At the origins of Laùro, the Salento nightmare sprite

There are those who see in Laùro Salentino, even starting from the etymology, the descendant of the ancient Lare, the Roman domestic spirit. But more generally the points of contact with other supernatural entities of the Mediterranean tradition stand out, from the Nightmare to the Munaciello, from the Genius Cucullato to the Telesforo.

di Gianfranco Mele

Cover: Depiction of three Geni Cucullati on a Roman font from the XNUMXrd century, bas-relief.
originally published on LaVocediMaruggio.it

In his well-known pictorial representations of the Nightmare, the man of letters and painter Johann Heinrich Fussli, which defines itself "Official painter of the devil", paints a sleeping woman with a frightening dwarf resting on her belly, and a ghostly mare appearing from behind a curtain. Whenever one writes about the popular Salento sprite, one of Füssli's famous works is borrowed, in the absence of other representations. This artist was born in 1741 in Zurich but moved in various stages of his life in different European cities, settling there temporarily: Berlin, Paris, London, Rome, and finally London again. Curiously, his works recall our "laùru"Both in the appearance and characteristics of the nightmare, and in the constant presence of an equine figure. The horse is also an animal linked to the stories of Laùro Salentino (as is known, among the domestic environments this sprite prefers the stable, e "Braids the horses"). Obviously there has never been any relationship between Füssli and Salento: but theIncubus it has similar representations in every part of the globe, and in the English folk tradition the horse is the animal that nightmares of the night use as a means of locomotion to reach their victims.

«Last night we talked about it, and tonight he came, he had a wide mouth and he was grinding his teeth, and his teeth were like many pins, and he spoke in an incomprehensible language». These are the words of my friend Salvatore, in the 80s, on the following day when we had evoked in our memories the stories about the figure of the Laùru. The dimension in which it appears, as we know, is that of the dream, but, often, through a dream so vivid that you feel like you have really lived the experience, and to be said, in fact, l'ho visto and not simply I dreamed it.

JH Fuseli, Nightmare, 1791

Sigismondo Castromediano, as for Joseph Gigli, this kind of elf is a sort of re-proposition, even from an etymological point of view, of home Roman, spirit of the house. From the point of view of its characteristics, it represents a mixture of different mythological figures of antiquity: in short, it is a syncretic figure that summarizes traits common to faunus,  The genius of the place, To lari,  larva, and to other minor entities and deities.

As for its appearance, Gigli describes it as follows: "it is well made, harmonious in its small parts, has bright and black eyes like mulberry-brown fruits, long and curly hair, and is dressed in very soft velvet. , and his head is covered with a very charming Calabrian hat ». For the Castromediano: "small little, hunchbacked, with slightly marked legs, he is hairy all over his person, he covers his head with a small wide-brimmed hat and wears a short tunic buckled at the waist".

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This figure is sometimes depicted with a human aspect, but also with the appearance of a cat, a demonic child, a jester. It can be a benevolent spirit, but also malevolent and terrifying, depending on the circumstances and the likes or dislikes he feels for the host. If we look for similarities with the descriptions of the ancients, it is the home home of comedy Aulularia (Pot of Gold) of Plautus, which looks like this:

«You will want to know who I am. So that nobody remains with this curiosity, I will explain it to you in two words. I am the domestic Lare of this dwelling from which you have seen me come out; home that I have occupied and have lived in for many years, since the time of the father and grandfather of the one who owns it today. Now his grandfather with fervent prayers entrusted me with a treasure, hidden from everyone: I buried it in the middle of the hearth, begging me to keep it.».

In fact, it guards treasures, protects the house, can give wealth (but also broken pots), can scare. How theIncubus of the ancient Romans it rests on the belly and takes your breath away, it is a figure similar to other demons like FatusFatuclus e Inus, depicted with a conical cap which they sometimes lost while frolicking. Petronius, in Satyricon tells of the stealing of the cap from one of these demons: "I don't know for sure, I just heard it, but rumor has it that he stole Nightmare's cap and found a treasure in it».

Our Laùro, if you can take off his hat, begs to return it to him, cries, despairs and promises treasures and other riches in exchange for his headdress. Like Roman nightmares, she can convey bad and terrifying dreams or even try to force sexual intercourse on women. It may appear in the form of a cat, like some Egyptian deities also known in Greek mythology as Ailuros. Legend has it inhabitant of old houses, stables, oil mills, countryside.

Physically, and in many other respects, it has many similarities to it too Telesphoros, deity of small stature depicted as a child or a dwarf with a hood - under which curly hair hides - son of Asclepius. This figure has an Etruscan equivalent, and in this case it is the accompanying person on funeral trips, also has a Celtic analogue, and appears in connection with the cult of Asclepius around 100 BC. He is considered by some scholars to be god of sleep, demon of wholesome dreams, god of convalescence. But according to others, Telesphorus is a funeral genius, the bearer of eternal sleep: in the representations of him, is holding a costumes which is linked not to medical science but to the reading of the book of Destiny, and often holds a lantern in his hands which serves to shed light in the darkness during the journey in which he accompanies souls.

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The figure of Telesphorus is superimposed on that of Puer Lanternarius o Servus Lanternarius, a slave-child who had the task of shedding light on the master of the house but whose representation was also placed to protect the burial, and was also interpreted as functional to shedding light in the world of darkness, in the same way as the funerary genius Telesphorus . Numerous Gallo-Roman statuettes depict the Cucullati geniuses, hooded sprites in the guise of both children and old people, considered auspicious symbols of fertility and prosperity but also of protection from disease and the evil eye, associated with Telesphorus.

In our folklore the Laùru is also identified as lo spirit of a dead man of violent death or of a dead child who has not received the sacraments, just like the Roman Larva, and like the Larvae it can terrify. Like the Lares, however, she protects the house. In Avetrana still today some families are convinced that they have "lu ziu Laùru" in their house, where "ziu" indicates the spirit of a deceased ancestor. The Familiar Spirit in the guise of an elf is also present in the testimonies of witchcraft (in particular English), and is "assigned by the devil" to Witches. Giuseppe Gallo from San Marzano tells us that this figure also belongs to the oral tradition of Albania, with the name Lauri, and in this case it would be a little genius who prefers ponds.

Notoriously, the elf family it is very numerous and has different names from region to region: in Versilia there is the Linchetto, in Friuli the Pamarindo, in Val d 'Aosta the Orchon, in Emilia the Mazapedan, Ciappin in Lombardy and Piedmont, the Crookedleg in Bergamo, on Quagg in Brescia, on Massarol in Belluno, on Weigh it in Mantua, to then arrive at the Troll Scandinavians, ai Kobolds Germanic, ai Domovoy Russians, etc. etc .. In southern Italy the elf is also called Monachicchio, Monacieddu, Scarcagnulu, Scazzamurrieddu. Each of these goblins has its own peculiar traits but also many characteristics in common with its "relatives" from other regions or nations or parts of the globe.

Lararium, House of the Vettii, Pompeii

In some countries the Laùro is called Uru, in others AuruIn some areas of Bari and Taranto it is said AvurieAgurie, Aure, and this acts as an etymological claim to assimilate all the voices (including "Laùru") To a Latin origin Augurium. THE'Augurium is the result of the questioning of the divinities carried out by specific priests, the Greetings. The two different etymological proposals appear at first sight also excluding each other, and therefore: Gigli and others that make it derive from Lar, Larva etc., they are wrong, or they are right, and therefore whoever makes derive from is wrong Augurium? In fact, as we have seen, this sprite bears striking analogies with Lares and similar beings; while it would seem not comparable to the figure ofAugur, as such a figure is a priest of ancient Rome who had the task of drawing auspices by interpreting the flight of birds: therefore not very comparable to the "Laurieddhu". The key is in the fact that Lares ed Greetings have an affair! According to legend, the order of Greetings would have been created by Romulus, who together with Remus is the home par excellence (the two brothers are in fact celebrated as i Lari protectors and founders of Rome); furthermore, the Greetings they were decisive in the choice of the foundation of a city, and in this choice one had to come to terms with the The genius of the place of the place where it was built.

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The direct derivation of the beliefs about Lauri from those relating to the spirits of the deceased in antiquity, as well as in the physical and character aspects of Laùro that can be assimilated to the various figures mentioned above, also in some greeting orations:

«Bonasera to Gisu Cristu
Bonasera to the Madonna
Bonasera allu Laùru of them cases ...
hunted him badly, and lu merci cu trasi»

(A variant that does not differ much is: «Bonasera Madonna meje, Bonasera Gisu Criste meje, Bonasera also to you, Aùre de casa; 'u male cu jèsse, e' u bene cu trase! ").

The above verses surprisingly resemble the prayers contained in the rituals in honor and devotion of the Lares to which, invoked in a single formula together with familiar Genes, Penates, and the deities Ianus, Iuppiter and Vesta were asked for protection, luck, prosperity, health and happiness for the family and for the home.

Bronze statuette depicting a Genius Cucullatus discovered in Picardy (France). The bust is removable and reveals a phallus hidden inside.

Bibliography:

Joseph Gigli, Superstitions Prejudices and Traditions in the Land of Otranto, G. Barbera, 1893

Titus Maccio Plautus, Aulularia

Gianfranco Mele, Maurizio Nocera, Magic in Salento, Verri Edizioni Fund, 2018

Angelo Parisi, The elf, eBook (date and publisher unknown)

Antonella Lattanzi, Legends and folk tales of Puglia, Newton Compton, 2006

Joseph Gallo, Ce ke bese Laureti? Do you think the elf exists?, Adriatica Editrice Salentina, Lecce, 1999

Margaret A. Murray, The Witches in Western Europe, Middle Earth Editions, 2012

Armando Polito, The "laùru", or diabolical etymologies ... Terra d'Otranto Foundation, website, 2013

Gerhard Rohlfs, Vocabulary of the Salento dialects, Leave Ed., 1976

Karoly Kerényi, Telesphoros. Zum Verständnis etruskischer, griechischer und keltisch-germanischen Dämonengestalten, in Egyetemes Philologiai Kozlony, LVII, 1933

Maria Grazia Carriero Art and ethnographic research: the laùru: the places, the encounters, the testimonies, Progedit, 2018

Joseph Cassano, Old ràdecheMandese Publisher, 1989

Adriana Antal, A god of convalescence. Telesphorus / Genius cucullatus in Roman Dacia, Acta Musei Napocensis, 51/1, 2014

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