La fine della "Ierodulia" femminile a Temesa magno greca nella propaganda dei locresi epizefirii

Abstract

Each year, until third decade of fifth century B.C., the inhabitants of Temesa in Magna Graecia had to offer their most beautiul virgin to the local daimon. For one night, the girl became the wife of the divine creature in his sanctuary. The ancient letterary tradition cites this ritual practice together with the mention both of the conquest of this polis by the Lokroi Epizephyrioi and the conclusion of that cultual custom. However, it is wrong, following the propaganda of the Lokroi, to associate the cultual service of the Temesan girl to the sacral prostitution which we find out at Lokroi Epizephyrioi.