PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

Pavel Titz, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic
Indian statuette in Pompei: Indian Inkling of What?
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The unique archaeological site of ancient Pompeii for two and half century attracts the
attention of scholars. It offers us with extraordinary broad and complex picture on one side and
fascinating details on the other of the ancient community both material and mental life, not
excluding its religious attitudes. This allows us to analyze ancient Pompeians religious
“tuning” on different levels and in well defined contexts. Revealing of sacred structures like
temples, precincts, street altars or sacred symbolism publicly displayed is richly balanced with
the assemblage of lararia placed in the shade of particular houses as well as their inner
decoration in form of frescoes of mobile objects. Most of these were in use or in vogue in the
moment the city died in AD 79. Recent excavations look also for information on the ritual
praxis preserved in votive pits and their deposits. Among many beautiful objects found in
Pompeii shines the ivory statuette of Indian provenience. This wonderful female nearly naked
statuette excavated in 1938 was indentified with goddess Lakshmi, Indian counterpart of
Roman Venus – the city of Pompeii deity. The statuette encourages the scholars to speculate of
Rome`s connections with the Far East and the way it reached Campanian shores. Above this
question and the subsequent idea whether the Pompeian owner of the statuette could
understand or at least suspect its innermost Indian or Indo-Roman message I call into question
our modern indentification. Is it correct? Is it Lakshmi?
Maria Luisa Tobar, University of Messina, Italy
Wed 16 th , 18.20, Classroom 6
Il teatro come addottrinamento religioso: la Madonna della Lettera in Añorbe y Corregel
A partire dal XVI secolo si sviluppa in Spagna un sottogenere teatrale, la comedia de santos,
che ebbe una grande popolarità soprattutto nel Seicento e Settecento e che aveva come
principale scopo quello di addottrinare le masse attraverso la messa in scena di storie esemplari
che suscitavano devozione e inclinavano il pubblico all’esercizio della virtù. Tra le varie
commedie che si basano sulla agiografia di santi siciliani o su episodi legati al contesto
siciliano, abbiamo scelto per la nostra analisi l´opera del presbitero Tomás Añorbe y Corregel
il quale, nella prima metà del Settecento, scrive una trilogia dal titolo: La tutora de la Iglesia y
Doctora de la Ley. La prima delle tre commedie presenta il tema della presunta Lettera scritta
da Gesù al re di Odessa Abagardo, mentre le altre due prendono spunto dalla Lettera che la
Madonna avrebbe scritto ai messinesi.
Pekka Tolonen, University of Turku, Finland
Tue 15 th , 11.20, Classroom 6
False prophets and corrupt clergy. Drawing the Boundary of Sacred in the Early Thirteenth
Century Southern France
800 hundred years ago, in 1209, a crusade or religious war was launched within the Western
Christianity against the “infidels” in Languedoc, Southern France. After thirty years of warfare
peace was concluded and nobility of Northern France established its power on the area. The
first hearings of inquisition are known from the 1230s. From its scattered sources it is possible
to have a perspective on the religious life of the time and place. There were different religious
groups living side-by-side or competing or waging war against each other. Ultimately at stake
was, as it was then understood, the salvation of individuals and communities. The