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Subject: BMCR 2013.09.20 Fabiano on Braccini, La fata dai piedi di mula
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BMCR 2013.09.20 (http://www.bmcreview.org/2013/09/20130920.html) on
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Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.09.20

Tommaso Braccini, La fata dai piedi di mula: licantropi, streghe e
vampiri nell'Oriente greco.   Milano:  EncycloMedia Publishers, 2012.
Pp. 127.  ISBN 978887514336.  €12.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Doralice Fabiano, Université de Genève ([log in to unmask])

This book is a concise sourcebook on Byzantine folklore, a topic
Tommaso Braccini has already treated in a more scholarly way.1 (#n1)
Instead of providing a comprehensive list or the basic translations of
the Greek sources, Braccini presents rather the ancient stories in a
fresh and attractive way, making the book very accessible to
non-specialist readers, in keeping with the series. All the references
mentioned in each chapter are available at the end of the book (in the
section “Fonti e approfondimenti”, which also includes a bibliography
of modern works). This book focuses on the fantastic and daemonic
creatures of Byzantine folklore, particularly those whose origins can
be traced back to classical Antiquity. The persistence of this
heritage in the Greek Middle Ages suggests a strong continuity between
ancient Greek religion and Byzantine beliefs, despite the apparent
distance between these two worlds.

In ten short chapters (introduced by a “Premessa”), Braccini explores
the world of the exotikà with its supernatural and dangerous beings
that are literally thought to “come from outside”, living at the
borders of the human and Christian community (p. 15). They may be
considered as an image of “otherness” in Byzantine culture, but, as
Braccini argues in his “Premessa” (p. 17-18), these creatures may also
be considered as esotikà, that is “coming from inside”, though anyone
may meet/encounter them in daily life. Braccini draws attention to the
fact that many creatures we find in Byzantine testimonies were already
present in the ancient Greek sources, but they were interpreted as
daemons within the new Christian perspective (p. 15).

The chronological parameters of the research are not explicitly stated
and the period taken into account seems to be very broad: the author
considers late ancient testimonies as the apocryphal Saint John’s Act,
usually dated to VI c. A.D., as well as more recent authors (the most
recent is Leone Allacci who lived in XVII c.) and their relationship
with modern Greek folklore. The order in which ancient texts are
discussed is not chronological, but thematic: every chapter focuses on
a single figure of ancient folklore (vampires, witches etc.).

In the first chapter, the physical nature of daemons is taken into
account, such as it is exposed in the Testament of Solomon, a
pseudepigraphical work ascribed to King Solomon. One may describe it
as a sort of handbook of demonology that probably goes back to Late
Antiquity. The second chapter, one of the most interesting ones in the
book, is devoted to the ancient statues and their magical powers; it
deals with the Byzantines’ relationship to the classical past of their
city, as well as the new meanings attributed to memories and ruins
from the past.2 (#n2)

Pagan statues were often considered as alive and treated as magical
objects; they could have a malevolent influence especially during
conflicts. In the third chapter, Braccini approaches a fundamental
issue in the field of the history of religions with the stories
concerning sacrifices (especially human sacrifices) offered to
strengthen the bases of a crumbling building whose construction was
impeded by evil deeds. Such stories with the victims of the sacrifice
becoming a sort of “protective spirit” for the building, called
stoicheia (p. 45), obviously reminds us of the story of Mastro Manole,
analyzed by Mircea Eliade in his Commentaries on the Legend of Mastro
Manole (Bucharest 1943) and thus provides a precursor for this
wide-spread theme in the Balkans. Unfortunately, Braccini does not
mention the works of Eliade, which would have been of great interest
to his inquiry.

Nereids are the main characters of chapter 4 (“Le passioni delle
Nereidi”): these dangerous and beautiful female creatures, related in
particular to water, may be either benevolent (by giving musical
skills to mortals), or malevolent (by killing or kidnapping newborns
or young people). For Braccini, these daemonic creatures are the
direct descendants of the Nymphs of classical Antiquity (p. 51; his
discussion is however too concise, such that the relationships between
ancient divinities and medieval daemons remains obscure). Chapters 5
(“Le trasformazioni di lamie e draghi”), 6 (“L’appetito delle
streghe”), and 7 (“L’invidia di Gello”) take into account many other
daemonic female beings, such as Lamia, Gello, and the witches
(strigai). All these creatures shared similar characteristics, such as
their metamorphic abilities and their inclination to anthropophagy.
Above all they were considered to be very threatening towards newborns
and children, causing their deaths and/or the
deaths of their mothers in childbirth. In this case, the parallels
with ancient “daemons” such as Gello, mentioned by Sappho, or Lamia
are particularly striking, as Braccini remarks.

Chapters 8 (“I dodici giorni dei kallikantzaroi ”) and 9 (“I furori
dei licantropi”) are devoted to masculine supernatural creatures of
various names, kallikantzaroi, babutzicari, but also kynokephaloi (a
kind of werewolf or anthropophagous ogre). Kallikantzaroi and
babutzicari were ugly daemons – more naughty than bad – who wandered
the earth during the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany.
Children who died untimely or were born during these twelve days could
become Kallikantzaroi. Braccini posits that these creatures may have
some links with the mask parade of the Kalendae that was usually
accomplished at the beginning of the year. Chapter 10 (“La vitalità
dei morti”) is entirely devoted to a particular kind of creatures that
Braccini considers to be the ancestor of modern vampires, 1 (#n1) the
vrykolakes. The reader may be surprised to learn that ancient vampires
were not fond of blood, but they were rather some kind of zombies.
Their body, after death, did not
undergo the normal process of decay: for this reason, vrykolakes were
not “enough dead” and they wandered among living beings, causing
different kind of trouble, even death. The incorruptibility of their
corpses was explained as a result of excommunication during their
lives. Braccini rightly points out that this kind of belief was an
instrument of power for the Orthodox Church, which exploited the
ancient and widespread tradition of the restless dead to strengthen
its power.

To sum up, Braccini’s book is a very useful one, because it treats the
rarely explored field of Byzantine folklore. The non-specialist reader
(a definition that in this case includes the great majority of
scholars in Classics) will find in this book a sort of handbook of the
Byzantine imaginary, as well as a lot of very useful and precise
references to the Byzantine sources, otherwise not very easy to find.
Moreover, Braccini’s book will make Classicist scholars, especially
those interested in the history of religion, well aware of the
continuity one may find between the beliefs of Classical Antiquity and
those of modern Greek folklore (explored well in old-fashioned books
such as that of Lawson3 (#n3) ) passing through the Greek Middle Ages.
Nevertheless, some important references to modern works are missing
(such as Eliade in the chapter on the stoicheia, or Meuli and
Cocchiara in the chapter on the mask parade Kallikantzaroi): it would
have then offered a wider discussion
on such complicated and problematic categories as “daemons”,
“survival” and “continuity”. But here the problem may be with the
collection of the publication whose public is too wide to allow for
such debates.


** Indice
------------------------------------------------------------

Perché Pan non muore – introduzione di Maurizio Bettini, 7
Una premessa, 15
I volti dei demoni, 19
I volti delle statue, 35
I sacrifici degli stoicheia, 45
Le passioni delle Nereidi, 51
Le trasformazioni di lamie e draghi, 59
L’appetito delle streghe, 69
L’invidia di Gello, 73
I dodici giorni dei kallikantzaroi, 81
I furori dei licantropi, 93
La vitalità dei morti, 101
Fonti e approfondimenti, 117


Notes:

1.   Braccini is also the author of Prima di Dracula. Archeologia del
vampiro, Bologna, Mulino, 2011, a work that traces the origin of the
vampire back to Byzantine folklore.
2.   For this topic see also James, Liz. “‘Pray Not to Fall into
Temptation and Be on Your Guard’: Pagan Statues in Christian
Constantinople.” , Gesta 35.1 (1996): 12-20 and Flood, Finbarr Barry.
“Image against Nature: Spolia as Apotropaia in Byzantium and the dār
al-Islām.” The Medieval History Journal 9 (2006): 143-66.
3.   Lawson, John, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: a
study in survivals, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1910.

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