Tanaquil: etruská žena v Ríme kráľovského obdobia
Résumé
Queen Tanaquil, wife of the Roman king Tarquin the Elder, was the daughter of a powerful Etruscan family. Her prophetic skills allowed her to install Tarquin as king and Servius Tullius, her favourite, as Tarquin’s successor. This female character may be subject to different approaches, from the various perspectives of sociology, gender studies, historiography, Etrusco-Italic religion and narrative structures. As an Etruscan woman, she was said to be expert in interpreting celestial prodigies, but her portrait does not provide an accurate representation of the status of women in Etruria. Scholars have noted structural similarities between Tanaquil and the goddesses Mater Matuta and Fortuna. The episode in which Tanaquil announced from a palace window that Tarquin had appointed Servius as regent calls to mind the Near Eastern motif of the “Goddess at the window”. Finally, after a hovering eagle had taken off Tarquin’s cap and replaced it carefully upon his head, Tanaquil, sitting by her husband’s side in a carriage, prophesied that he would become king. This scene is strikingly reminiscent of the prodigy involving an eagle (or several birds) that occurred to Gordios: the poor peasant was counselled by a seeress, whom he then married, and later Gordios or his son Midas, standing on a chariot, was proclaimed king of the Phrygians.