Wikimedia Commons
Many attestations of female last names of Etruscan women have survived: Velelia, Anthaia, Thania, Larthia, Tita, Nuzinai, Ramutha, Velthura, Thesathei. And it is precisely the inscriptions found on the objects that tell us a lot about the status of the Etruscan woman. From these artifacts, it emerges that the women possessed objects, were literate (as directions for use appear on some everyday instruments). These clues are found in symbols, in scenes portrayed in frescoes, and in written dedications because some women seem to have been the owners of commercial activities, probably after the death of their husbands.
Etruscan women will go down in history as proud, refined and kind: they loved their social lives, beauty rituals, and jewelry. They did not have to behave like a man in order to play an important role in society. When the Romans conquered the Etruscans, the role of women in society declined. After the conquest, when we see them participating in banquets, it is only as prostitutes. The new role assigned to women by the military society of the Roman Empire was that of mothers of new soldiers.
Women today are undoubtedly more emancipated than in the past, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The world of work sometimes still seems to reward “male” behavior, penalizing women if they are less “pushy” than their male counterparts, for example. While we might think we have moved past objectifying women’s bodies, many women still feel pressured to dress or act a certain way to obtain a better work position. Even female bosses can be extremely discriminatory against other women. And as we all know, the vast majority of working women still shoulder the lion’s share of childcare and housework.
Home is, perhaps, where the best hope lies for the future. The more respect women are given, and the more education and experience they gain, the more expansive will be their daughters’ dreams. Boys can only benefit from mothers who are fully realized and from fathers who model respect for women’s achievements and insights.
