Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University

Gigantomachy appear to have developed in Etruria. 117 An Etruscan black-figure hydria
attributed to the Micali Painter (ca. 525-500 BCE) provides one such example (Fig. II.4). 118 The
decoration of the upper register of Fig. II.4 contains an image of two armored youths attacking a
giant. This monstrous foe is depicted as having a head with three-faces, 119 wings sprouting from
his back, and two serpentine legs which each split, ending in a total of four serpent heads. He
also lifts a large stone above his head with which he surely intends to crush the youths. The
youths are shown wielding spears and shields and wearing a cuirass and greaves. They do not
possess helmets but, nevertheless, they resemble hoplites. De Grummond cites this black-figure
vessel as the earliest known general Gigantomachy and chooses not to identify this figure as
Typhon since the image does not fit with a myth of Zeus’ battle against his most terrifying foe. 120
This vessel is representative of a strong tradition of snake-legged creatures in Etruria, a logical
occurrence when one considers that the locus for the battle of the gods and giants was most
commonly set in nearby Campania, and the final resting place of Typhon was below Mt. Aetna
in Sicily. 121
The Tomb of the Typhon in Tarquinia also contains a splendid example of the
iconographic convention of using serpents as a substitute for legs (Fig. II.5). 122 This tomb
possesses rich painted decoration including the appearance of two winged anguipeds on the
pillars that support the tomb’s ceiling. 123 These figures are likely meant to be giants, not
reduplicated figures of Typhon as the name of the tomb seems to indicate. These serpent-legged
giants are accompanied by a single goddess from whose waist vine tendrils sprout as
replacements for legs, a Rankenfrau, whom I have identified elsewhere as Cel Ati, the Etruscan
Mother Earth. 124 Both giants and Rankenfrau seem to function as Telamones, humanoid figures
117 A further variation on the theme of the gigantomachy appears on a Praenestine cista that depicts giants with fish
tails for legs.
118 De Grummond 2000a, 259.
119 One must wonder if the triple-bodied creature from the pediment of the “Hekatompedon” is not somehow linked
to this triple-headed figure.
120 De Grummond 2000a, 259. In contrast, Spivey (1987, 15) refers to the giant as a Typhon-figure.
121 Vian 1988, 191-2. For all of Typhon’s geographic associations, see Vian 1960, 19-23.
122 De Grummond (2000a, 259-61) shows that the depiction of the anguiped giants in the Tomb of the Typhon could
not have been influenced by the Great Altar of Pergamon.
123 These figures closely resemble the giants of the Great Altar but are earlier in date, as demonstrated by Colonna
(1983, 1).
124 Rupp Forthcoming 2007. The presence of a single Rankenfrau indicates to me that the reduplication of the
anguiped figures implies that they are not a single personality such as Typhon and are instead representative of a
group of divinities. On the Great Altar of Zeus, for example, Gaia, as the lone female figure against the gods, rises
from the earth amongst many giants. Massa Pairault (1992, 195) labels this figure a Nike.
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