The sexy mermaids in Val d’ Orcia

The sexy mermaids in Val d’ Orcia

Everyone knows about the Andersen mermaid but here in Val d’ Orcia we have sexy mermaids with two tails and posing in a provocative position

Near Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda and Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino, in southern Tuscany, it is possible to find the luring-mermaids. Here are the instructions for a very enjoyable cultural experience. The most famous luring mermaids are at Pieve di Corsignano in Pienza, in San Bartolomeo in Montefollonico and in the archaeological museum in Pienza which has just opened. The latter is an urn made of a type of stone that when wet smells. Found in Cretaiole. Such mermaids are found also on the handles of Etruscan vases found at Poggio Tolle della Foce. So in prehistoric times up until Romanic times the mermaid with two tails appears often in Val d’Orcia and always in a provocative pose. Well mermaids have always been known as temptresses, remember Ulysses? The local one has her finned legs wide open and her feminine groin well in view.

But who is this luring mermaid from the Val d’ Orcia who surpasses civilizations, religions, and even the new millennium by being re-proposed from Etruscan times up until medieval times?

According to Elemire Zolla, Silvio Bernardini and Iris Origo it is a pagan god of

fertility who survived into Christian times in a farming ambit. A bit like the “tirso dionisiaco” at the ”festa di Santa Maria ad Lamulas” in Arcidosso. In fact for the luring mermaids it was also thought that they recall Dionysian rites.

So here is a nice adventure, a mix of sacred and profane, legend and archaeology: discovering the luring-mermaids

If you like you can even buy one, as the church called San Bartolomeo in Montefollonico has now been transformed into a ceramic laboratory and the artist who works there has created many splendid objects in terracotta representing this subject.

Who would you give a luring mermaid to?

 

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini