Is Charun's hammer still used by Catholic priests?

Author: * Sin UtNapishtim - 12 Posts on this thread out of 21 Posts sitewide.
Date: Nov 27, 2004 - 15:31

This image of Charun, based on the fresco from the Francois tomb, from Jim Penny's website, The Mysterioous Etruscans, clearly shows his hammer. Penny adds: "Note the hammer, which is used to strike the victim on the head. The last rites performed by Etruscan priests included tapping the forehead of the deceased with a small hammer. This ritual is carried on to this day in the Vatican. On the death of a pontiff, his forehead is tapped three times with a small silver hammer."

Not only the Pope! This stirred memories (not false ones, I hope) from my Irish-Catholic childhood, where I would observe a priest tap his little silver hammer on the forehead of my dead grandfather, and years later, on my father's. Have others witnessed this rite, and can testify to it?

Penny does not cite a source for his claim that Etruscan priests performed the same rite for the dead. Can anyone verify it?

Finally, doesn't the X of crossed lines on Charun's signature weapon help confirm that it's a hammer, not an axe? Does this X represent cords used to tie the hammer-head, be it stone or wood, to the handle?