Subject: heavy infantry hoplite
Culture: Etruscan
Setting: Etruria 6th-5thc BC
Object shield
* Dallas Museum of Art
"The arts of the Etruscans were strongly influenced by Greek art, which they imported and adapted. This mixture of Greek art and myth with native Etruscan beliefs can be seen in the pair of funerary shields with the head of the river god Acheloos. Acheloos, a shape-changer, fought in bull form with the Greek hero Herakles but was defeated by him. The horned human face reflects this story. The physical sensuality so typical of Etruscan art appears in the powerful, fleshy face of the demigod. Acheloos also looks cheerful, since the Etruscans, unlike the Greeks, saw the afterlife and the world of the gods as being much like human life, with its appetites and pleasures."
