Mutnuc, Hercle with assistant, and Lasa on an Etruscan bronze mirror

Abstract

This article addresses a scene on a mirror from Caere,now in Berlin, as the prelude to the apotheosis of Herakles. It suggests that theotherwise unknown inscribed name Mutnuc derives from the Latin Mutinus, thename of a phallic deity who is rendered here as Pan. Herakles’s positionbetween Mutnuc and a Siren, and the presence of one or two thunderbolt symbolssuggest that he is on his journey to Olympos.