Assessorato alle Politiche GiovaniliRegione Campania

ITCS Ferdinando GalianiNapoli

Progetto di Rete“Giovani Promossi Incontrano l’Europa”

A brief look at

Our traditions and legends

The Siren Parthenope

The name of a siren who, in desperation at not seducing Ulysses with her voice,

threw herself into the sea and died. Her body was washed up on the shores of

Naples our city, which is therefore called by the name of the lost siren.

Where does the name Parthenope come from?

The name siren comes from the Greek meaning to bind. The Sirens originally had the

bodies of birds and the faces of women. They also had beautiful voices that could seduce any sailor. In Greek origin, Sirens were the daughters of the river deity Achelous, magically born from drops of his blood. When Odysseus on his journey came across the Sirens, he forced his

sailors to put wax in their ears, thus blocking out the effects of their voices . Odysseus tied himself to the mast of his ship, forcing himself to hear the Sirens. As they were unable to catch the sailors’ attention the Sirens died, either by drowning themselves or because of prophecy.

This is one of the several representations of the beautiful

siren Partenope, the founder of our city

Here is …the traditional iconography of Partenope

The characters

• The siren’s body is like the one of a bird• She has got wings

• She is looks like a bird, not a fish

The isle of Megaride

The legend of Nick the Fish

The legend of Nick the fish

Niccolò Pesce, known as Colapesce or “Nick the Fish” was such a good swimmer,

that people said that the young man had webbed fingers, fins and

scales: half man and half fish, he could live in the deep sea.When Niccolò Pesce, wanted to travel long distances, he was swallowed by a huge

fish and when he got to where he wanted to be, the cut the fish’s belly and Niccolò jumped out.

Colapesce lived in the sea between Naples and Messina. One day the king of Naples invited him to sink into the deep sea and see what were its secrets . Colapesce

told the king that the sea hid priceless treasures; when he came back uphe brought huge amounts of jewels he had found in the caves and channels under

the island of Megaride.

The game of lotto

It was born in 1500, but it arrived in Naples around 1700. It was soon successful, particularly among poor people:

they saw in it an opportunity to make money. Still today people wait for the numbers to be drawn and spend a lot of money each week, hoping to change their lives. Sometimes the numbers come from the

gambler’s dreams whose explanation are given a in

a book called smorfia, after the name of the God Morpheus.

The game of lotto and the smorfia

Superstition, evil eye and iettatura

Talismans with Horns with hunchbacks

SuperstitionThe Neapolitan idea of the evil eye is a particular ideology which originated

among the upper classes at the end of XVIII century . There are lots of anecdotes from the end of XVIII century and throughout the XIX century about people who had the evil eye

But how could people protect themselves from the evil eye?

«Aglio, fravaglie, fatture can un quaglie: corna, bicorna, cape ‘e alice e cape d’aglio », Garlic, intestines,

spells that doesn’t work; horns, whitebait heads and heads of garlic», said Peppino De Filippo over and

over again to himself in the role of Pappagone.

Talismans

Apart from “formulae” to ward off the evil eye there were also a lot of

talismans which were used.

• The broom placed across the door would take the evil spirits longer to get into the house

because they had to count the bristles first. • Horseshoes • Hunchbacks (‘o scartellato in the Neapolitan Smorfia) whose hump

brings especially good luck if you touch it, • The number 13, • Garlic wreaths,• Chilli peppers • Horn or Horns, meaning both the object and the gesture made with the hand

and two outstretched fingers to indicate two horns.

The cult of the deadEveryone, regardless of political ideology or social and economic class believes in the protection

of the dead because, when death comes we are all equal.The dead have always kept in close contact with their loved ones and the house where theyused to live. People believe that the dead know about the future so can warn us in dreamsabout what may happen. Dreams, in Neapolitan culture, are interpreted and translated into

numbers so people can play the lottery.Even the lost souls use dreams to ask us to pray for them and

look after them, so that their suffering in Purgatory might be lessened. This phenomenon is popularly known as refrisco .

Until a few decades ago (though it still happens today as well) believers used to go to the

underground cemeteries in Naples and “adopt a skull”. This was the beginning of theprocess of offering the prayers and help that had been sought. In return, the souls were askedto cure illness, find work or a husband or even help win the lottery.

The cult of the dead

The Fontanelle cemetery

The ghost of the little monk

O’ munaciello

O’ munacielloA bizarre spirit who

always behaves in an unpredictable way and who is the source of infinite urban legends andpopular sayings.

His disrespectful behaviour is often accompanied by benevolent “bequests”of money; but nobody must be told what has happened, otherwise he will set himself against

the beneficiary. It is not rare for him to behave lasciviously towards pretty young women.

The Neapolitans have two versions of the origins of the munaciello. Initially, the figure was

associated with the Underground Naples and the workers who operated the water supplysystem, the so-called pozzari from “pozzo” meaning “well”. It was easy for them to gainaccess to the houses using the shafts which served for lowering the buckets down. The

pozzari-munacielli played tricks in houses when the owners of the wells did not pay them fortheir services.

The angel of bella ‘mbriana

A Bella ‘mbrianaThe other important figure in Neapolitan esotericism is the bella

‘Mbriana.A romantic Neapolitan legend tells of a princess who had lost her

reason because of an unhappy love affair and who wandered about the alleyways of the city like a shadow. To protect her, the king, her father, gave anonymous gifts to recompense those houses where the poor unhappy girl was given succour. This is how the legend of fortune connected to this mysterious female presence came about. In fact, in the popular imagination of Naples the bella ‘Mbriana is the spirit of the house: she dwells permanently in a place which she has chosen to protect.. Neapolitans imagine her as a young woman with a sweet and gentle face, as a clear and bright figure.

Raimondo De Sangro, Prince of Sansevero

The Prince of San SeveroThe anatomical machines

Among the Prince’s many inventions, the most noteworthy are the famous “anatomical machines”. These are two skeletons, one male and one female, wrapped in

their mummified venous and arterial systems. The system of veins, arteries and capillaries appears petrified or rather “metallised”, and even today one

wonders how it was possible to achieve such a result. According to one of the most reliable theories, the two bodies underwent an experimentconducted by the Prince himself, with the help of Giuseppe Salerno, the celebrated anatomist of theage. An old text confirms that the machines were “created” by the Prince

and by Salerno through a process of metallisation, obtained by introducing a liquid for this purposeinto an artery of the corpse. However, all the scholars who have analysed these exhibits have stressedthat, to allow the substances to metallise the venous and arterial system, it would be necessary for theblood to remain in circulation. If such were the case, the bodies would still have been alive at the timeof the injection. Regarding this question, confirmation may be found in the body of the woman, who

has one arm raised, as if defending herself, and an expression of pure terror on her face. The woman

was pregnant, and in the central part of her body one can also see all the veins of the foetus and those of the umbilical cord. The blood vessels of the tongue can also be recognised in the mouth

The anatomical machines

Talking statues:The Nile statue

Characteristics of the statue

It is also called the body of Naples. This statue represents the city of Naples. It is located in Piazzetta Nilo, called this way because of the

settlement of some Egyptian traders around there. Today it is the most famous small square in the pedestrian area of the city’s historical centre.

The old man has in his left hand a cornucopia representing the abundance of Naples’ fields, on his right there are angels and part of a sphinx’s

body standing for the river Nile.

Realizzazione

Un gruppo di alunni delle Classi IV A, IV B, IV C, IV E V E

ITCS Ferdinando GalianiNapoli

AS 2009 - 2010