Gaio Giulio Solino e la mitizzazione dell’India nell’immaginario occidentale

This work focuses on the analysis of a section of Solinus’ Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium, that describes the territory and the wonders of India as a symbolic, not yet civilized space. The research starts from the analysis of a series of data on the fabulous peoples of that territory, mostly characterized by monstrous features, and on their costumes, also fantastic and completely unlikely. The Indian space conceals terrifying beings and wild animals, hides immeasurable treasures, and its vegetation is extraordinary and luxuriant. The report moves from a real historical dimension to an out-of-history, timeless perspective. Ultimately Solinus’ text reveals the mechanisms whereby Western thought has devised a "mythical" description of India, that is both attractive and terrible at the same time. The mythicization of the ethno-geographic aspect emerges powerfully to strengthen the dual devise of self- identification and exclusion of the Other, who is bound to become a subject to Western domination. Through a process of "colonization" of the imaginary, in order to justify its superiority, the culture of the classical world relocates on a figurative level the diversity and the alleged incivility of the peoples and territories with which it comes into contact.