PIA 21991 FUNERARY SYMBOLS ON THE TEMPLE DECORATIONS FROM THE TALAMONACCIO Albert Nijboer -Part-time lecturer in Conservation and Material Science (1987) at the Department of Archaeology, State University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Institute of Archaeology, 1984-1987. Introduction Since the 15th century AD Talamone, a village on a bay along the Tyrrhenian coast midway between Florence and Rome, has been associated with the Eruscan Te1amon. The derivation Talamonaccio for the hill on the opposite side of the bay, has been documented since the 18 th century. Telamon is mentioned twice in ancient historiography, once by Polybius (24-1 22 BC) who describes the battle against the Gauls in 225 BC (11, 23. 5- 3 1 .7), and once by Pliny who, in the third quarter of the 1 st century AD, describes the disembarcation in 87 BC by Gaius Marius during he civil war (N.H., Ill, 51). On the Talamonaccio,the famous 2nd century BC terracotta, decorations depicting the battle of the Seven against Thebes (Fig.1) were found in the late 19h century. The battle of the Seven against Thebes was the final stage of the family tragedy of the Labdakides, the second royal dynasty of Thebes. Seven heroes Adrastus, Tydeus, Polyneices, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaios and Amphiaraus went to Thebes to dislodge Eteocles, the brother of Po1yneices, from the throne. Amphiaraus, a seer, knew that this battle would be fatal for all of them except Adrastus. Thus Capaneus died after he fel rom a ladder while assaulting the walls of Thebes, seen on the upper level in he centre of the pediment (Fig. 1). Amphiaraus was swallowed by the erth while he flew from the battlefield, depicted in the left coner of the pediment. Adrastus, depicted on his chariot to the right of Capaneus, was saved from death by the speed of his horse Arion. The two brothers Polyneices nd Eteocles who killed each other in front of the Thebn walls are depicted, dying, with their father Oedipus and sister Iocaste on the lower level in the centre,undeneath Capaneus. The other heroes Parthenopaios, Hippomedon ndTydeus are not represented on the remains of the Talamonaccio pediment. The iconography of the pediment is well desribed by von Freytag gen. LOringhoff (1986). Myths like that of the Seven against Thebes were depicted by the Eruscans rom an early period. These myths might have been introduced, as a legnd asserts, by the Corinthian artist Demratus and other Greek artists who emirated to Eruria in the 7 th century BC A second source of knowledge of the Greek myths came from Southen Italy (Krauskopf 1974, 6 1). During he 5th century BC the Eruscans developed a preference for certain mythological themes. Some of these themes like the death of Capaneus and Tydeus and the Seven against Thebes were hardly depicted in Geece. In the 4th century BC the fratricide of Eteocles and Polyneices was added to these prefered themes. In the 3rd and 2nd century BC however depictions of the battle of the Seven against Thebes and the fraricide were mainly used on artefacts connected with death such as cinerary uns and sarcophagi. The themes were therefore part of 17