Furore - The Symbols and the Districts -

Symbols are certainly a useful key to understand the spirit of a community. For this reason it is very interesting to try to understand symbols and signs, especially focusing on the most significant ones from a local history and culture stand-point. Their meaning always points to something beyond the surface emerging out of the complexity of the collective imagination and having multiple values that not always can be explained in one way only. With this premises, we can point out the most significant symbols to understand the ancient Terra Furoris.

The Column, present in the escutcheon and in the Commune banners, represents strength, wisdom and beauty. The psychoanalysis also gives it a phallic meaning. Undisputable is its strong expressive value, as testimonial of masculinity of a town where the demographics have always shown the supremacy of men versus women. This is confirmed in the spoken language that uses in masculine form words originally created in a feminine form. It is the case for words such as 'o ppaste, 'o nneve, 'o terra' (pasta, snow or land). The three districts of Furore, corresponding to the three parish churches (Saint James, Saint Angel and Saint Elijah) are represented by three escutcheons: the Donkey, the Female Cat and the Cicada, symbols that even though coming from heraldic forms and fairytale traditions, might also have a psycho-sociological meaning.

The Donkey, standing on his posterior legs, refers to Priapo, the fecundity god. The Greeks depicted Dionysus riding it, while the Romans depicted him as following the Goddess Cerere. In Furore the two Gods of the classic world have surely a place.

The Female Cat, for psychology, the female cat is the Feminine animal by excellence, and is always associated with the Goddess Diana, remaining a symbol of freedom and life attitude in difficult situations (the Furore Rock is definitely not easy).

The Cicala, finally, is the symbol of spirit immortality, of life after death. In ancient China they used to put in the mouth of the death a jade charm shaped like a cicada. It magnificently represents the life vision and essence of the people from Furore, despite any other possible different interpretation.