Beware! Attenti! Mandrake (pictured), or Mandragora, is a perennial plant that grows in the Mediterranean. You’ll find them throughout Sicily in the fall and spring. They have long roots with a very short stem. When pulled from the earth, the plant and roots together resemble the human body–both men and women. The mandrake has medicinal…
Tag: legend
In Sicily Legends Come To Life
Sicily is the stage for many myths and legends. Like this one pictured from Homer’s Odyssey, where the cyclopes Polyphemus is throwing lava boulders at Odysseus. During our October 2020 Stunning Sicily tour, these stories come to life–especially when you are standing on the slopes of Mount Etna looking at the coast from where Odysseus…
Siracusa’s Myth of Aretusa
This stunning Fontana di Diana in Ortigia, Siracusa that tells the story of the Nereid-water nymph Aretusa and her protector, the goddess Artemis/Diana. One day while hunting in the forest in Greece, Aretusa decided to take a refreshing swim in a stream. While in the water, she felt something move beneath her. It was the…
Sicily’s Legend Of Colapesce
The Sicilian legend of Colapesce was illustrated beautifully during the 2019 Archi di Pasqua of San Biagio Platani. Colapesce is a hero in Sicilians’ eyes. Born Nicola di Messina, the name Colapesce is rooted in Cola from Nicola and Pesce, fish. Colapesce was nicknamed so because he was an apt swimmer who could hold his…
The Dance of Saint Vitus and Who is Vito Anyway?
One of my favorite songs is “Il Ballo di San Vito” by Italian artist Vincio Capossela. It’s a wild tarantella, and it discusses just that–a wild dance in the south of Italy with hot winds from Africa, burnt earth, fire, and dancers frenetically moving in and out of a circle doing the pizzica tarantella. The…
She was Dark and Beautiful
This morning, a wish of mine was granted when we stopped in the town of Custonaci (Trapani Province) to visit the Sanctuary of Maria SS. di Custonaci. I wrote extensively about this Madonna–a Black Madonna–in August. You can read that post here. True to what many scholars who have studied the folklore of the Black…
Galloping through Modica
The Sangiuggiari, or devotees of Saint George in Modica, will process the statue of San Giorgio slaying a dragon through the town’s streets on Sunday, May 24. Confetti and fireworks annually mark the start of a winding parade during which faithful men carry the heavy statue on their shoulders–sometimes galloping to simulate the horse on…
Another Legend Explaining the Moor’s Head
In the past, I’ve recounted one legend of the origins of the decapitated Moor’s-head vase. Last spring while visiting my friend Sebastiano, co-owner of Gelsomino Imports (Sicilian artisanal products), in Castelvetrano, he told me of a different legend of the origins of these ubiquitous ceramic vases, like these pictured in Taormina. It goes something like…
A Legend of Revenge
An odd, yet popular decoration seen on terraces, garden balconies, topping gate-pillars, and sometimes as the base of lamps – as pictured here, are ceramic busts of kings, queens, and moors. The owners fill the majolica vases with flowers or other plants, or in this case, electricity. I’ve always found this to be creepy because,…
A Palermo Legend
During the Spanish Inquisition that took place in Sicily between 1478 and the 1700s, Friar Diego la Mattina was an Augustinian monk who was jailed periodically for a number of counts against him. Legend says, that in 1658, he was falsely accused by the Spanish of heresy, and he was sentenced to death. Before his…