Fufluns- Etruscan GodDeity

The Vine and the Banquet

The Tomb of the Leopards at Tarquinia, painted in the fifth century BCE, shows what Fufluns meant in practice. Reclining figures raise kantharoi and kylikes, garlands of ivy and grapevine hang overhead, and the walls themselves become a banquet that never ends. The Etruscan feast was a sacred occasion, and Fufluns presided over the thing that made it run: the wine.

On bronze mirrors, he appears young, wreathed in ivy, sometimes holding a drinking cup. His name on the Piacenza Liver places him among the gods whose will haruspices sought in the sectors of the sky. The alternate name Pacha appears in some inscriptions, though whether it designates a separate aspect or simply another way of addressing the same god remains unclear.

The Etruscans were among the earliest wine producers in Italy. Their amphorae circulated across the western Mediterranean. At sanctuary sites in southern Etruria, worshippers left miniature vessels and grape offerings, asking the god of the vine to keep the harvest coming. Fufluns governed the crop that filled the cups and the cups that filled the tombs with painted celebration.