ABSTRACT
A divine child of Etruscan mythology. One day an Etruscan ploughman was tilling a field in the neighbourhood of Tarquinii, when a head stuck out of the furrow; he uncovered the body, and found a small child, Tages, with the grey hair of an old man. Tages addressed the ploughman, who summoned his neighbours. The child was then taken to the twelve princes of the twelve Etruscan cities, who received him with great honour and listened to his teaching. His words were written down in the Books of Tages (libri Tagetici), from which the Etruscan soothsayers derived their knowledge. The chief of the twelve princes was Tarchon, who, according to some accounts, was the ploughman who unearthed Tages. The child, his mission accomplished, returned to the soil. See TARCHIES.
