In the suburban vicinity of the ancient Locri Epizefiri and the current archaeological area, the existence of an ancient cave and a source of water supply has been identified in the Fallò district of the Municipality of Sant’Ilario dello Jonio (RC) on the site already known to the inhabitants of the place with the name of ‘Joppo fountain’. From the moment of the discovery of the ancient cave – which took place and made known in 1953 – a silent blanket that lasted over half a century fell on the cave of the ‘Joppo’ fountain: the testimonies remain preserved in the archives of the ‘Soprintendency to Antiquities of Calabria’ and the scientific community inevitably loses its memory. The rediscovery of the cave now leads to new reflections and for the first time the architectural survey and the critical study on the typological aspects and on the possible functionality are offered. The particular conformation of the artificial cave dug into the depth of the rock, with a long corridor that introduces through an opening with an ogival vault to a circular domed chamber, with an axis niche that housed the simulacrum of the cult deity, is unknown to the typology of the nymphaeums as we know from the testimonies of the caverns so far studied, in Locri, of Grotta Imperatore and Grotta Caruso and from the clay models of Hellenistic nymphaeums coming from the latter. However, the presence of a source associated with the cave and the location of the cave in an extra moenia rural site evoke the image of the Nymphs, minor deities, personification of sources and springs, who preside over the rituals of purification and passag e of the female sex. (from παρθένος to νύμφη), the cult of which was widespread in Magna Graecia and especially attested in the Locrian area. This could be, but we are not sure, the cultual context to which the cave refers. In the absence of other data and finds, we can only rely on the possible meaning of some of the few, but essential, elements constituting the current state of affairs: the niche for the display of the simulacrum, the underlying basin-washing basin for the ritual, the water games arising from the various nozzles on the perimeter walls and from the bottom of the niche are all elements that make this cave a sacred place certainly also connected to the cult of spring waters.
KEYWORDS: Ninfe, grotta, culti delle acque, santuari in grotta, sacralità delle acque, Dioniso, ninfeo.
