A Note on the Myth of Tages
0821-07_Babesch_83_07 23-09-2008 16:05 Pagina 107 BABESCH 83 (2008), 107-109. doi: 10.2143/BAB.83.0.2033101. A Note on the Myth of Tages J.H. Richardson Abstract This note suggests that Tages, the mythical founder of the Etrusca disciplina, is depicted on an engraved Etruscan mirror in the British Museum. The identification, if correct, provides some verification of the literary evidence for the myth of Tages, but it substantially undermines the common equation of Pavatarchies, a youth who appears on another engraved Etruscan mirror, with Tages. The myth of Tages is both simple and important; the figure to his right, Avl[e] Tarchunus, also important because it explains the origins of the wears a haruspex’s hat. It is true that Tarchunus Etruscan arts of divination, and simple because wears his hat pushed back over his head, but this the essence of the myth is as follows:1 working could just as easily signify that he is letting Pava- one day in his field, an Etruscan from Tarquinia tarchies interpret the liver, as it could that he is called Tarchon ploughed up an infant child. But his student. Indeed, since Tarchunus is bearded, this was no ordinary baby, for it had teeth, per- it may be he who is the teacher, and Pavatarchies haps grey hair, and the capacity of speech; it was, the student.7 Pavatarchies is fully clothed and in short, a baby with the facial features of an there is nothing to suggest that he has recently adult.2 This baby, Tages, then proceeded to ex- been unearthed, nor is there even any emphasis pound the theories and methods of divination to on the field, and the plough, an obvious icon for those who were present.
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