Le aristocrazie di età ellenistica e l’uso del mito in ambito funerario: le Tombe a Tempio di Norchia

e Temple Tombs of Norchia, pertaining to the aristocratic class probably endowed with both military and political powers, feature mythological themes sculpted in the pediments and, the Western Tomb (left), also a frieze of weapons that serves as a backdrop to the processus magistratualis of the deceased towards the Afterlife sculpted in the lower por￾tico. e Eastern Tomb (right) in the decoration of the tympanum with an Amazonomachy or a Gigantomachy recalls compositional patterns attested from the last quarter of the 6th century BC and, more so, from the last quarter of the 5th century BC. In the Western Tomb (left) the decoration of the pediment seems to depict a battle scene, probably the final one, of the Trojan War, since it shows the dead bodies of both Sarpedon and Patroclus being carried away from the battlefield by warriors. e layout of the tomb, also considering the comparison of the frieze of weapons in the portico with that in the Giglioli Tomb in Tarquinia, can be dated to the late 4th-early 3rd century BC. In more recent times, in the second quarter of the 3rd century B.C. (280-270 B.C.), the tomb underwent architectural changes, most likely consisting of the demolition of the original portico parapet and the insertion of the figures of Lasa and the three cloaked men in the frieze of the portico (plus others in the collapsed left half of the portico, of which no trace remains). e depiction of the processus magistratualis in such a context, i.e. outside the burial chamber, clearly visible to all, is intended to emphasize, in the context of the symbolic value of the passage to the Afterlife recalled by the presence of the Lasa, the eminent function of political and social leader of the community performed by the owner of the tomb.