Ricerc@Sapienza

Between 1927 and 1928 two curious studies were published in Germany with an
historical-religious issue: Historische Psychologie des Karnevals by Florens Christian
Rang, and a volume of dialogues – retracing the structure of the Macrobio’s Saturnalia
– by Werner Hegemann, Der gerettete Christus, oder Iphigenies Flucht vor
dem Ritualopfer. In both texts we fi nd the theme of the “king of the Saturnalia”,
which – based on previous fragile conjectural interpretations by James George
Frazer, that hypothesized a parallel between the sacrifi ce of the roman Saturnal-king
and the crucifi xion of Christ – is interpreted as the sovereign of a carnivalesque
interregnum that subverts the order of the cosmos, and founds in this space-time
alternation a model of “closed destiny” from which man incessantly tries to escape.