Etruscan votive female head 3rd C. BCE
"A fragment of Theopompus, preserved in Athenaeus, refers to this (12.14):
'It is a law among the Tyrrhenians that all their women should be in common: and that the women pay the greatest attention to their persons, and often practise gymnastic exercises, naked, among the men, and sometimes with one another; for that it is not accounted shameful for them to be seen naked. And that they sup not with their own husbands, but with any one who happens to be present; and they pledge whoever they please in their cups: and that they are wonderful women to drink, and very and some. And that the Tyrrhenians bring up all the children that are born, no one knowing to what father each child belongs.'
Etruscan women, though, are not singled out as being sexually non-exclusive, and earlier in the passage Athenaeus notes a fragment of Timaeus who wrote that in Etruria “the female servants wait on the men in a state of nudity.” It would be naive not to presume the meaning of this to be that they were also sexually exploited. These characteristics are all portrayed in a negative light by the Greek authors.
Some of the points, however, are demonstrably false. Firstly, countless inscriptions uncovered throughout Etruria show both patrilineal and matrilineal decent were recorded, with the former almost always to be found with the latter being less common, though still present."
-taken from ancientworldmagazine link below
-Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists 12:14
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| Etruscan votive female head 3rd C. BCE, terracotta. Current location: Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art. |
Source:
https://digital.library.fordham.edu/digital/collection/Hist/id/127/
Quote:
https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/lucretia-archetype-etruscan-promiscuity/
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