Pyrrhus: hero founder and healer in Dodona?

According to a passage of Pausanias, Pyrrhus dedicated two series of inscribed shields, respectively in the sanctuary of Athena Itonia in Thessaly and in the sanctuary of Zeus in Dodona: starting from this reference we will try to reconstruct the ‘real’ intentions of the sovereign and the politics that he wanted to adopt after his return from the expedition to the West and after a (decisive?) victory against Antigonus Gonatas. It is evident, in fact, that Pyrrhus’ devotion for the gods might not be sufficient to explain the reasons of the dedications. Causes of political nature and propaganda are, instead, to be considered crucial. Archaeological data have confirmed only up to a point the testimony of the Pausanias: the discovery of one of the Macedonian shields dedicated in 278 B.C. in Dodona, Pyrrhus portraits with the crown of oak leaves and, lastly, his relics preserved in the Epirotic sanctuary contribute, on one hand, to understand the role that this place played in the propaganda of the king but, on the other hand, open a new problem related to the original preservation’s place of the dedications.