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for These? Is this mirror representative of a conflation of Hercle’s labor to conquer the Cretan
Bull and Theseus’ slaying of the Minotaur? We may never be able to answer these questions
reliably. While this is an extreme (and yet not solitary) example of variation in myth, it is an
important reminder that myths, just as the gods featured in them, are fluid and changeable.
A second appearance of Hercle in combat with the Minotaur is represented on an
Etruscan black-figure amphora. In Fig. V.2, the figure on the left, wielding a club and wearing a
lion skin, is clearly Hercle, the Etruscan Herakles. Hercle lunges forward towards a fleeing
therianthrope. One might be tempted to identify the therianthrope as Pan or a satyr due to the
popularity of scenes in which these figures do battle. 471 This therianthrope is also visually
similar to the image of Pan on Fig. IV.1, a later Greek vase imported into Etruria. Nevertheless,
two elements of this scene argue for a different interpretation. The therianthrope shown here is
not ithyphallic, and the curve of the horns is closer to that of a bull than a goat or ram. G.
Camporeale and N. Spivey suggest that instead of an image of Hercle pursuing a fleeing satyr,
we should instead identify this scene as Hercle in combat with the Minotaur. 472 This is indeed
possible due to the presence of the defeated Minotaur on Fig. V.1.
Small suggests that appearances of the Minotaur in Etruscan art are due to an Etruscan
interest in monsters, or perhaps Daedalus, who immigrated to Italy, instead of the customary
Greek focus on the hero Theseus. 473 Other Etruscan and Roman images of the bull-man are
problematic, and there appears to be no scholarly consensus as to the identity of this hybrid when
it appears in art. The iconography of therianthropic bull-men is variously interpreted as
representing the Minotaur, Dionysos, or Achelous. F. Altheim also suggests that Mars was
conceived of in bull form but provides neither examples of the war god’s iconography in which
he is shown as having taurine features nor literary evidence to this effect. 474
471
Simon 2006, 51; for an example of the combat between Hercle and Satyrs see Brendel 1995, Fig. 146, 147.
472
Camporeale 1965, 118; Spivey 1987, 45.
473
Small 1986, 91.
474
Altheim (1938, 65-79) uses linguistic evidence (see note 7) and the fact that a bull was sacrificed to Mars to
indicate that Mars was conceived of as a bull. The possibility of Mars taking on bull form is intriguing; however,
there does not seem to be enough supporting evidence to conclude that he could do so. In Chapter 3, I argue for
Faunus being conceived of in wolf form based on linguistic testimony in the form of his priests’ name and an epithet
applied to the god’s name, the unusual sacrifice of a dog during the rites of the Lupercalia, and a number of artifacts
which represent a lupine god. In the case of Mars, there is no etymological connection between the name Mars and
the bull nor are there Roman or Etruscan priests that bear the name of “Bull-men.” We may also not conclude that
the sacrifice of a bull is a basis for Mars taking on taurine form due to the common occurrence of bull sacrifices to
many gods and goddesses, who did not all take on bull or cow form. As will be demonstrated in this chapter,
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