GEOMYTHOLOGY IN ANCIENT SOUTH ITALY

A Xenon Group stemless cup in Geneva is decorated with an image of a monstrous bird, for which there is no convincing parallel in ancient art. Finds of fossils in Apulia may have inspired the representation. Skulls ofHoplitomeryx, a ruminant of the Miocene period, for example, are quite commonly found in theterra rossasoils in the limestone fissures and caverns of northern Apulia (Daunia). Monstrous creatures based on fossil finds may have become part of local mythology in Daunia, and relevant images are traced in the Early Iron Age (Daunian stelai) and as far back as the Neolithic cave-paintings of Apulia. The cup was probably made in Metaponto for export to Daunia. If the image indeed shows a figure from Daunian mythology, a high level of cross-cultural knowledge on the part of the cup’s maker has to be assumed. The depiction of unexplained monsters on some Apulian red-figured vases may be part of the same phenomenon and would supply evidence for Italic influence on the mythological beliefs of people living in the Greek cities of South Italy.