L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 16 L'Italo-Americano HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS V edi Napoli e poi mori, once you've seen Naples, you are free to die. It may sound unsettling at first, but whoever visited the city can testi- fy it is so special, so unique and so precious it could well repre- sent the climax of one's life, at least when it comes to beauty. Naples, with its noise that becomes music, its crumbling buildings and majestic castles, its baroque churches and popular markets, is anything and every- thing, it's love and hate, it's ele- gance and crassness, it's wealth and poverty, it's spice and sugar, history and modernity, sacred and profane. It's Naples. You may try to judge it, but you can't help loving it, in the end, because it's Italy, in all its idiosyncrasies. Naples is a city of many mys- teries and legends. Its people do have a special relationship with fortune telling, with speaking with the dead and know a thing or two about maloc- chio, we all know that. But the most mysterious and legendary of all things from Naples is, proba- bly, the myth sur- rounding its own foun- dation. P a r t h e n o p e the mermaid If you speak Italian, you may know we often refer to Neapolitans as partenopei and that all things Neapolitan are known as partenopee. Well, that's because legend says it was Parthenope, a mythical mermaid, that founded Naples. Mermaids are mysteri- ous enough on their own, you may say, but this one, this Parthenope, has something more than the others: she was the liter- ary child of one of history's most elusive authors, Homer, who described her in the 12th Canto of the Odissey. Good old Homer, the poet some believe never exist- ed, a mythical figure in itself, really, voice for a netherworld of creatures and beings he may as well be part of. Parthenope, then, we were saying… her name means "vir- gin" in ancient Greek and she was one of the beautiful mermaids living in the Mediterranean. She – and all mermaids as a matter of fact – was known for her melodious voice, which she used to attract sailors and travelers only to kill them once they were in her reach. A man like Ulysses, devoted to knowledge and led by the strongest curiosi- ty, wanted to hear Parthenope sing but, as he also wanted to go back home to his wife and son (and it had been taking quite a long time, already), he wasn't too keen on the idea of getting butchered. So, he asked his crew to tie him to the mainmast and not to set him free, even if he begged for it, during Parthenope's song. And that's how Ulysses heard the eerily beautiful voice of a mermaid and sur- vived. But Parthenope didn't take it well and, dis- traught by the event, she jumped off the highest cliff and died. …And the sea lulled her body in owe and mourning, until it reached the Gulf of Naples. When the waves touched the isolotto di Megaride, they finally laid it to rest. And here, the m o r t a l remains of Parthenope dissolved, cre- ating the city of Naples, her head gently touching the hill of Capodi- monte and her tail that of Posillipo. This is why Naples is called the city of Parthenope and is, still today, a place of immense beauty but sometimes a bit contro- versial. Parthenope, a girl in love Homer's version is not, how- ever, the only one telling us about Parthenope and Naples. In the early 20th century, Neapolitan writer Matilde Serao created her own. Parthenope was a Greek girl, desperately in love with Athenian hero Cimon. But Parthenope had been already promised in marriage to another man, so she and C i m o n escaped Greece and reached –you guessed it—the Gulf of Naples. Here they settled and started their life together: Parthenope gave birth to 12 children and became the moth- er of all Neapolitans. According to Serao, Parthenope never died: she lives forever and stands pro- tective beside her children and the city they populate, Naples. Parthenope and Vesuvius There is a third, mythical ver- sion of the founda- tion of Naples, one introducing to the picture another icon of the city, Mount Vesuvius. Just we're not talking about the volcano, but about a centaur called so. This version of the myth, that became popular in the 19th century, says mermaid Parthenope, one day, met by chance a centaur, Vesuvius. The two immediately fell in love, also thanks to the interven- tion of Eros, the god of Love, who pierced their hearts with his mag- ical arrows. The two shared many moments of happiness, until Zeus, the King of all gods, found out. You see, the old moody god, known for being a serial womanizer, wanted Parthenope for himself, so he got rid of his rival Vesuvius turning him into … a volcano. Yes, a vol- cano standing over the Gulf of Naples so that Parthenope could keep on seeing him, but could no longer touch him. Distraught by sorrow and pain, Parthenope killed herself by jumping into the sea. Just like Homer wrote, the waves brought her body on the shores of the isolotto di Megaride, where it disappeared to become the city of Naples. Parthenope: a mermaid unable to accept defeat, who expiates in death her sins and becomes a beautiful city; a girl in love who turns into the mother of all Neapolitans; a mermaid again, who manages to reunite with her beloved after death, as the city lying at the feet of the mountain he had become. The three faces of Parthenope, the three legends behind the origins of Naples. SIMONE SCHIAVINATO Myths and legends of Italy Campania –Parthenope and the foundation of Naples

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