Popoli del lupo e del picchio. Il ruolo degli animali nella «mitologia» dei popoli italici

Massimiliano Di Fazio

Abstract:

The contribution deals with the populations of central Italy in pre-Roman times, and in particular with the role that animals played in what we might call, in a certain sense, their 'mythology'.
Literary sources (in particular the so-called ‘ver sacrum’ tradition) offer insights into the 'totemic' role of certain animals in the ethnogenetic traditions of these cultures. Fantastic animals also appear on some representations on pottery and metal objects, mainly weapons, where they sometimes interact with warrior figures; these scenes seem to suggest the existence of heroic or fantastic tales, although interpretation is not straightforward due to the lack of direct literary sources. An anthropological approach to the issue allows us to take a few steps forward and suggests some lines of interpretation that may be tested by further studies in the future.