Hinthial is an Etruscan Goddess who is shown with Turan,
the Etruscan Aphrodite. On an engraved mirror-back, Hinthial is shown with Turan,
Munthukh, and Zipu attending
to the ornamentation of Malaviskh, who it appears
is being prepared for a wedding. Hinthial stands behind Malaviskh and holds
a mirror while the other Goddesses see to Her hair and makeup. Hinthial is draped
in a heavy cloak that hides Her contours, unlike Munthukh and Zipu, whose chitons
are quite transparent. She wears a heavy wreath and appears to be older than
the other attendants, much as Turan on the right-hand side does. The mirror
She holds is a little puzzling as it does not seem to be pointed in a useful
manner regarding the preparations being made on Malaviskh; about the only thing
Hinthial could be doing with it is looking at Her own reflection.
Her name, however, lends an ominous note to the scene of anticipation:
it means "Ghost", "Shadow", or "Apparition". Related
words are hinth, "below, beneath; relating to the Infernal regions",
hinthiu "underground, infernal", and hintha "seized
by a vision". On another mirror an Underworld scene is depicted which shows
Turms Atias, or Infernal Mercury (the Greek Hermes Psychopompos, who guides
the soul to the Underworld) with the soul of the seer Tiresias, who is labelled
Hinthial Terasias, "the Ghost of Tiresias". "Hinthial" is
also used as a word for the ghost or spirit of the individual that every person
possessed; perhaps this was the Etruscan equivalent of what the Romans would
call a woman's juno or a man's genius. After death, this
hinthial or shadow-form could return and cause trouble if not given offerings.
If this has any bearing on Her picture on the Malaviskh mirror I do not know
how to interpret it; even given that She is heavily draped and standing in the
background Hinthial does not seem at all foreboding, and the presence of a ghost
or shadow of the bride does not seem appropriate to the rest of the scene.
Then again, perhaps that is all wildly overinterpreted: the woman
with the mirror may simply be looking at her reflection, which was just one
more meaning of the word hinthial.
