UTOPIA "Utopia", "utopian" and "utopianism" are words which today are become part of everyday language , and every day become more and more widespread, but with very different semantic content.But the question is .......

What is utopia?

the word utopia comes from a work published in Amsterdam in 1516 where he tells of the journey in an imaginary world called u-topia (word has Greek origins and meaning: a place that does not exist but is described as if it existed).

A utopian city :

1. attention on social economic factors, etc., but also on everyday life.2.Abolition of private property and the pooling of all assets3. Abolition of the family, replaced with promiscuous sexual relations and children in common4. Almost total cancellation of private and domestic spaces:5. The general public tends to take the family functions: they are all brothers and sisters, we all share every aspect of daily life.6.Everything is organized for the collective good, and everything, even personal, is decided in public meetings or public laws.7.The public education has an important role: that since the early days he teaches the values ??of community and pride to belong.8. no crime and courts, as the perfect city educates perfect men.

Virgil’s utopiaVirgil is the greatest Roman poet of Augustan Age. He is known for three major works

of Latin literature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid.The Eclogues (from the Greek for "selections") are a group of ten poems roughly

modelled on the bucolic hexameter poetry ("pastoral poetry") of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus.

We may discern utopia into the past. The utopia of time is best attested in Greco-Roman traditions by the Golden Age myth, known almost to all literatures. It is the idea of a happily glorious remote past, or it could be related to the future, which

means the possibility of the return of the Golden Age as perceived in Virgil’s Eclogue 4, the so-called “messianic Eclogue”, probably addressed to Asinius Pollio, where

Virgil prophesized a new and blessed era by the birth of a certain child. This was the first appearance of the Golden Age in Virgil. The term Golden Age comes from Greek

mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline. By extension "Golden Age" denotes a

period of primordial peace, harmony, stability, and prosperity.European Pastoral literary and iconographic tradition often depicted nymphs and

shepherds as living a life of rustic innocence and simplicity, untainted by the corruptions of civilization.

ArcadiaArcadia refers to a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. The term is derived

from the Greek province of the same name which dates to antiquity; the province's mountainous topography and sparse population of pastoralists later caused the word Arcadia to develop into a poetic byword for an idyllic vision of unspoiled wilderness.

Arcadia is associated with bountiful natural splendor, harmony, and is often inhabited by shepherds.

According to Greek mythology, Arcadia of Peloponnesus was the domain of Pan, a virgin wilderness home to the god of the forest and his court of dryads, nymphs and

other spirits of nature. It was one version of paradise, though only in the sense of being the abode of supernatural entities, not an afterlife for deceased mortals.

Virgil aspires to transcend national boundaries in Arcadia, an utopian place in Greece where one can lead a life of innocence, simplicity, and closeness to nature.

Virgil’s aspiration to Arcadia comes to a climax in Eclogue 10, the last of his pastoral poems. In this Eclogue, Virgil in order to immortalize his fellow-poet, Cornelius Gallus,

and to pay him a tribute, sets him down in Arcadia among the sheep, goats and shepherds. When Virgil sets down his dear friend in the utopian world of Arcadia, this is not with a sense of mockery, but with a sense of paying him a tribute, and helping

him get out of his personal plight.

Tommaso CampanellaThe city of the sun

The City of the Sun is a philosophical work of the Dominican monk Tommaso Campanella, in 1602. The protagonists of the work, written in dialogue form, are a Knight of Malta and a Genoese admiral; the admiral describes to the knight the structure of an ideal community, the City of the Sun. This work illustrates an ideal utopian city which represents the ideal form of government to Campanella.

The city is surrounded by seven circles of impregnable walls, and on the highest point of the town there’s the circular Temple of the Sun. Sun is the chief priest of the city who exercise an absolute civil and religious power, and is assisted by three principles: Pon (Power), Sin (Wisdom) and Mor (Love). Pon is in charge of military arts and war, Sin is in charge of instruction and Mor oversees all the aspects of generation and health, nutrition and clothing. The company is based on community property, including women. According to the philosopher is in fact private property to provoke conflicts between different members of society: removing the property will also eliminate all crimes related to it. In the City of the Sun there aren’t masters and servants, and all are taught the same arts that have all the same dignity. The canteens, as well as dormitories, places of recreation, clothing, are common; even the children are raised in common. There’s a particularly focus on education and generation: the first is addressed to all members of society and begins at the age of three years and then continue over a lifetime; as regards the generation, various officials have the task of combining

the pairs in order to improve race from the physical point.

• In The City of the Sun every aspect of life is rigidly regulated with excessive insistence on order and discipline that almost destroys freedoms; these are common features in all the writings about utopian society of that time. This is because of the great cultural, political and social development of those years, that brought a great aspiration for change and renewal of the society. In particular, Campanella himself had organized a conspiracy which aimed at the liberation of Calabria from Spanish rule, at the abolition of the property and at a communist-style democracy and theocracy.

• In the society described in the City of the Sun are two typical elements of utopian thought: the abolition of the family and the abolition of private property. There’s a negative judgment on the family because it is a source of pride, “self-love” and social discrimination, as well as private property. Both are considered the two greatest enemies of the Community dimension of life and universal brotherhood. The solution proposed in this work is the communion of women and children. There is also the distrust of love, which is reduced to its biological dimension, easier to control.

• The state in the City of the Sun is primarily engaged in the protection of the good and moral society. From this derives the right and duty to a detailed control on society, for the preservation and strengthening of his moral standard. The work outlines the universal reform that Campanella had always had in his mind and that he also tied to implement in practice organising a conspiracy to create a just society, without conflict of any kind.

Anton Francesco Doni

Anton Francesco Doni in his work “I mondi” talks about an utopianCity and society. The structure of the city is characterized by Geometric elements and each element has a symbolic meaning.In this city nobody owns anything, everyone respects each other.The equality is very important and no one must be richer than others.They have a religious education because God is an important identity for us.

The society is perfect because: Every citizen is happy because no one is rich.They share everything together There aren’t weddings because women and men love whoever they want.It’s a comunist society where everybody lives in peace.