Mirror with engraving of Calchas. Vulci. Late 5th century B.C., bronze. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.&n

Mirror with engraving of Calchas. Vulci. Late 5th century B.C., bronze. Gregorian Etruscan Museum. 

“This famous mirror shows an elderly haruspex intent on examining the liver of a sacrificed animal for drawing auspices from it. The Etruscan inscription describes him as Kalkhas, that is the mythical Greek soothsayer Calchas represented here in the Etruscan iconographic version with the attribute of wings, a clear characteristic that underlines his function of go-between between earthly and transcendent reality. The foot placed on a rock is to be noted. This is a fundamental action in the divining process by the haruspex who in doing this establishes contact with the earth as the site of the natural sphere and of the underworld.” (x)

[id: photo of circular bronze mirror described above, which is engraved with an image of the soothsayer Kalkhas examining a liver. end id]