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Attic vases were imported to Etruria in large numbers during the Archaic period (650–450 B. C. E.). A large corpus of decorative imagery has been scrupulously recorded in great detail, presenting a contrast with the antiquarian excavation methods which unearthed them. This article considers a corpus of imported ceramic vessels excavated at Chiusi, Tarquinia and Vulci to explore the presence of different characters and themes in Greek mythology within Etruria, examining the popularity of particular mythological motifs and images. These are then compared with a subsidiary corpus of comparable date from the Athenian Agora. The results of the analysis are interpreted to suggest that Etruscan consumers were deliberately acquiring iconographic content that related to indigenous Italian mythologies, values and ideals. The analysis proposes that the reception of imported mythology reflects themes of consequence in Etruscan mythology, closely related to the context of the use of these vessels in both feasts and funerals.

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This paper examines the rediscovery of the ancient Etruscans, in central Italy, during the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries AD. Knowledge about the Etruscans from this earlier period was overshadowed by the interest in Etruscan antiquities promoted by Pope Leo X (1513–1521) and Cosimo I de Medici (1519–1574) during the late Renaissance. I argue that the sixteenth century appropriation of the Etruscan past would not have been possible without the discoveries of earlier generations of Tuscans, and, more particularly, without a reversal in attitudes towards the Etruscan past that began during the late thirteenth century. Prior to this, the Etruscans were perceived negatively, as allied to darkness and paganism. In this paper, I argue that this change in the perception of the Etruscans was closely allied to the particular political situation of the city-state of Florence, and that the origins of Etruscan archaeology can be elucidated in the centre of the maelstrom of war, famine and plague that characterised the fourteenth century in central Italy.