di Ernestina Cinosi
"An exceptional example of an old Italian toponym that has remained intact to this day, a miraculous survival transmitted through twenty-five centuries (…), has been ascertained at the foot of the Majella."
An old toponym that recurs in the myth, in the sacred law of the Marrucino people, in the name of the archaeological site and in the name of a wild shrub.
"The old men of the next Rapino tell that the walls belonged to a large city called Tuta. Over it reigned the fairy Maruca, daughter of Ruta, who held for amasio a beautiful young man named Tase. But three young sisters Ruma, Tatu and Sepiana loved Tase and by contrasting their youth with the magical arts of Maruca, they managed to snatch him from the fairy. Maruca then in the heat of her jealousy killed Tase and as her rivals tried to escape her vengeance, she enveloped them in sudden darkness and unleashed thunder, lightning and even rocks against them until one by one of she had killed them''. (V. Cianfarani in “Adriatic Cultures of Italy'', page 67.)
A sad story of love betrayed, of violence and revenge that seems to give us some information on the legacy of a world far away in time, perhaps the period in which a new world is about to replace the old, which however tries to resist in the desperate, violent reaction of Maruca.
Maruca, the fairy, reigned over a city next to the largest sanctuary in the area, the Hill Cave which returned, according to the most accredited thesis, the most important document in the Oscan language known so far: the Tabula Rapinensis, the sacred law of the Marrucino people, in which the term "maroucai".
The tabula, together with the statuette of an offerer called “la goddess of rapine'' and various votive offerings, confirms the Grotto's function as a sacred place.
Maruca's story tells us that she was queen (reigned over a large city), daughter of Ruta. Is Ruta a female name? Was she her mother's name? Is it possible that she was one of the last expressions of power passed down the female line?
The "beautiful young man'' that she "was held by amasio'' seems to have a subordinate role with respect to the fairy (it was held); her Paredrus? He seems to be younger than her (young boy); it seems that he fills a well-defined role, a role that gives him honour, which certainly flatters him, probably sanctioned by society and respected by its members, but which he must seriously and consciously adhere to.
When Tase's bond with the goddess is broken, Tase succumbs to the fairy's wrath. With her magical arts, Maruca also unleashes the elements against the three tempting sisters. She, therefore, has power over light and dark (it enveloped them in sudden darkness), on water and on air (he unleashed thunder and lightning upon them) and on earth (he even unleashed the rocks against them).
So Maruca is a powerful sorceress like Angizia, like Circe, like Medea…? A pharmakides? Surely she is a high-ranking woman who wields her power, who has great knowledge of the laws that govern nature, who decides her own fate and the fate of those who depend on her.
And what symbology is hidden behind the tempting function of the three sisters? Why “three''? Why do all three fall in love with Tase and oppose Maruca? Are they perhaps an expression of an era in which a new social order is gradually replacing the now precarious balances of a world that still shows signs, albeit faded, of ancient female power?
It is a story that raises questions and arouses curiosity.
Is it in this era that the law written in the Tabula Rapinensis became necessary?
Adriano La Regina writes:
"The text is irregularly engraved in the Latin alphabet and can be attributed to the end of the XNUMXrd century BC due to the shape of the letters and the presence of the letter G, already distinct from the C. The transcription presents some difficulties, but can be reliably obtained from an examination of the different graphic reproductions available. When a new examination of the original becomes possible, the reading can perhaps be improved."
And these are according to his examination the text, the structure and the translation
Text:
aisos pacris totali
maroucai lixs
assignas wounder.
auiatas toutai.
[5] maroucai ioues.
patres ocres tarin
cris iouias. agine
iafc esuc age asum
ba[-]u [-]poleenis feret
[10] regen[-] of[-]i cerie. iouia.
pacrsi. eithuam am. aten
s uenalinam . ni ta[-]a. nipis. pedi suam
Text structure
a) aisos pacris.
b) totai Maroucai lixs.
c) asignas ferenter auiatas toutai Maroucai loues patres
ocres Tarincris Iouias agine.
d) iafc esuc agine, asum ba[-]u [a]poleenis, feret regen[a]
of[t]i Cerie Iouia.
e) pacrsi.
f) eitumam atens uenalinam ni ta[-]a nipis pedi suam.
Translation
a) (the auspices taken:) the gods (are) favourable;
b) law for the Marrucino people:
c) the assigned (handmaids) Jovies of Jupiter father of the arce Tarincra
into servitude, after the people of Marrucino have taken the auspices
on them, are offered for sale;
d) let the priestess Jovia put them up for sale at the right price (?).
to increase the treasure of Ceres;
e) (the auspices taken: the gods) are favourable;
f) (the Marrucinis) have established that no one touches the money obtained
from the sale except when it has the right to do so.
The inscription dates back to around the middle of the XNUMXrd century BC and is probably kept in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
According to Valerio Cianfarani:
"It is not possible to swear on the place of discovery, nor is it possible to swear on the circumstances. Mommsen, the first or among the first to deal with the slab, confirmed with his authority the rumor that it had been found in the Grotta del Colle southeast of Rapino, deposited in a tomb with coins datable to the end of the third century. AC On the basis of these statements it was entitled "Tabula Rapinensis", but with this, inaccuracies and imprudence were committed.
The Grotta del Colle is not south-east of Rapino but exactly to the west, a circumstance of some weight for the confirmation of the bronze as a historically Marrucina area, while otherwise it should at least be placed between that and the Frentana area. Furthermore, the placement of a late Italic tomb in a cave appears very singular and even more singular, even rather incredible, would be the deposition in a tomb of a cult text that has nothing to do with it. It will therefore be prudent to suggest that the tomb and the cave, this already known from legends caused by ancient objects conveying the waters flowing from the next slopes, have been called into question as an endorsement by the owner of the bronze, found if not in the cave, certainly in the area between Pretoro and Rapino; while a correspondence of date between this find and the other one in Capracotta can insinuate the suspicion that it was the uproar caused by the events of the former that brought this one out of its obscurity, found who knows when."
According to the description of Tommaso Mommsen
"This inscription is in a small square bronze tablet of the size in which the drawing is depicted; in the upper part you can see two holes with an iron wire inside to hang it. It was found in the vicinity of Rapino (…) and mainly among the ruins said by those peasants City Danzig (…). The burial ground of this city was in the so-called Grotta del Colle (…) where under a pile of stones that perhaps made up the chest, a skeleton was found and next to it a ring perhaps of ivory and the bronze plate of which we speak; which is now in the hands of Don Ignazio di Cicco, rich owner of Rapino. (…) The bronze, although whole and little damaged by rust, is so extremely difficult to teach that its true interpretation is despaired of in some places. The characters are unengraved but very finely engraved so that they barely make an impression in the stanolo, and the bronze is scratched everywhere with a sharp tool, perhaps to smooth it before writing on it, and where it is a little spoiled by age, as in the last five lines, it is almost impossible to distinguish said lines from the real characters. So it is that I cannot guarantee that my copy did not make a mistake”. (“On the bronze of Rapino” – extracted from the annals of the Institute of Archaeological Correspondence, vol. XVIII).
The central argument of the Tabula – according to Adriano La Regina – is not a “Venditio servorum sub corona“, that is a normal sale of slaves, but the institution of sacred prostitution to increase the finances of the sanctuary of Jupiter the father. A Jovian priestess, that is of the sanctuary, who administers a particular treasure, that of Ceres, is put in charge of the question. This recalls the institution of the cult of Ceres and Venus which was particularly widespread both among the Peligni and the Marrucini [1].
The American historian Stephanie Lynn BUDIN, in her "The myth of sacred prostitution in antiquity", (New York 2008), – which we found quoted by Alessandro Bencinvenga of the University of Chieti – excludes instead that the phenomenon of sacred prostitution is never existed, attributing it to an error of interpretation of the literary and epigraphic sources and about Rapino he claims that
"There is no reason to think that Rapino's Tabula has anything to do with sacred prostitution. The word for the sacred prostitute – ancillae – is not even in the text, but was inserted by La Regina on the basis of speculation that this was a further reference to an institution which a misreading of other documents had created."
And so Alessandro Bencinvenga is led to recognize the role of wise women within priestly colleges and writes "... excluding on the basis of Budin's study that they could be sacred prostitutes ... In my opinion, the women who entered this priestly college probably received an education that included both aspects more properly linked to the cult (concerning ceremonies, rites, etc.), both practical notions which for us (Western, Christian and modern) have little to do with religion and if anything border on magic and witchcraft (such as the preparation of philters and antidotes), knowledge which at the time was considered essential to carry out their task in the best possible way and which in any case required great skill in combining together, and in the right doses, the herbs that grew and still grow on the mountains of Abruzzo and which in many cases we still take today at the end of a meal, skilfully mixed with 'alcohol, like a magic potion to aid digestion…” (from the essay “The Paelignae anus of Horace: sorceresses, priestesses or sacred prostitutes?”).
Therefore, according to this interpretation, the sacred law of the Tabula Rapinensis basically establishes that a ritual regulated by young priestesses is celebrated in honor of Ceria Jovia, in order to "increase her glory" and also prescribes, "that no one touches the exchange offer except at the end of the right rite” [2].
And this different interpretation/translation suggests some different intuition about the role of the young priestesses and the purpose of the rites.
In the "Arce Tarincra di Giove Padre", the highest divinity celebrated seems to be a female divinity, Queen Ceres of Jupiter (regen ceria iovia). Ceres is the deity who presides over the growth of the crops, she is the protector of cereals, the main food of the Neolithic communities. There is therefore an exchange of gifts between the goddess and the community. No one can touch the gift if he has not given his offering (just rite). No one can unduly appropriate what does not belong to him, which indeed belongs to the community and must be shared in it. The law does not mention sanctions. It simply seems to reaffirm a rite of gratitude towards the Earth which bestows its fruits without asking for anything in return except an attitude of sharing.
The message that seems to come from the Law appears more timely than ever: respect for the Earth is needed in order to continue to enjoy its fruits. The predatory attitude that distinguishes our economy must be abandoned.
But what mystery does the Tabula still hide behind its ruined and humble appearance? Why is a sacred law drawn up by the people engraved "very subtly" on a bronze sheet that doesn't even have enough space to contain it?
"It seems to have been written in a hurry" have quietly observed some very young students to whom the teachers had entrusted a research and reflection on the subject.
But above all, why was it written? Did the predatory character of a new order perhaps threaten the realm of Ceres, the realm of Maruca? Was it necessary, at that moment, to reiterate that there is a balance in Nature that must be respected?
Only questions, to which only the rewriting of the history of humanity from a different angle, will perhaps be able to give some answers.
Touta Marouca: the site
Maruca reigns over a city called “Tuta''. The term "Tuta", which has come down to us through a very long oral tradition, refers to the "Touto", the social and administrative unit that characterizes the society of the Samnites, the large ethnic family that includes the Marrucino people [3].
"The place is close to that Grotta del Colle [4] whence the Rapino Tablet is said to come. In that famous document in the Marrucino dialect the expression < is repeated twice >, equivalent to the Latin Civitas Marrucina; in fact, the italic Touta is commonly given a social meaning, not a place, considering it corresponding rather to citizenship than to a city. To this opinion, however, the presence of a toponym of this mountain stratum seems to offer an alternative, in which there is a very large area surrounded by megalithic walls and full of traces of a settlement - in short, what remains of a real city - and the place still bears the name of Tuta Maruca'' (V. Cianfarani in ''Adriatic Cultures of Italy'').
The fortified center of the Marrucini [5], still today named as Piana della Civita or Costa delle Prete della Civita, is also known as Civita Gdansk or Civita de Tazze. (“Tazze” is perhaps a reference to “Tase''?)
It extends about two kilometers south of the current town of Rapino, on the bald top of three hills, guarding the Rivo Secco valley. It allowed the only easy crossing of the entire eastern Majella towards the Peligna basin.
The remains of the imposing city wall are still visible, made up of large irregular blocks of limestone which extend on the steep eastern front for a length of about one kilometre, a height, in some points, of about 3 meters and a width of one meter. , a meter and a half. On the other sides, the Piana is defended by a natural overhang, and could be accessed through three ways. Some bases of huts made of smooth stone are still visible, albeit with difficulty due to the intricate vegetation.
Among other things, numerous pieces of rough and massive ceramic were found in the area which testify to the function of collection center of the Civitas: in case of danger, men and animals that lived in the wide valley below took refuge there.
Touta Marouca seems to have been inhabited until the XNUMXth century AD. c.
Thorny shrub
And finally, the ancient toponym is still used to indicate a thorny shrub, common in Abruzzo and in the Mediterranean area. Its scientific name Paliurus spina-christi indicates above all the characteristic of its branches full of very sharp thorns. It is a medicinal plant in fact its fruits in infusion have strong diuretic properties (Paliurus: “pálin” = again and “oúron” = urine, to make one urinate again), while the leaves are used in herbal medicine to prepare remedies against oily skin. Its young fruits are edible; they can be used raw in salads (they taste similar to apple) while roasted and ground they were used as a substitute for coffee in times of famine. The plant also has an ancient agro-pastoral use: in fact, its common name, marruca, derives from the ancient city of touta marouca, where this plant was used to build inaccessible fences to defend the pastures (thanks to its sharp thorns) .
The use of this plant is very ancient, in fact it seems that already in the XNUMXth century BC it was known by both the Greeks and the Romans, who called the peoples who cultivated it marrucini. The fences of these shrubs were only replaced with the advent of wire mesh in recent times.
The Marruca in some Abruzzo dialects is called vecache or bocache, a term that derives from the Greek and really means ox-stopper; in other localities it is also called tattazigne - which indicates the bronze plates of bands and musical orchestras - this definition is due to the particular shape of its fruits. And the shape of its drupes seems to have been the inspiration both as a decoration for the defensive breastplates of the Italian warriors and for the female ornaments of the time.
It blooms from May to July and its delicate inflorescences are particularly melliferous, its intense scent reminds us of honey.
With the arrival of the Christian religion, the marruca is defined as the plant used for the crown of thorns of Jesus' passion (“spina-christi”).
The use of the plant has been attested since the XNUMXth century BC. The Greeks and Romans called Marrucini, the people cultivated it, a name derived from the ancient city of Marouca where it was used to build fences for fields to defend grazing livestock. It is believed that the Marrucini people take their name from it [6].
Footnotes
[1] "It is very probable that the practice, certainly no longer in widespread use during the third century BC, was revived after the Second Punic War in central Italy, and in particular among the Peligni and the Marrucini, assigning female prisoners reduced to slavery, with the aim of restoring the prosperity of sanctuaries decayed due to the devastation of Hannibal” (from A. La Regina, 1997).
[2] With a significant form of cult overlap, even today in Rapino every 8 May the rite of the Virgins is celebrated whose protagonists are the young women of the town (between 6 and fourteen/fifteen today, but once almost adult) dressed in white and covered in family gold, or borrowed from neighbors, friends and relatives.
[3] TOUTO: "supertribal" social entity: a cohesive set of lower social cells that is structured on several levels. The Samnite state was a federal type league (not structured on city-states, but rather on the organization of the countryside in rural districts): a federation of political-ethnic parties, called "Touti". There was no federal capital: federal political meetings took place in cities chosen from time to time. Each "Touto" had a sacred locality, which served as an "administrative center", where both religious and political meetings were held, but which did not perform the true functions of "capital". Thus, each "Touto", in which there was a council and an assembly, was a republic and not a kingdom. If ever there were "kings" among the Samnites, it must have been in very ancient times. Each "Touto" was divided into many districts, each called "Pago" (from an IE root *pak- = "settle"). Within each "Pago", there were many small settlements on the plains, each called "Viko". In the major, there were common sacred places. Within each "Pago", there were also settlements on high ground, each called "Oppedon". The same, from the mid-fourth century BC, were all surrounded by polygonal walls and performed the function of territorial control. Generally, they were inhabited and assigned to collect the herds only in case of war (from D. Monaco, 2003).
[4] see on Preistoriainitalia.it, “The Goddess of Rapino and the Colle cave"and "The Goddess of Rapino".
[5] Marrucini were a small Italic people of Osco-Umbrian language, historically settled in the XNUMXst millennium BC in a strip of land along the Adriatic coast, in present-day Abruzzo. “Marrucini” corresponds to the endo-ethnonym with which the people indicated themselves, as attested by the Bronze of Rapino reporting the expression “touta marouca”, “people (cf. the osco touto) marrucino”. Giacomo Devoto therefore reads “marrucino” as an Indo-Europeanisation, through the suffix -ni, of an older pre-Indo-European term, marked by the suffix -co and adopted, already in its historical location, by that branch of the Osco-Umbrians which would have historically been characterized by use of the Marrucino dialect: the Marrucini, in fact. It would derive from the name of the very ancient center of Marruca (today Colle di Rapino) built near a sacred cave dedicated to a goddess with the same name, perhaps a local variant of the Italic goddess Marica. Wikipedia.org/wiki/arrucini
[6] Acta plantarum; Aurelio Manzi – Popular flora of Abruzzo - Ed. Carabba - 2001; Giardino della Minerva Botanical Garden (SA) – Plants. Photos and text: Daniela Di Bartolo, 22.11.2021
Ernestina Cinosi
REFERENCES
- Alessandro Bencinvenga – “Horace's Paelignae anus: sorceresses, priestesses or sacred prostitutes?” – in Anthropology and archeology compared: Representations and Practices of the Sacred – Proceedings of the International Study Meeting, Rome 2011;
- Stephanie Lynn Budin – The myth of sacred prostitution in antiquity –New York 2008;
- Valerio Cianfarani – Adriatic cultures of Italy – edited by the federation of savings banks of Abruzzi and Molise – 1970;
- Adriano The Queen – “The Tabula Rapinensis" - Adapted from The Places of the Gods – Sacred and nature in Italian Abruzzo – edited by the Archaeological Superintendence of Abruzzo – Province of Chieti – 1997;
- Theodor Mommsen – On the Bronze of Rapino – from the Annals of the Institute of Archaeological Correspondence – 1846;
- David Monaco – The Samnites – The government of the Samnites – Isernia 2003;
- AA.VV. - Border land between Marrucini and Carricini – Maielletta Mountain Community – Creative editorial realization – Torrevecchia teatina 2001.
