\f1 \fs22 The Latin authors were unanimous in describing the Etruscans as a <<highly religious people>>, expert in
the art of divination. In fact they had an extensive religious literature, now unfortunately lost forever. There was a set of strict rules governing worship and the interpretation of the divine will. It is possible for us to get some idea of what these w
ere through brief Latin translations and such extremely rare Etruscan relics as the Zagreb mummy, the Piacenza liver, and the Capua tile. We also know that the Etruscan faith was a revealed religion, based on prophecies attributed to Tages and to the nym
ph Vegonia. Among the early Etruscans the divine always appeared in a very vague manner, with regard to both appearance and functions, and it is reasonable to suppose that there was originally a single divine being that manifested itself in a multitude o
f ways, assuming different connotations. \par
A transformation of the Etruscan religion took place between the eighth and fourth century BC. New deities were imported into Etruria from \b \cf4 \ATXht103 Greece\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 ; the indigenous ones took
on human form and gradually inherited the characteristics and functions of the gods of classical Olympus. The Etruscans paid particular attention to the world of the dead, giving tombs the appearance of the dead person's earthly abode and filling them wi
th furniture, household objects, clothes, jewelry, weapons, food, and drink. In fact they believed that in some way the mortal remains of the deceased survived in the place where they were laid to rest. As Etruscan civilization waned, it was their religi
on that exercised the greatest influence on the Roman world.\par
