Editing Charun (section)

==Function==
[[File:Staatliche Antikensammlung etruscan Charun 500BC 01 1.jpg|thumb|Charun, 500 BC, [[Staatliche Antikensammlungen]]]]

[[Larissa Bonfante]] and Judith Swaddling have this to say about Charun:  "Many scenes feature the two purely Etruscan underworld demons, Vanth and Charu, whose job is not to punish the dead but rather to escort them to their final destination."<ref>Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling. ''Etruscan Myths''. [[University of Texas Press]], 2006. p. 33.</ref> However, there are at least two examples, on the sarcophagus of Laris Pulenas as well as a red figure stamnos from Orbetello, that do illustrate Charun in a menacing fashion.<ref>del Chiaro, plate XLVII</ref>  Each depicts Charun threatening a male figure with his hammer.

The grotesque nature of the depiction of Charun appears to have been at least partly [[Apotropaic magic|apotropaic]] in nature. Apotropaic art was the practice of the neighboring Greeks at this time, as represented by the exaggerated eyes painted on drinking vessels in the 6th century BC to ward away spirits while drinking or the monstrous depiction of [[Medusa]] whose image was said to turn men to stone. Through these images of the grotesque, violence, and blood-letting, the Etruscans may have believed that they helped to fend off evil spirits from the tomb as well as sanctify the tomb perhaps in place of the actual ritual sacrifice of an animal usually performed in funerary rites.<ref>[[Arnobius]], II, 62.</ref>

Nancy de Grummond offers a different view. The relief on the sarcophagus of Laris Pulenas at [[Tarquinia]], shows two Charuns swinging their hammers at a person's head, though the head (probably that of Pulenas, the nobleman whose sarcophagus it is) no longer survives in the relief due to an accident of preservation. Years later, in the [[Colosseum]], a Charun-like figure called [[Dispater]] would hit the loser with a hammer to make sure he was dead, perhaps in reflection of Charun.<ref>Starr, 451; de Grummond, Chapter X.</ref> The hammer might also be used to protect the dead; it is sometimes swung at serpents attacking the deceased (as shown on the Orvieto amphora). Most often it is simply held, or the handle planted on the ground and the mallet head leaned upon ''(above)''.<ref>de Grummond, Nancy. ''Etruscan Myth, Sacred History and Legend''. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Museum, 2006, Chapter X.</ref> De Grummond notes that the ferry of Charon appears only once in surviving Etruscan art, and that some Etruscan demons are equipped with oars, but they typically use them as weapons rather than in their maritime function.