Immagine e sacrificio. Un’antropologia storica della statuaria votiva tra Antichità e Medioevo

In Roman culture and early Christianity, discourses and practices related to human sacrifice seem to repeat the ritual pattern of devotio. This paper does not aim to support the hypothesis of direct continuity between pagan and Christian votive and sacrificial practices, or document the effective substitution of human sacrifice with a votive effigy (anthropomorphic statuette) recounted by etiological myths from the late Republican and Imperial age regarding the fests of Compitalia and Saturnalia, which acted as a counterpoint to the ban on the ritual killing of innocent victims. In order to understand the aspects of continuity and change between the two religions and demonstrate the contiguity and structural homology between sacrificium and votum, it seems more appropriate in this case to refer to the concept of redemptio – anticipatory redemption from the gods. The votive effigy is a symbolic offering which appeases their demands and at the same time dispels fear of the supreme sacrifice. In sociological terms, the votive image represents the pactional dimension of religio as a civilised modus vivendi between men and gods, while in anthropological terms, it symbolises what is at stake – human life – in the failure to fulfil the reciprocal vow established by religio. The idea of redemptio associated with vows is also found in hagiography throughout Late Antiquity, the Byzantine period and the Middle Ages. Making a vow and paying debts means being freed from the obligation to the saint – the privileged agent of divine power that presides over health and sickness, giving life and taking it away. Sickness always puts life at risk and the offering of a statuette or a votive candle – a synecdoche of the person making the vow – symbolizes the essential terms of the religious pact, renewing them in the critical circumstances of danger or suffering. The statuette or candle are the sculptural expression of recognition of the just order of the world, which needs to be put right when it is damaged by sin or diabolic deceit.