Popluna: una dea sidicina in vesti greche

Abstract

In the territory of ancient Teanum, the sanctuaries of Fondo Ruozzo and località Loreto have returned in fragmentary form two cult statues which, at a distance of fifty years between them, offer different images of the Sidician goddess Popluna. In Fondo Ruozzo Popluna is represented as a Greek goddess with a pig according to the Demeter model (late 6th century BC), in località Loreto as a standing figure with children on her shoulders according to the local model of the kourophoros (mid-5th century BC). The diversity of the two images is generally explained through the evolution of the Sidician culture towards an increasingly autonomous indigenous identity. In contrast to the interpretation of cultural phenomena in an ethnic perspective, the article explores the possibility that the representation of Popluna in Greek guise testifies the will of the Sidician élite to extend its network of relationships in the direction of the Tyrrhenian coast controlled by the powerful Hellenic city of Kyme.