The images you'll see as you scroll down to the current text are all part of the story telling in my novel, Realms of Gold:Ritual to Romance.


Bianca Caldwell, pen name, Bianca Fiore, is a writer for an art magazine. In each of her monthly stories she describes an object used in ancient ritual.

Etruscan gold fibula

A gold fibula (a clasp used with clothing) was made by the Etruscans in the 7th centuryBC. It is in the British Museum in London.
Photograph:A gold fibula (a clasp used with clothing) was made by the Etruscans in the 7th centuryBC. It is in the British Museum in London.


Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum

Etruscan Gold necklaces from Camposcola Necropolis, Vulci.





Gold necklaces from Camposcola Necropolis, Vulci. The top has 9 animal motif pendants, the other 7 discs of mythological scenes (Hephaistos forging Achilles' helmet, Hippothéon suckled by a mare, Troillo slain by Achilles), mid-4th century BC, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco.

Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont.

Etruscan Gold Praeneste Fibula


The Praeneste Fibula 

This brooch is inscribed with oldest known latin inscription, which reads: "Manios med fehfhaked numasioi" (Manius made me for Numerius).




















7th century BC, Museo Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini, Rome. Photo by Pax Vobiscum.

Etruscan Gold Reel

Reel with representations of Pegasus and Chimaira, probably an ear-stud. Gold with filigree, granulation and stamping decoration, early 4th century BC, Louvre Museum, Paris. Photo by Jastrow.

Etruscan Gold Ring

Etruscan Gold Ring, late 4th or early 3rd century b.c.; Late Classical or Hellenistic

Estrucan Gold Achelous Head Pendentive

In Greek mythology, Achelous was the patron deity of the "silver-swirling" Achelous River, which is the largest river of Greece, and thus the chief of all river deities, every river having its own river spirit.  Homer's reference was interpreted as making Achelous "prince of rivers".

Achelous head. Pendentive of an Etruscan gold necklace, ca. 480 BC.

Etruscan Gold Pin With a Mistress of the Animals (potnia theron)

Etruscan. Louvre. Gold pin with a Mistress of the Animals (potnia theron). Gold with granulation, ca. 630 BC. Jatrow, 2008.

In ancient Greece she became the mixoparthenos, and in more recent times she was called the melusina or melusine in France.  See the Melusina Slide Show below: