Religiousness in the ancient world: Sicilian sacred places connected to ancient civilizations

Religiousness in the ancient world
Sicilian sacred places connected to ancient civilizations

Already in the Stone Age, the symbols linked to earth fertility trace the points of a Sicilian map amply populated by sacred places and figures, especially feminine ones, to whom prayers and propitiatory rites were dedicated. The places testify the continuity of the rite and of the site, which often maintains its identity of territory connected to the sacred, even throughout the centuries.

One of the most popular worship that connects Sicily to the other Mediterranean territories certainly is the one linked to Demeter. Sicily, in line with tradition, is the sacred island of Demeter and her daughter Kore. She receives the island as a wedding gift from Zeus; according to the most accredited interpretation, here she is kidnapped by Hades, the dark god of the dead, in a wonderful meadow that expanded till the mount where the city of Enna rises, along the shores of the Pergusa Lake.

Demeter and Kore are also the goddesses of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the «mysteria» whose presence is largely attested by the sources and the myth. The establishment of the «mysteria» is identified with the famous “Inno to Demetra” attributed to Homer.

The goddesses linked to Sicily and repeatedly recurring are three: Athena, who had chosen Himera as the place of election, Artemis who loved Syracuse and Kore at Enna, who always holds the leaders and continuity of the presence, prior even to the other two goddesses, with the rituals of fertility for the earth and men. On the feminine deities of indigenous Sicily previous the worship of Demeter and Kore, mother and daughter (Ceres and Persephone in Latin tradition) – goddesses symbol par excellence of female deities in the island – the hypotheses advanced by scholars outline a particularly rich context, in this case identified with the areas of Casteltermini and Polizzello, where there were the sicani shrines dedicated to the worship of the goddess.

On the other hand, Demeter and Hera were in Gela, a rhodium-Cretan colony where the worship of these two goddesses has been attested since the archaic age. The worship of Demeter was also practiced on the Acropolis, the most important sacred area of the cities, and not only in the numerous extra urban sanctuaries, such as the sanctuary of Bitalemi, where pagan worship was replaced by the Christian one, in the church dedicated to the Madonna Of Bethlehem. The Matrice of Gela as well represents another case of “feminine” religious continuity, by revealing part of the base of a temple consecrated to Hera and realized between the VI and IV centuries BC. In the medieval age, it has been replaced by the church of Santa Maria Della Plateia, in turn included in the church of Maria Santissima Assunta in Cielo, today’s Chiesa Madre, between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. It is always in Gela where, in order to honour Demeter, women offered the goddess food, flowers, necklaces, vases overturned on the ground, so as to make the offers inside them slip under the ground, where the goddess lived.

But the worship of Demetra is also found in Selinunte where, not far from the Acropolis, on the hill of Gaggera, the so-called “Demetra Molophoros” sanctuary was identified, built on the site of an ancient indigenous cult and also attended in the Punic era, as testified within the “Grande Tavola di Selinunte”; in the site of Monte Adranone in Sambuca di Sicilia there was a small sanctuary dedicated to Demeter and Persephone; in Catania, as witnessed by Cicero in the “Verrine”; in the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento five areas were consecrated to the goddess, but also in Piazza Armerina, Morgantina, Camarina, Eloro, Adrano, Comiso and the Aeolian Islands.

Within the “Sicily Sacra Network” project, therefore, we intend to promote an itinerary that leads to the discovery of sacred places, myths and traditions linked to the ancient civilizations that have marked the island over time, in order to rediscover the cultural and religious roots, between continuity and renewal.

Archaeological and religious itinerary:

Agrigento – Archaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Temples

Aidone (EN) – Morgantina and Aidone Museum

Calatafimi (TP) – Archaeological Park of Segesta

Erice

Gela (CL) – Acropolis Archaeological Area (Molino a Vento)

Giardini Naxos (ME) – Naxos Archaeological Area

Island of Mozia / San Pantaleo (Marsala) – Tophet of Mozia

Lipari – Museum and Archaeological Park

Marettimo – Hiera Nésos

Noto (SR) – Eloro Archaeological Area

Palazzolo Acreide (SR) – Akrai Archaeological Area