Tuchulcha- Etruscan DemonDemon
Also known as: Θuchulcha
Description
A vulture's beak where the mouth should be and serpents knotted through the hair. One Tarquinian tomb painting is all that survives of this demon, and one is enough.
Mythology & Lore
The Tomb of Orcus
In the painted chamber of the Tomb of Orcus II at Tarquinia, dated to the fourth century BCE, Tuchulcha appears on the wall beside two heroes the Etruscans called These and Peirithous, seated and trapped in the underworld after their failed attempt to seize Phersipnai. Tuchulcha looms over them. The name is painted beside the figure in Etruscan letters.
The painting gives Tuchulcha a vulture's beak in place of a mouth. Donkey ears jut from the head. Serpents writhe through the hair. The gender is unclear; the body offers no definite sign either way. Nearby on the same walls, Charun stands with his hammer and Vanth lifts her torch, the familiar escorts of the Etruscan dead. Tuchulcha belongs among them but holds no tool and performs no service. It confronts. It remains.
No cult, no dedication, no other image survives. Tuchulcha exists entirely in this one painted room, a demon rendered on wet plaster and left to dry in the dark beside the dead.
Relationships
- Guards