The Rasna (Etruscans) & Death



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Board: Etruria
Topic: Etruscan Views on Death 
Topic Editor: Fabrisia Fabius
Topic Description: quote from D. H. Lawrence's 'Etruscan Places' pub....

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Message: The Rasna (Etruscans) & Death
Author: - Tuscus Sempronius, Patron 
Date: Mar 22, 1999 15:16
      From the Rasna viewpoint, the continuation of life seems certain: surely 
      no one would bother with the careful burials and the elaborate grave goods 
      left for both inhumations and cremations if there were no belief in life 
      continuing after bodily death. What's less clear to me is whether these 
      are actual prerequisites of immortality; if so, then only the well-to-do 
      or upper classes could afford them, and achieve immortality. Do the dead 
      need this preparation in order to be immortal, or is this simply a help to 
      them along the way, and also a memorial to their physical lives (as burial 
      customs continue to be for us)? 
      I keep thinking of the Egyptians. Is there somewhere, as yet undiscovered, 
      a Rasna "book of the dead," with instructions for the soul of the newly 
      deceased on what to expect? The presence of the figure of Vanth and others 
      with the deceased suggests that there were guides for the dead, and/or 
      judges. 
      Some of the tombs around Sovana (Etr. Sveama), show a "false facade" at 
      some distance from the actual entrance to the tomb, as if to confuse and 
      mislead the would-be tomb robber. 
      Mika Waltari, near the beginning of his novel THE ETRUSCAN, implies that 
      there were rituals or ceremonies which could confer immortality. 
      But what intrigues me in particular is the apparent Rasna belief that 
      their culture and civilization would die out after ten "ages" or saecula, 
      each the length of the life of the oldest person born in that age. There 
      are various independent historical references to a particular saeculum; 
      the soothsayer who predicted Caesar's assassination was according to some 
      accounts a Rasna, and Caesar's death supposedly occured in the 8th or 9th 
      saeculum. The whole "ten ages" thus could have lasted perhaps 800-1000 
      years, from perhaps 900 BC to 100 AD. There were still Rasna soothsayers, 
      and apparently speakers of Rasna, a few hundred years into the Christian 
      era. But I've found no evidence that shows any survivals later than about 
      500 AD. 
      How enthusiastically the Rasna lived; how casually the dead recline on the 
      sarcophagi covers, as if death were only a brief interruption in the 
      feasting and the celebration of the good things of life!








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