Cover Sacred Women

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book € 18,00
e-book € 12,99
Formato:  ePub
series "Intersezioni"
pp. 352, Brossura, 978-88-15-38757-8
publication year 2023

FRANCO CARDINI, MARINA MONTESANO

Sacred Women

Sorceresses, Priestesses, Mystics, Seductresses

Circe was a “dread goddess with human speech”, as she is described in the Odyssey. Pythia was the high oracle at the sanctuary of Delphi and uttered prophecies by channelling Apollo. Ever since ancient times, women have been attributed magical and sacral powers. In pre-Christian Celtic Europe, the priestesses of Carnac attended to the holy bonfire at the god Beltane’s sun festival. Druidic priestesses were believed to exert powers and recite chants capable of churning the seas, curing diseases and predicting the future. In the Abrahamic religions, in which priesthood is reserved to males, women nevertheless assume an important role that was strengthened by great mystics and saints, such as Hildegard of Bingen and Teresa of Ávila, as well as lesser-known but equally fascinating figures such as Christina Mirabilis (tradition has it that she died and came back to life), and Madame de Montespan (Louis XIV’s enigmatic chief mistress). This unusual and powerful book illustrates a gallery of extraordinary women, including some from non-European contexts: Central Asian shamanesses, American curanderas and medicine women, Congolese nganga marindas, and the mythical Hindu apsaras and ḍākinīs.

Franco Cardini is professor emeritus of Medieval History.

Marina Montesano teaches Medieval History at the University of Messina and is the author of “Classical Culture and Witchcraft in Medieval and Renaissance Italy” (Palgrave, 2018).

Introduzione
I. Il Sacro, le donne e il Sacro, le donne sacre
Parole e persone
Figure del mito, figure della storia
Fede cristiana, leggi abramitiche, modelli mitici
II. Grandi Madri e dee vergini
I culti metroaci
Demetra ovvero Cibele
Sacerdotesse feroci
III. Figlie del Sole, figlie della Luna
Dea e maga
La vera madre della tragedia
Una falce di luna
IV. Virgo Mater Dei
«Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio»
Maria nei vangeli
Il culto in Occidente
V. Maria. Trionfo e paradosso
Salve Regina
Culto e repressione
Dopo la grande crisi
VI. Parlare con Dio
Mistiche medievali. Ildegarda, Caterina e le altre
Una mistica nel Siglo de Oro. Teresa d’Ávila
Nel Congo pre-coloniale. Dona Beatriz/Kimpa Vita
VII. Parlare con i morti
Evocatrici di spiriti
Psicagoghe
Sciamane asiatiche
VIII. Donne fatate. Tra mito, magia e stregoneria
Il mondo delle fate
Melusina, la donna-serpente
In volo con Diana
IX. Donne fatali
Dame carismatiche fra Antichità e Rinascimento
Da Maledette a Suffragette
Evita
In conclusione
Riferimenti bibliografici
Indice dei nomi e dei personaggi

See also

copertina Past
copertina Storia della Democrazia cristiana
copertina Neverlands
copertina Il presepe di san Francesco