to build further hypotheses. In regard to religion, too,
we are still very much in the dark. For example, there are many Etruscan
works of art in which Roman deities are portrayed, as is certain from
the fact that their names accompany the figures; but it is as yet almost
impossible to determine how far we can use these for the interpretation
of Roman religious ideas or legends. Many years ago a most attractive
hypothesis was raised on the evidence of certain of these works of art,
where Hercules and Juno appear together in a manner which strongly
suggests that they are meant to represent the male and female principles
of human life; this hypothesis was taken up by early writers in the
_Mythological Lexicon_, and relying upon them I adopted it in my _Roman
Festivals_,[15] and further applied it to the interpretation of an
unsolved problem in the fourth _Eclogue_ of Virgil.[16] But since then
doubt has been thrown on it by Wissowa, who had formerly accepted it. As
being of Etruscan origin, and found in places very distant from each
other and from Rome, we have, he says, no good right to use these works
of art as evidence for the Roman religion.[17] The question remains open
as to these and many other works of art, but the fact that the man of
coolest judgment and most absolute honesty is doubtful, suggests that we
had best wait patiently for more certain light.

In Rome itself, where archaeological study is concentrated and admirably
staffed, great progress has been made, and much light thrown on the
later periods of religious history. But for the religion of the ancient
Roman state, with which we are at present concerned, it must be
confessed that very little has been gleaned. The most famous discovery
is that recently made in the Forum of an archaic inscription which
almost certainly relates to some religious act; but as yet no scholar
has been able to interpret it with anything approaching to
certainty.[18] More recently excavations on the further bank of the
Tiber threw a glint of light on the nature of an ancient deity, Furrina,
about whom till then we practically knew nothing at all; but the
evidence thus obtained was late and in Greek characters. We must in fact
entertain no great hopes of illumination from excavations, but accept
thankfully what little may be vouchsafed to us. On the other hand, from
the gradual development of Italian archaeology as a whole, and, I must
here add, from the study of the several old