FUNERARY CULT
Some sixth-century Caeretan and other tombs had exterior altar precincts and inner cult rooms for ceremonial meals; some also had throne-like altars with triple basins for libation (van der Meer 2007: 57-61).
The deities Vanth and Letham, named on representations throughout Etruria, were associated with death and the underworld, and preceded the introduction of Greek myths and cults; Charu and Tuchulcha, the demons of later tombs, are unlike the mythical Greek ferryman Charon. Some archaic vases and Tarquinian tombs feature a masked dancer, “Phersu”, in a black-and-white jacket. He presides as a dog bites a blindfolded man, drawing blood: his name is the source of Latin persona, the mask used in some Roman funerals, his image the prototype of Harlequin of the commedia dell’arte (Szilagyi 1981; Jannot 1993; Bonfante & Bonfante 2002: 203). The cult of Fufluns (Bacchus) is attested by the sixth century BCE (e.g. wineskin on the Sarcophage des Epoux from Cerveteri), and continued even after the troubles at Rome that provoked the senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus (“Senatorial decree concerning Bacchic rituals”, 186 BCE, Livy 39.9.1).
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