GAME PHERSU: PRO ET CONTRA

Having examined the frescoes from Tarquinia: the Tomb of Augurs, the Tomb of the Pulcinella, and the Tomb of the Olympiads dated back to the sixth century BCE that depict scenes with a personage Phersu, the author deals with Etruscan inscriptions, data of the Antique tradition about origin of scenic and gladiatorial games, as well as a number of interpretations of these scenes to prove that the Etruscan ritual ‘game Phersu’ is a prototype of the Roman gladiatorial games and ‘venatio’. Being a part of Etruscan funeral rite, the ritual game was a substitutive sacrifice that symbolised a fight of a human being against the demon of death Calu – an abductor of souls from the world of the living. The fight was supposed to be guided by an invisible and disguised power, being personified in the image of Phersu.