Alfredo Valenzuela I Sevilla, (EFE) López Güeto has explained the transition from historical figure to myth in his study “From Poncio to Pilato” (Algaida).
“Curiously, in the world of the brotherhoods of Seville, Pilate is not seen as a hateful character, nor as an enemy, but as someone close, a secondary character but very close and evocative,” López Güeto, a professor of Roman Law from the Pablo de Olavide University, author of several books on the law of succession and the role of women in ancient Rome.
That Pilate is a myth is shown by the fact that he is in the lyrics of the Rolling Stones, that David Bowie played him in the movies, that he is mentioned in a Sevillana by Pascual González and that in addition to giving his name to the main Renaissance palace in Seville, headquarters of the ducal house of Medinaceli, has also lent its name in this city to pensions and wineries, and has even slipped into the menu of some bar in the form of a sandwich.
Few references from Roman historians
Paradoxically, Pontius Pilate is almost worshiped during Holy Week in Seville, where his image appears on the steps of three brotherhoods. One of them, Macarena, in the famous ‘Madrugá’, in addition to that of Torreblanca and that of San Benito, in which he is next to the image of his wife, which, according to the Apocryphal Gospels, although with little success , interceded for Jesus with her husband.
According to López Güeto, Pilate is “one of the most unknown known characters in history”, of whom there are barely a couple of references by Roman historians. In addition to a stone on which he engraved his name, probably the remains of a monument that, as prefect of Judea, he had erected for the greater glory of the Emperor Tiberius.
“His great obsession was to be faithful to the emperor and demonstrate that fidelity,” according to the teacher, who also points out as a historical source some coins that he minted and which, little more than small change, were a provocation, since they included Roman religious figures, which excited the animosity of the Jews.
Pontius Pilate in the Catholic tradition
If it went almost unnoticed among Roman historians, the Jews did record the rejection caused by a prefect whose discredit and political defenestration was finally due to one of his numerous repressive acts, a bloody charge against a crowd of Samaritans who, another paradoxically, it was one of the peoples most assimilated to Rome.
López Güeto has been able to confirm that, after a tenure in Judea of eleven years, which can be considered long, Pilate’s trail is completely lost after his return to Rome, which could have been helped by the death of Tiberius a few dates later.
“In his time he went unnoticed by his people, the Romans, although he was hated by the Jews, with whom he was insensitive.” “He was one more prefect and did not attract attention because that province was in itself conflictive; Hence, there are only a couple of Roman references, one of which reminds us, decades after the death of Jesus, that he had the leader of a sect crucified”, the professor pointed out.
But even in imagination, Pilate was resurrected and has been part of the Catholic tradition since the Middle Ages, when he was represented with a turban and a beard, perhaps to associate him with the enemy of the moment. Until reaching the Renaissance period, when he is represented as such a Roman, with a toga and clean shaven, and he embarks on the path towards the sympathy that is given to him in Seville -even if it is that “Sympathy for the devil” in which Mick Jagger mentions him. -. EFE