CIRCA 4TH CENTURY B.C.

The Etruscans borrowed the scarab form for their seals from the Greeks, but typically their beetles are more decorative than their Greek counterparts. Here the artist has very carefully detailed the insect's legs, and the edge of the plinth has a dotted border above a row of tongues. This example preserves its original swivel setting, a solid tapering hoop, round in section, with conical terminals. A wire is threaded through the beetle perforation and those of the terminals, then coils back around the shoulders.

The underside depicts Aplu seated on rocks, wearing a mantle over his left shoulder and around his waist. The god displays robust musculature and leans forward, playing a four-string lyre. His bow is positioned below, interspersed with a Greek inscription reading APOLO, which microscopic examination reveals may have been added later. Were it a proper Etruscan inscription, one would expect it to read Aplu, although, as Boardman and Wagner note (op. cit., p. 92), the god is identified by an inscription as Apolo on a Praenestine bronze cista. Sangiorgi thought this to be Greek work from South Italy, but the style of the engraving and the details of the beetle confirm the Etruscan origin.