of the house, both practically and symbolically — a role which links women, not only with the traditional concept of hearth and home, but also indicates her authority and control in that sphere (Bonomi & Ruta Serafini 1994). Keys and women are further symbolised in religious iconography, as we will see later. Sex The depiction of love-making, on both beds and chairs, is very graphically represented in situla art (fig. 6). Boardman wrote that "love-making has iconographie conventions like any other . . . whether the intention is pleasure, display, procreation or cult" and indeed all these explanations have been offered as explanation for such scenes in situla art. I would concur with Boardman and Bonfante that these depictions are purely secular (Boardman 1971; Bonfante 1981), rather than ritual, as suggested by Kastelic and Eibner. The scene on the Castelvetro mirror (fig. 6, 1), which, as we have seen, is for Kastelic a hieros gamos, could, perhaps, be more plausibly can be read in the form of a strip cartoon, in which a rider arrives on horseback, a prostitute is procured, with price being negotiated between a man and a woman — with the women holding up two fingers the man one — and the act subsequently carried out after further arrangements between a woman and a seated man. In all probability this was a recognisable story, perhaps related to the one about the inn-keeper's daughter still celebrated in Italian popular song, or, if we take into account the link between this and Etruscan mirrors, perhaps even some myth or legend. Even though the bed is in the form of the Urnfield bird-headed sun-boat, since the latter is such a common decorative motif, it cannot be used to interpret this as a religious image. The fact that this 'tale' is depicted on a mirror, which one presumes was a female item, is rather surprising and suggests that, either it was intended as a gift for a high class prostitute, or can be seen a rather crude allusion to sex on a gift for a more respectable woman. Whatever the interpretation, there is surely some relationship between the mirror, as an object of self adornment, and the subject matter depicted on it, which again follows the tendency of situla art to relate decoration to the function of the object. This and other depictions of love-making, rich in the sensuous detail of vibrating mattresses and pubic hair, indeed are more redolent of an earthy Italic sense of enjoyment than any religious allusion to sacred marriage. Such sexually explicit designs are comparable with Eruscan tomb painting and may reflect the open sexuality held to be characteristic of Etruscan women, which was commented on by Theopompus in the 4th century BC (Bonfante 1994). We can conclude that women may be shown in mainly subservient roles on the situlae because these were used in the context of male entertainment and festivals, but on the rattle they appear in a more productive light. The mirror, certainly belonging to someone with wealth, if not respectability, carries a more uncertain message. On Greek red figure drinking cups, objects of male use, we sometime find a duality of the representation of the hetairai and the virtuous wife, sometimes on the same cup, with the latter, incidentally, often engaged in spinning or weaving (Beard 1991: 28- 9). Female deities The representation of a goddess with the keys, as well as animals, is found in situla art on five votive plaques probably found in a hoard near Montebelluna (Fogolari 1956) (fig. 7). The figure, accompanied by both plants and animals, is, according to Fogolari, probably a fertility goddess, Pothnia theron — a Venetic equivalent of Demeter — carrying the key to both the opening of the fertility of plants and help in the birth of animals and women (Fogolari 1956). Keys, however, as we have seen, are also found in female graves in the area, where they suggest the role of women as keepers of the household, a role which may also have been sanctioned in the supernatural world (Bonomi & Ruta Serafini 1994).