Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University

Layed me out in the deep sand.
That was not enough: While he held on tight to my tough
Right horn, he broke it, and tore it away from my mangled forehead.
The Naiads took it, and filling it with fruits and scented flowers,
Made it sacred; Blessed Abundance is wealthy on account of my horn. 531
As a result of this battle, Herakles won the cornucopia, a horn of plenty that was
identified with either the horn Herakles tore from Achelous’ head or a horn taken from
Amalthea, the goat who nursed the infant Zeus. It could be that the conflict between Herakles
and Achelous is meant to represent the dangers of river navigation and to demonstrate Herakles’
role as a bearer of civilization and association with water and fertility. 532 The fierce and
powerful bull deity must be overcome or tamed in order for man to prosper; we may again be
facing a myth representing the tension between nature and culture. In any case, the presence of a
therianthrope on the mirror in Fig. V.7 bearing the name Achlae proves that the Etruscans were
aware of his struggle with Hercle and may support the identification of other unidentified man-
bulls as Achelous.
The power of the bull and its prominent horns may also explain why Achelous’ head was
used as an apotropaic device 533 on antefixes 534 (Fig. V.8) and amulets 535 (Fig. V.9) or perhaps
even on furniture bosses 536 (Fig. V.10). The bull therianthrope, like other figures already
discussed in this study, is often used as a charm to ward off evil. Like the figure of Juno Sospita
addressed in Chapter Four, Achelous is commonly used on antefixes as architectural decoration.
531
Ov. Met. IX.80-8. Latin Text taken from Ovid Metamorphoses Books IX-XV, Vol. 4, edited by G.P. Goold, Loeb
Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994, p. 8. (Translation by Author.)
sic quoque devicto restabat tertia tauri / forma trucis. tauro mutatus membra rebello. / induit ille toris a laeva parte
lacertos, / admissumque trahens sequitur, depressaque dura / cornua figit humo, meque alta sternit harena. / nec satis
hoc fuerat: rigidum fera dextera cornu / dum tenet, infregit, truncaque a fronte revellit. / naides hoc, pomis et odoro
flore repletum, / sacrarunt; divesque meo Bona Copia cornu est.
532
Neilson 2006, 8-10.
533
Holloway 1986, 449.
534
Altheim (1938, 69) notes the ubiquity of such antefixes by stating, “We know from Etruscan art those very
common representations of the ‘river-god’ or ‘Achelous.’ They show the mask of an elderly, bearded man, with wet
dripping beard, and with the ears and horns of a bull. He appears on gear and ornament of various kinds, but above
all on roof-terracottas of Etruscan or Etruscanizing style. They extend from Veii, Falerii and Satricum to Campania,
and thus cover the whole of middle Italy.” See Isler 1981, 12-36 in LIMC for a demonstration of the popularity of
Achelous.
535
The Etruscans were master jewelers, as is shown by this piece decorated with the filigree and granulation
techniques. This amulet was likely a personal apotropaic device and may have possessed a “magical” function in
addition to being a luxury object. Higgins (1961, 152) indicates that this object was meant to bring good luck to its
wearer is confirmed by another necklace that possesses not only an Achelous head but also two different types of
bullae, round and heart-shaped.
536
Buranelli (1992, 56) notes the problem of determining the exact function of the bronze bosses which may either
be used to decorate furniture or are meant as tomb decoration.
108