Annually on September 6, 7, and 8 the town of Grammichele in Catania Province pays homage to Our Lady of the Plan, or the Madonna del Piano. Today, Grammichele is a baroque town with a fascinating hexagonal central piazza that was built after the devastating earthquake of 1693. Its history, however, runs deep. One of my favorite examples of ancient art and the divine feminine, found in the Museo Orsi in Siracusa, is this statue of a enthroned goddess collected from an archeological site outside of Grammichele. Scholars believe that it was created between 490-480 BC, a time, they conclude, when Greek colonizers were intermingling with the native Sicel population. They’ve deduced the existence of such a cultural shift because the statue’s design reflects both contemporary Greek art, while its theme–a mother-child divinity–was representative of the sacred divine feminine of the native population. I have a feeling that the modern townspeople’s devotion to Madonna del Piano is rooted in their ancestor’s devotion to this ancient mother-child divinity… what about you?
