9The Sarcophagus called del Poeta: a dip in ancient Etruria

The fascinating exploration of the Vatican Museums is also an opportunity to appreciate the little-known masterpieces of Etruscan art. An example of this is the splendid Sarcophagus known as the Poet preserved in the Gregorian Etruscan Museum, a work from Tarquinia and built around 300 BC. c.

The sarcophagus is the testimony of the use of the sarcophagus placed in chamber tombs in the southern Etruscan cities of the Hellenistic period. The work presents contaminations of typically Etruscan motifs such as funerary genes, with those of Hellenistic origin such as the mythological decorations taken from the Theban saga. The lid, which represents the decumbent deceased with a typical volumen in his hand, an attribute of his activity as a poet, comes from another burial.

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