In the post-September we had analyzed a thirteenth-century fresco with its mysterious three-headed Madonna Enthroned on the facade of the abbey church of San Pietro to Perugia.
Now, you could tell me: "curious fresco of the Madonna with three heads, yes. But what to do with the Greek goddess Hecate? "
As I explained in speaking of the Franciscan witchcraft, both in this blog in the book, we moderns have an idea of \u200b\u200bmedieval society misleading not only because the men who are no longer arose between us, but because it is no longer under our eyes their visual landscape. The Abbey of St. Pietro in Perugia it is a case in point, now subsumed by the sixteenth century walls and surrounded by the post-unification building speculators [ photo below], the Benedictine monastery there is more for what it was in the beginning, ie a body block surrounded by impenetrable vegetation, but it seems like a urban church, surrounded by monuments and gardens of a city hungry, hungry for space, a city that knew nothing of the Perugia of the Middle Ages, and a fortiori their Etruscan ancestors.
1100 meters. So was near the original church of St. Peter the Etruscan walls, to the point that until the early Renaissance, the abbey still stands alone in the middle of a thicket on top of Monte Capraro . But because it was built in 900 AD in a place so desolate, even named the first cathedral [ outside the walls ] di Perugia Let's assume for a moment that this corner of the acropolis, now a slave to the traffic, not so much a stranger in Perugia Etruscan site ... We are meeting John Feo, a scholar of Etruscan studies against and ancient customs.
" At the end of the Age 'megalithic', the Etruscans and the Celts were the people who preserved and spread in the West the ancient traditions concerning the Sacred Grove. [...]
However, it was a sacred grove to be the largest place of worship and the central symbol of the Etruscan tradition, and a prestigious center of the forest Lucumonis annual meeting of the twelve confederate cities, impregnable garrison for the defense and magical protection Etruria . [...]
could still find other amazing 'coincidences' between the Etruscan and the Celtic tradition, but here, all you need to have hinted at such prospects in mind only the most accepted etymology of the word is traced back to the greek Lucumone Lukos (forest) and then the Lucumone would be really a 'priest of the woods' as the word druid, from the greek Druze (oak), could be translated as' priest the oak wood '. "
See G. Feo, Gods of the earth: the underworld of the Etruscans, pp. 101-105.
It is very likely that, if this place was sacred from the age old, Lucumone Perugia held here in the area of \u200b\u200bits ceremonies, in the middle of the forest that still encircled the medieval church with its three-headed Lady frescoes. Not know in detail the Etruscan pantheon, the Romans have wiped out from history and its lack of a mythology we preclude any possibility of giving a name of pagan ancestor that curious Madonna trifronte. To pull a magic superstitious tradition to another, so we need to do almost a leap of faith, relying on the filter of medieval credulity that chthonic traditions such as the Italian and Etruscan imagery mingled easily the greek-roman tradition. In the world there is a precedent greek symmetrical Madonna of St. Peter, and that is the goddess Hecate, who was not only three-headed (to symbolize the three phases of the moon) but there was also sull'Oltretomba. Attribute so, especially in the italic version, the figure of Hecate came increasingly to coincide with the practice of magic and his cult was soon associated with sacred groves, such as Alverno adjacent to the lake in Campania, the scene of witchcraft rituals dedicated to her .
Since the main function of Monaco in the early Middle Ages was to subtract the countryside and forests are charged to the front, fighting superstition and witchcraft, the existence of this abbey would be fully justified.
But if it is evident that the place where he later rose Abbey of St. Pietro in Perugia was immersed in the vegetation, and if it is not unlikely that in this forest have the Etruscan priests officiating rites of Perugia, There is a third element, the underworld and the attribute of the goddess of the Underworld of Hecate, who still fail to associate with this fresco of the Virgin. Where the abbey was built with the fresco of the Madonna with three heads was originally a dense forest, ok, but how about instead of the subsoil and the mysteries of the hereafter linked to Hecate, goddess of the underworld?
The answer is of course underground, or rather, below the level of the present church.
Yes, because it is time to get down in the basement of the abbey of St. Peter to find a cell used for worship in the early Christian centuries, centuries before the erection of the monastery ...
the next post!
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