A — documented

Pantàsema

Lazio · Abruzzo · the Marche · Central Apennines and the Adriatic
Central Apennines: Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo. Documented localities: Jenne (province of Rome), Grotti di Cittaducale (province of Rieti), Torre Cajetani (province of Frosinone), Monti Cimini

Pantàsema — not a creature but a festival effigy, a gigantic female figure carried in procession and made to dance.

The Pantàsema, a gigantic female effigy held up by a person hidden inside, carried in procession and made to dance among the houses of the central Apennines.

Variants and dialect names: Pantàsema, pantasima, pupazza
What is told: Not a creature but a festival effigy: a gigantic female figure carried in procession and made to dance, built on a frame held up by a person hidden inside.
What it was forthe author’s reading: Calendar rite of ritual begging and of the loosening of order, with the mask invading public space.
Where it is attested: Rites still alive and with fixed dates in several municipalities of Lazio: it is the best documented rite of the group in Lazio.
Caution: It is the finest case in the atlas: phantasma produces in Abruzzo a demon of sleep paralysis — the Pantafica — and in the neighbouring area a festival effigy. The same Greek word, two opposite destinies.

The grade says how well the entry is documented, not how interesting it is. How the grades are assigned.

In the same area

AMazzamurellothe Marche, Abruzzo, Umbria — Monti Sibillini and inland Abruzzo, with a diffusion reaching as far as Sardinia APantaficaAbruzzo, the Marche — Inland Abruzzo and the Marche; the belief covers the entire peninsula under different names ALupe menareAbruzzo, Molise — Abruzzo, all four provinces, and Molise BLengheloLazio — Castelli Romani: Marino, Genzano, Albano, Colli Albani BLa Sibilla appenninicathe Marche, Umbria — Monti Sibillini, Marche side, comune of Montemonaco (province of Ascoli Piceno): Monte Sibilla (2,173 m) and Lago di Pilato BIl drago della ValnerinaUmbria — Castel San Felice, a hamlet of Sant’Anatolia di Narco (province of Perugia); abbey of Santi Felice e Mauro, on the bank of the river Nera

Related by theme

Entries that share the motif, the phenomenon behind it or the history of their collection — not the geography.

AMamuthonesSardinia — Mamoiada (province of Nuoro), Barbagia di Ollolai BMammadragaSicily — Sicily, the Palermo area and the centre-west ATarascaFrance — Tarascon, on the left bank of the Rhône (Bouches-du-Rhône), lower Provence CFojoncoEmilia-Romagna — Apennines between the Secchia and the Panaro, provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena

← Back to the atlas of Italy