Bronze statuette of Vanth

Etruscan, 425-400 BC Height: 11 inches

Found near Mt. Vesuvius, Campania, Italy

Now in British Museum, London, England

Charun and Vanth: Etruscan Angels of Death

Male and female, grim and gracious, this winged pair are the death angels of the ancient Etruscans. But while Charon (to use his Greek spelling), with his bloody mallet/hammer, is the Lord High Executioner of the Underwold, grimly dispatching us from this world to the next, his female partner and assistant,Vanth, is not so terrifying. By the late 5th century BC she comes, as in this bronze figurine, to ease our pain and sorrow, to help us move on to the next world.

A big eye is sometimes seen on the underside of each of her wings, reminding us that she is everywhere and sees everything. She appears in battle scenes and at the slaughter of prisoners, to speed them on their way.

She is often seen with a scroll, a torch, a key, or a pair of snakes.

Atop cinerary urns that hold the ashes of cremated bodies, she gazes sternly at images of the deceased, and holds a scroll that, though we cannot read it, must sum up and judge their lives. In this she resembles Thoth, the Egyptian god who writes down the pluses and minuses of our lives. Unlike that ibis--headed god, Vanth comes to us as a lovely young woman, wearing a tunic, and often high boots. Like a girl cave guide, she carries a torch to light and lead the way down into the Underworld. And with her key she opens its gates. She also locks them behind us.

But if Vanth is our jailor, she is also our healer. Like Hermes, the Greek conductor of the dead, she carries twin snakes -- though hers are entwined, not around a caduceus or staff, but, like those of the Cretan snake goddess, around her bare arms. But why, we wonder, do her snakes have beards? Are they, like the serpent in our first garden, ancient bearers of underground wisdom?