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.