CULTO E PRATICHE RITUALI NEL SANTUARIO ARCAICO DI FRANCAVILLA MARITTIMA (SIBARI - CS).

The article proposes a reconstruction of ritual practices and cultic aspects in the sanctuary of Francavilla Marittima (CS), located in the territory of the Achaean colony of Sybaris. This reconstruction is based on a systematic reconsideration of the archaeological evidence also taking account of the function of objects. What emerges from the author's research is that women played a crucial role in a ritual practice essentially centered on passage ceremonies, in which male aristocrats, however, also took part. As regards the cultic aspects of the sacred area, the author has ascertained that Athena was worshipped in the sanctuary ever since its earliest phases. In the still unproven hypothesis of a coexistence of cults, rather than identifying other deities, the author prefers to outline their spheres of influence. In conclusion, the deity (or deities) worshipped at Francavilla - promachos, potnia, and kourotrophos -presided over rites of passage to adult life and stood as guarantor of the civic order and protector of the dominant elites. This role is even more significant in this particular context, where a Greek sanctuary superimposed onto an indigenous village stood as a symbol of the Greek takeover of the area, but, at the same time, must have acted as an instrument of integration between the original inhabitants and the allogenous ethnic group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]