The Sexuality of the Etruscans explores the enigmatic civilization of the Etruscans and their remarkable approach to love, the body, and desire.

Tarquinia is a small town located about 1.5 hours from Rome and, thanks to its vast Etruscan necropolis and world-famous museum, is considered the capital of Etruscan civilization, a pre-Roman people who inhabited Central Italy. Their culture and lifestyle strongly influenced the Romans, who conquered Etruscan territories starting in the 4th century BC, leading to their complete Romanization by the 1st century AD.

Etruscan culture remains a mystery to archaeologists, and the necropolis of Tarquinia represents a unique treasure, offering insight into daily life in ancient Etruria. During this tour, you will visit the Monterozzi Necropolis and its museum, unveiling fascinating aspects of these ancestors of Roman civilization.

Ancient sources provide striking testimonies of Etruscan sexual customs, including the famous account by Theopompus of Chios, a Greek historian and rhetorician born around 376 BC, who wrote in his Philipic Histories about the freedom and openness of Etruscan society. He described a culture in which sexuality was lived without moral judgment, where relationships between men were widely accepted and where beauty, youth, and the body were openly celebrated through rituals, grooming practices, and social gatherings.

For the Etruscans, sexuality held an importance equal to that of culinary art. They were renowned gourmets, known for their elaborate banquets that foreshadowed the lavish feasts of Ancient Rome, and they lived in a state of complete sexual freedom. Food, death, and love were deeply intertwined themes in the Etruscan worldview, frequently depicted in funerary art.

Tomb paintings, frescoes, and archaeological artifacts provide abundant representations of amorous scenes, including explicit homoerotic imagery, from naked athletes in gymnasiums to unequivocal depictions of male same-sex relationships.

Among the most significant archaeological sites revealing this imagery is the Tomb of the Bulls, located within the Monterozzi Necropolis in Tarquinia. This tomb contains one of the most important pictorial cycles of Etruscan art to survive, including some of the most well-known erotic scenes. On the back wall of the main chamber, two sexual relationships are portrayed: one homosexual and one heterosexual, the latter depicted as a ménage à trois involving two men and a woman.