Etruscan Women
Etruscan women enjoyed remarkably high status compared to women in the rest of the Greek and Roman world.
Here, in the heart of Italy around 800 BC, a hundred years before Romulus founded Rome, women could own property, participate in public banquets, and were often shown in art and burials as equals to their husbands (if not greater).
This was the Tuscan (from the word Etruscan) home of civilized people whose art tells us they truly enjoyed life. Music and dancing played an important role in the life of these people. They are believed to have invented some instruments (like a trumpet and horn), plus various percussion pieces. From the tombstones, pottery, and wall paintings of Tarquinii, we can learn of the lively round dances of the women, plus passionate dance-games of young men and women dancing alone and together.
My area of interest comes in the known cultural exchange between Etruscans and others across the Mediterranean: particularly as a link between Egypt and Rome, providing structural continuity of culture and ways of life, as well as evidence for known changes.
We know the Etruscans passed on the art of the alphabet to the Romans, which later inspired Latin. And where did the Etruscans get their alphabet from? The Greeks, who got it from the Phoenicians, a semetic people that were precursors to the Jews, who were inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs in African mines. This alphabet was different from the script with thousands of characters, developed independently in various parts of the world. The alphabet condensed all known sounds into roughly 28 letters, and have remained incredibly consistant across vastly different language families. The Phoenicians then brought this alphabet to the Greeks, as well as through Arabia, and the rest of the world, whose spark of an invention never faded.
The cool thing about all of this is the connection between known trade, and later cultural traditions. We can trace how something like gender studies can be elucidated by looking at known communication links between various places. These ancient cultures often preserved a way of life before it was forcefully replaced by systems with violent men at the top of the totem pole of power.
Etruscans are seen as mysterious to us, since, while we know some of their words (since it uses a modified Greek alphabet), we still haven't fully deciphered the language itself. We know they were highly civilized, and once ruled over Rome, but once Rome gained power, they were obliterated from the record, as had happened with so many others. It has been estimated that 24+ cultures estimated to have been erased and assimilated by the Romans.
We know the Etruscan language and religion highly influenced Rome and Latin. Their language appears to be a linguistic isolate (and precursor), unrelated to Indo-European languages, meaning they held onto their own values in a distinct way from other surrounding peoples. We can learn from the Etruscans what life was like for other people before they were erased by Rome, but also had strong influence over Roman life (and subsequently) our own.
Let’s start by looking at some archeological material evidence of their culture to see what is familiar, and what is strange.
First, we see gender equality:
Funerary Customs:
Husbands and wives were laid side by side on equal-sized stone beds
Social Life and Banqueting:
Women were allowed to socialize in banquets and social dining events, and even make toasts (gasp!, all things Romans did not allow).
Greek historian Theopompus scandalized Etruscan women as "expert drinkers"
The famous "Sarcophagus of the Spouses" statue found in ancient Italy depicts a couple celebrating together as equals
Diverse Roles:
Beyond sewing, women were seen as priestesses, dancers, musicians, athletes, public figures who adorned themselves with jewelry and cosmetics
Some priestesses were buried together rather than with families, suggesting a professional sisterhood
Legal and Social Rights:
Women could inherit property
They retained their own surnames after marriage (unlike Greek/Roman women)
They could read and write (based on evidence)
They moved freely in public spaces
Cultural Context
Studying Etruscans (800 BC through Roman conquest around 265 BC) may reveal more to us about our own societies than we know. Just one example could be inspiration for banquets and the modern idea of familial Italian social gatherings, suggesting cultural continuity and an impression we never wanted to give up.
Scholars describe the Etruscans as a bridge between Greek and Roman Italian life, but they added their own very unique twist, even in language, seen nowhere else.
The Greek writer, Theopompus, gives us our best impression of this kind of life, describing an Etruscan dinner scene as a scandal. More importantly, his account gives us evidence of women's freedom especially by what shocked him: women drinking, socializing freely, making their own toasts, revealing a culture that had more equal values between the sexes than seen in Greece or later in Rome.
Maybe the more we learn about more ancient cultures, it may be Greece and Rome that are the oddballs.
Why Banquets Were Such a Big Deal
In the ancient Mediterranean, banquets weren't just dinner parties - they were the social and political events. This is where business deals were made, alliances were formed, people could display their wealth and power, and families would act out cultural values.
In Greece, the symposia (drinking parties) were trictly male-only gatherings. Women were only allowed as entertainers. "Respectable" women absolutely forbidden. Greek women couldn't eat with male relatives outside their immediate family. The idea of dining with unrelated men was absolutely scandalous. An in regards to making a toast, for women, this was totally out of the question. Making toasts was a public speech act, a declaration of social alliance and preference. It was inherently political. Greek women had no public voice.
In Roman convivia (banquets), women were expected to sit upright while men reclined. Later in Rome’s story, elite women could recline at dinner, but with restrictions. Women couldn't drink wine (it was actually grounds for divorce!). Women were expected to leave when the serious drinking began
The Greek historian's scandalized account gives us a treasure trove of evidence about Etruscan women's freedom. They were expert drinkers, could dine with any man, and could make toasts. What Theopompus saw as moral degeneracy was actually evidence of economic power (and invites to business dinners), freedom in social settings, a public voice, and allowwed personal agency: controlling your own body and making your own choices.
Another scandal mentioned was that children were running around freely: Greek symposia were adults-only. Children were strictly under the care of women. Men were not expected to be interrupted. Women were expected to be kept out of public view. The cultural allowance (and expectation) of children speaks volumes of women’s rights.
To him, this looked like chaos, moral decay, the world turned upside down. To the Etruscans, it was just... dinner.
The Deeper Meaning
The banquet scene encapsulates the fundamental difference between these societies:
Greeks/Romans: Saw civilization as requiring strict gender segregation and male dominance
Etruscans: Saw civilization as including both genders in social life
The fact that women could make toasts - could stand up in a public gathering and direct social attention, express preferences, create social bonds - shows they had recognized social agency. They weren't property or silent partners; they were participants.
Modern Parallels
This ancient culture clash eerily mirrors modern debates. Think about societies today where women:
Can't drive
Can't appear in public without male guardians
Can't speak in mixed company
The defenders of these restrictions often use the same language Theopompus did - protecting morality, maintaining order, preventing chaos. But we recognize these as restrictions on basic human freedom.
The Etruscans show us that gender equality in social life isn't some modern invention - it existed 2,500 years ago in Italy. The "natural" order of male dominance that Greeks and Romans insisted upon? The Etruscans proved it was just one choice among many.
That's why those toasts matter so much. Every time an Etruscan woman raised her cup and spoke her mind, she was proving that civilization doesn't collapse when women have a public voice. In fact, as your observation about modern Italian social life suggests, it might even thrive.
Egyptian Influence on Etruscan Life
If the Etruscans bridge Greek and Roman Italian life, let’s not forget the bridge from Egypt to Greece and Etruria! My own research has been focusing on how African Egyptian influence is actually quite alive in today's world, as it was during Roman’s puberty. Especially in this realm of women in power. I believe women were originally revered for creation of life, especially with the biological obscurity of fatherhood. This VERY long held ancient belief allowed women to hold power for much longer than patriarchy ever existed (like 35,000 years longer than patriarchy’s 5,000).
The evidence I’ve found shows that many cultures started as matrilineal societies, that transitioned to male hierarchy only much later, but even BEFORE the Jews and Greeks and Romans took it to a much further degree to completely hide the feminine in the divine. The evidence is astounding for this shift during Greek and Roman times, which went to the extreme in its male celebration, which trickles into extreme cults of Christianity, Islam, and modernity and women’s right’s in today’s world in a huge way.
So who can we blame this patriarchy on? That’s a whole other topic and theory, but if I were to provide a hypothesis, it would be on the material developments of the bronze/iron and weapons ages. Because what happens, also in today’s world? Someone makes an inginious design, and then… to profit, someone bring it to the weapons industry. And once everything was about power in the hands of physical strength and size, this male dominator identity took hold in cult (group think) effect.
But back to the Etruscans…
The connection between Egypt, Etruria, and the evolution of women's status across the Mediterranean is fascinating and often underappreciated.
We have to come back to the biological obscurity of fatherhood. Before the understanding of male contribution to conception, the mother-child connection was the only certain lineage, making matrilineal descent the logical system. If anyone followed a bloodline, it would have to be the mother’s, to know with absolute certainty who at least one parent was.
Egypt (and broader African cultures) maintain strong elements of matrilineal societies: pharaohs derived legitimacy through the female line. Women could rule as pharaohs, alone. (Hatshepsut, Cleopatra, etc.). Men required initiation into kingship, while women did not. Women were already divine/regal.
Then there are the Gods whose worship travelled. The goddess Isis embodied creative power and was beloved throughout the Mediterranean, including across its waters in Etruria of Italy (plus in later Rome itself, in undisguised form).
The Etruscans likely served as cultural intermediaries, absorbing Egyptian influences through trade networks and passing transformed versions to Rome. We see this in:
Religion (mystery religions, divination)
Art (sphinx imagery, certain burial practices)
Societal and Political attitudes toward women's public roles and power
Transfer of language from: Egypt> Phoenicians (proto Semetic Cannanite/Jews) > Greeks > Etruscans > Romans
Known trade links between all of these cultures for thousands of years
We have to come back to the "extreme" male celebration in Rome. The Roman patriarchal system represented perhaps the most rigid male hierarchy structure in the world, where fathers had literal life-and-death power over all family members. This dramatic shift from earlier Mediterranean cultures is striking.
The transition into Christianity is crucial here - early Christian communities actually included prominent women leaders (Phoebe, Priscilla, Junia), but as Christianity became institutionalized within the Roman Empire, it absorbed Roman patriarchal structures. The suppression of goddess worship and the elevation of male-only priesthood represents a complete reversal from earlier traditions where women held significant religious authority.
This trajectory - from matrilineal societies recognizing women's creative power, through cultures like Egypt and Etruria that maintained women's public roles, to the extreme patriarchy of Rome that shaped Western civilization - is a powerful lens for understanding how gender dynamics evolved and why recovering these earlier histories matters so much today.
Etruscan History
A quick search tells us the Etruscan civilization started around the 900 BC, then within a few hundred years gave writing to Roman’s Latin. Would it not take a lot longer for their culture to develop from nothing? How deep do their roots go? Who was in Italy before them? How were they in contact with Egypt and the Phoenicians?
Before the Etruscans, Italy was home to at least 50 well established tribes, among Umbarines and Sabines, who are better known. The archaeological evidence suggests the Etruscan culture emerged from a fusion of local Villanovan traditions with influences from the eastern Mediterranean (aka Semetic/Jewish/Phoenicians).
Villanovan culture (1,100-700 BC) - likely the direct predecessors of the Etruscans
Earlier Bronze Age cultures dating back to 2,300 BC
Egyptian and Phoenician Connections
The Etruscans were deeply connected to the broader Mediterranean world through various trade networks.
Etruscans controlled rich metal deposits (iron, copper, silver) that attracted traders
Major Etruscan ports (Pyrgi) had sanctuaries dedicated to Phoenician goddesses
Phoenicians were the master traders of the Mediterranean from ~1200 BC
The first known account of the Phoenicians is when they were defeated by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III (1425 BC). Egyptians were looking to gain a hand in their trade with Mesopotamia. This Egyptian King Tut visited Sidon (Lebanon, northern Judea) himself, a Phoenician city, to purchase lumber.
The Phoenicians directly succeeded the Canaanites, continuing their cultural traditions, even calling themselves Canaanites, though occupying a smaller area of land than was once Canaan. The division around 1200 BC between Phoenicians and Canaanites is a modern artificial construct, designating when they held the most power.
Herodotus (460 BC) wrote that the Phoenicians migrated from Erythrà Thálassa, 'Red Sea' (the area between Africa and Arabia) around 2,750 BC. Strabo wrote they came from Arabia. Modern archeology shows millenia of population continuity around Canaan, with modern day Lebanese deriving most of their ancestry from Canaan relations.
Noting some significant Ra/Ish names: (MuharRAq, BahRAIN, ARAd, ISa, RIfa, ASH Sharqi, ErythRA ThálaASSA, OROntes, TRIpoli, BeRUT, CypRUs, ElISSA, TunISIA, MaghREb, AlgeRIa, LIbya, ARAb, AfRIca, MAXItani or MauRItani)
By 1350 BC, the Phoenician cities were considered "favored cities" by the Egyptians. Commercial rivalry would last 1,000 years.
1215 BC: early foundation of Carthage formed by Phoenicians on the North African Coast recorded by early ancient sources. Qart-Ḥadašt (𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕), means 'New City'. Others push the date of founding to 814 BC, attributed to a Phoenician Queen Dido (EliSSa), who fled persecution in Tyre and started her own city. Most likely she would not have picked a totally random spot.
Quick Aside: Daughters of Dido
1,215 BC: She has been identified by modern scholars with the Virgo CaeLESTIS (Tanit), the goddess of Carthage. She is only, of course, known only through later Greek and Roman sources, written 500 years later. This put Carthage’s foundation right around the same time as Rome, alluding to a growing conflict between the two cities in his day (Timaeus).
31 BC: Queen Dido (ElISSA) was mentioned also in Virgil’s Italian nationalist poem, the Aeneid, written around 31 BC to appease the very self conscious Emperor Augustus. She is surprisingly written as a wise leader who helps the city of Carthage prosper, fleeing a brother who killed her husband. The local ruler, Iarbas, was said to have fallen in love with her, but she refused him. Virgil, however, in his poem reshaped the story to make Dido a contemporary of Aeneas, whose descendants founded Rome. She falls in love with him, and commits suicide when he leaves the city. Her dying curse is supposed to start the animosity between Carthage and Rome.
Another version from around 50 AD writes that Dido's sister ANNA killed herself for love of her sister’s husband as described as a Roman man, Aeneas.
Several scholars have identified Baa‘li-maanzer, a king of Tyre in 841 BC, with 𐤁𐤏𐤋𐤏𐤑𐤅𐤓 Ba‘al-'azor (Phoenician form of the name) or Baal-Eser/Balazeros (Greek form of the name), Dido's grandfather. I just like to note the linguistic swapping allowed with Azor and Eser.
Dido became a national symbol for TunISIA in Africa around 1908, with the women being called “Daughters of Dido”, emphasizing strong women throughout their history. Tunisia is famous in the Arab African world for its stance on women’s equality.
203 BC: She is followed by another IS named woman, SophonISba
650 BC: Al-Kahena (Damya), an Arabic Berber Queen warrior
1,000 AD: Then another badass women JEZIA El Hilali, who was a skilled horse rider, a great warrior, and a ravishing beauty.
1,190 AD: Saida (AISHA) Manoubiya broke tradition and called for women’s education and freedom.
1,669 AD: AZIZA OthmANA, a Tunisian princess, known for her good actions and kindness, earning her the nickname Aziza, which translates as “The Cherished One.”
1,936: BchiRA Ben MRAd, activist, she created the Muslim Union of Women, promoting education for women, youth and children.
2,003 AD: RAdhia Haddad, female parliament for Arab Africa, campaigned for women’s literacy, a thousand years after Aisha had done
Some suggest Dido is an epithet from the same Semitic root as David, which means "Beloved", just as “Mary” in Egyptian. Others state Didô means "the wanderer".
According to Marie-Pierre Noël, "Elishat/Elisha" is a name repeatedly attested on Punic votives. It is composed of
the Punic reflex of *ʾil- "god", which can mean the remote Phoenician creator god El, or it can be a name for God in Judaism,
and "‐issa", which could be either "ʾiš" (𐤀𐤎), meaning "fire", or another word for "woman". Other works state that it is the feminine form of El. In Greek it appears as Theiossô, which translates Élissa: el becoming theos.
Back to the Phoenician Timeline:
1200 BC, there was an unexplained Bronze Age Collapse, where the Egyptians and Hittites (modern Turkish) holdings in the area lost grip. Phoenicians navigated the crisis with political independence of its biggest cities: Tyre, Sidon and Byblos, enjoying economic prosperity. By 1,000 BC, Tyre and Israel formed an alliance (Two separate semetic groups), and the Phoenicians expanded with their own moment of colonization. In the 900’s BC, the recovery of the Mediterranean economy can be credited to Phoenician mariner merchants, who re-established long-distance trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia, even into Spain. Expertise of Phoenician artists is even mentioned in the Hebrew Bible for its construction projects of the King Solomon of Israel. Homer’s Iliad also mentioned the quality of their clothing and goods. Their Tyrian purple dye was world renowned, even illegal for later Roman citizens to wear, since the royalty wanted it for themselves.
Phoenicians established colonies across the Mediterranean, including Carthage (African coast). They also ruled the city states of Tyre, Sidon and Byblos (giving us the word Bible).
Phoenicians continued to have influence until around 150 BC, when Carthage was utterly destroyed by Rome.
The Phoenicians were long considered a lost civilization. It was not until the 1600’s when their first inscriptions were discovered, and not until the 1950’s when historians acknowledged them as a complex and influential civilization.
Its name is referenced in Egypt in obelisks as the "land of fnḫw" (meaning carpenter in Egyptian).
fnḫw (Egyptian) > po-ni-ki-jo (Mycenean Greek)> phoînix, φοῖνιξ (later Greek) > Poenī (Latin, possibly) > Phoenician
Phoenicians were known for their lumber. Egyptians bought raw lumber and their native papyrus to make the paper for the bible, which was then sold in Byblos).
Rivalry between Egypt, Turkey (Hittites), and lands near Judea (Mittani and Assyria) had a significant impact on Phoenician cities.
Alexandrian Takeover of Phoenician Empire
332 BC: Phoenicia was one of the first areas to be conquered by Alexander the Great the Great, who added Egypt to the larger realm of Greek Control. Alexander's main target was Tyre, who gave in only after 7 months of brutal siege.
Tyre refused to allow Alexander to visit its temple to Melqart, culminating in the killing of his envoys, led to a brutal reprisal: 2,000 of its leading citizens were crucified (a common Roman punishment) and a puppet ruler was installed. Sidon surrendering peacefully.
Something interesting to note, as the Greeks took over lands through Turkey and the Middle East and Africa, they often “Hellenized” the names, or changed them to sound more Greek. However, the Phoenician city-states retained their native names. Greek administration seems very limited.
When Alexander died in 323 BC, two of his generals, Ptolemy and Seleucus, took control of the largest territories. Ptolemy received Egypt, while Seleucus had control over the Phoenician homeland, and otherwise what we can consider semetic (coastal middle eastern/jewish lands). There were 40 years of wars between these two empires, called the Syrian wars, and the Colossus of Rhodes was built as a dedication to the sun god, built due to the help of the Egyptian forces saving the city of Rhodes from the Seleucid attempts at sacking and stealing its treasury. This was one time when the Egyptian troops were used to protect the Carian (now the lands Turkish lands, at the time with heavy Phoenician/Jewish presence).
During the Seleucid Wars (160 BC), the Phoenician cities mainly governed themselves, though many had to fight for control from members of the Seleucid royal family. Some Phoenician regions were under Jewish influence, after the Jews revolted and succeeded in defeating the Seleucids in 164 BC. A significant portion of the Phoenician diaspora in North Africa thus converted to Judaism in the late millennium BC.
For more interesting genetic studies, a study in 2006 found evidence for the genetic persistence of Phoenicians in the Spanish island of Ibiza (IZA!).
Just with that name, and before looking, I can almost guarantee there will be some cool Egyptian or female lineage stories here.
Other genetic studies show Phoenicians were mostly Canaanites, living in the area of Jordan that was once part of the lands of Israel and Judea. 93% of the genetic ancestry of modern people in Lebanon (2017) came from the Canaanites (while only 7% was of a Eurasian steppe ancestry). This kills any Aryan theories, that love to say Europeans were the cause of any progress. I like to say Jewish, proto-Jewish, when discussing the Canaanites, because they are mostly the same people also, from Canaan, who left and lived in Egypt for a few generations, then came back.
One 2018 study of mitochondrial lineages in Sardinia concluded that the Phoenicians were "inclusive, multicultural and featured significant female mobility", with evidence of indigenous Sardinians integrating "peacefully and permanently" with Semitic Phoenician settlers.
Sardinia itself is an island in the south of Italy, along the Tyrrhenian Sea. Notice the Tyre-ian root, like the Phoenician city of Tyre? Google says the etymology of "Tyrrhenian" comes from what the Greeks called the Etruscan people. The word "tyrsis" in Greek means "tower" or "walled city", which in fact is what the Etruscans had.
Other names worth noting around this sea include: SICIly, ISchia, PROcida, CapRI, UStica, LipaRI, ThESSaly (also know as MacRIS and DolICHe).
Ocha/Oche (Ὄχη), which is also the name of one of the highest mountains on the Greek island of Thessaly. Strabo writes that it took the name Euboea either by the heroine Euboea or because of a cave called Boösaule. Bous (βοῦς) means “ox”, and both preserve that Os/Is sound, and also associated with goddesses. its capital, Chalcis (Χαλκίς) or Euripos (Εὔριπος,) the name of the strait that separates the island from the Greek mainland (associated with water). In 490 BC, Eretria was utterly ruined by the Persian armies, so finding what it looked like prior is tough, if we are looking for goddess worship or anything else. it is suspected that the Titan god Crius is an indigenous deity. "krios" was also the ancient Greek word for "ram". At the time of Ancient Greece, Aries (the ram) was the first visible constellation in the sky at the spring season, marking the start of the new year. Two of Cruis’ children were Astaus and Asteria. During the European Renaissance, Astraea became associated with the general spirit of renewal of culture they were experiencing. In a famous play, Calderón has a character named Rosaura (an anagram for "dawns") take on the name of Astraea at Court. This may be a laudatory political allusion to the dawn of a new Golden Age.
Then there are the Greek island names of people who had trading markets with Etruscans on Ischia, names like EREtRIa and ChalcIS. around 730 BC: full of Phoenicians, Etruscans and Greeks.
Eubian Greeks were also known as Evia: another cool Greek island mentioned here. On Ischia they found “Nestor’s Cup”, one of the earliest uses of the Greek alphabet around 735 BC, using the Evian alphabet.
ERItRIa, a Greek city, has pottery from around 3,500 BC, but no evidence of permanent structures. A granery and kiln were found. They later were known for their temple and oracle to Apollo, the Sun god. Parts of a sculpture depict a fight with the Amazons (who give us the amazing Amazonian warrior women). A centre was protected by a large statue of Athena. Among the most interesting monuments of ancient Eretria is the Iseion, a temple to the goddess Isis and other Egyptian deities on the southern end of town. Also here on the southwest side of the city, the temple of Dionysos was found later. There are connections with the Osirian and Dionysian religions of Egypt and Greece. The city was also well known for its theater, and both Egypt and Greece loved their dramas. The temple of Isis was oriented towards the east (the dawn and rising sun). The temple was reconstructed after the destruction of the city by the Romans in 198 BC, and made even larger. A splendid house of mosaics was built in ca. 370 B.C, which was a generation before Alexander. It contains scenes of battles with griffins, sphinxes and panthers. Animals often represented cities, and we can guess the sphinx was Egyptian. Among other items found on Evia Island, is a tomb with a a dromos (entrance passageway).
Both CapRI and ISchia are islands reachable by a ferry from Naples, which was first an Estruscan port base. Ischia was inhabited in the Bronze Age, somewhere between 3k-1k BC. Greeks got there around 800 BC.
The Greeks called the island (our ISchia) PithekOUSSAI (ousi still preserves that iS sound found in the Greek Isis sounds we are looking for). And bingo: “The name has an uncertain etymology.”. Meaning, non Greek or European (preserving something older or lost).
The adaptation to Macedonian rule was probably aided by the Phoenicians' historical ties with the Greeks, with whom they shared some mythological stories and figures; the two peoples were even sometimes considered "relatives".
Egyptian Influences appear in:
Scarab beetles and Egyptian-style amulets in Etruscan tombs
Artistic motifs (sphinxes, lotus flowers)
Possibly divination practices and religious concepts
Luxury goods that demonstrate active trade
The Writing Question The Etruscan alphabet derives from the Greek alphabet (via Greek colonies in southern Italy), not directly from Phoenician. However, the idea of writing and its uses for administration and trade likely came through these eastern Mediterranean contacts.
The depth of Etruscan roots probably extends back through the Villanovan culture to at least 1100 BCE, giving them 400+ years of cultural development before they "emerged" as the Etruscans we recognize. This makes much more sense for developing their sophisticated art, music, urban planning, and maritime capabilities.
