Per una nuova interpretazione del tridente in bronzo dal Circolo del Tridente di Vetulonia

These notes aim to give a new interpretation of the bronze trident from the Circolo del Tridente of Vetulonia, a very wealthy burial from the beginning of the 7th century BC. The link with Poseidon and the sea is rejected in favour of the broader significance of the trident in the Ancient Near East and archaic Greece as symbol of the thunderbolt, the weapon of the storm god. The same interpretation for the Vetulonia trident is consistent with our knowledge of Etruscan religion, with a reference to the uncertain meaning of the Latin word bidental.