Tra uccelli e leoni, nella Tomba dei Leoni Ruggenti

The study concerns the Tomb of Roaring Lions at Veii, datable to the early 7th century BC, which is the oldest painted tomb in Etruria. The purpose of the work is to focus on the iconographic program of the wall paintings, deepening the significant relationship between the rows of birds and lions, placed the ones above the others in the rear wall near the niche which probably contained a cremation burial. This spatial arrangement of animals within the pictorial field is significant as it can allude to the same physical relation between the elements of heaven and earth in which birds and lions live: thus, the wall paintings can evoke the metaphor of a natural cosmos in which the fate of the owner of the tomb is included. Finally, in support of this hypothesis, some comparisons are made with contemporary Greek and Etruscan documents, which attest to the reception of Near Eastern influences in the iconographic program of the painted tomb, probably through Greek mediation and, in particular, of the Tyrrhenian settlement of Pithekoussai.