ABSTRACT
The ‘Mother of God’ exhibition at the Benaki Museum included an entire section devoted to an exceptionally famous image, the Hodegetria of Constantinople, whose cult developments were excellently outlined in the catalogue by Christine Angelidi and Titos Papamastorakis.1
Here, as a kind of gloss to their work, I should like to draw the reader’s attention to some circumstantial evidence of the renown of that miracle-working icon in other parts of the Mediterranean world, in order to stress its striking adaptability to differing historical and geographical contexts. A photograph taken near a shrine devoted to sa Itria (the corrupt southern Italian version of Hodegetria) in the hills near Gavoi in inland Sardinia well illustrates this point (Fig. 26.1). This remote place, whose village festival is held yearly in July with extended feasting and drinking, does not house any ancient image; devotional practices consist exclusively of participation in fairs and public rituals and seem haunted by persistent echoes of an ancient past, as indicated by the proximity of the church building to a prehistoric menhir entitled ‘Our Lady of the Good Path’ (Nostra Signora del Buon Cammino), a rough translation of ‘Hodegetria’ (Fig. 26.2).2
So the question is: how should we interpret the curious relationship between this genuine folkloric manifestation and its noble Constantinopolitan ancestor, the most holy Hodegetria?
