Traces de mémoire, représentation, tradition, religion : un fondateur est né.

This paper dedicated to the figure of the founder hero aims to reconstruct the most widespread line of development in foundation tales : probable traces of distant historical memories, through which the community chooses to represent itself, constitute self-identification and self-representation faced with the ‘other’ element of the community-group, often through ethnic mechanisms. The community identifies and represents itself to the others in selected forms and so receives the sanction of religion, that the tradition will eternalize over the centuries through a deity whom the founder is linked to. The instrument by which therefore the community receives the religious sanction – but also ethnic, historical, and military sanction – on a territory that cannot be separated from it , at least ideally – is the founder hero for he is the common origin from which the common history of the city begins. By the blood of the founder and the link with the territory to which the community will be linked, there, the history of the community will begin and the founder hero will receive due honours, in particular through the religious rites and the sacred buildings dedicated to him (then, over time, the distinctive characteristics of the group will take form, fruit of a common life and history destined to last : the founder hero cult is a mark of essentialism).