"Making the Etruscans come alive for us today, Nancy Thomson de Grummond is an archaeological detective, piecing together evidence from representations in art, from archaeological sites, and from indirect accounts of Etruscan lore in Greek and Roman texts." "She opens with purely Etruscan material, beginning with their stories of the prophets and ending with their very particular view of the Underworld. She probes the relationship between myth and ritual, revealing what myth tells us of Etruscan attitudes about politics and in particular about their society." "In addition to dozens of text figures the book includes a unique CD with an extensive archive of more than 220 black and white and color illustrations of mythological figures, of the utmost importance as primary material for studying Etruscan myth, given that we have no Etruscan texts. The fully annotated images are drawn especially from the polished bronze mirrors the Etruscans engraved with hundreds of scenes from mythology. The latter feature inscriptions that provide crucial evidence for identifying the gods and the principal themes."--Jacket.