Leggende in Sicilia

by Riccardo Francaviglia

La testa di Moro
Il toro di Falaride
I cento pozzi
Gammazita
La spada di Damocle
Mata e Grifone

Paperback

Reviews

[Marit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories weren't really well written, but the illustrations are stunning.

[Francesco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una leggenda per ogni provincia siciliana: da Gammazita a Catania alla Spada di Damocle a Siracusa, passando per la storia del rais Vito Lucchio a Mazara. Le leggende sono spesso il miglior modo per raccontare e dare una spiegazione a quello che non si riesce a comprendere. Riccardo Francaviglia, con le sue parole intrise dei dialetti siciliani, attraverso le sue immagini semplici e nude, ha trovato senza dubbio il miglior modo per farlo.

[Kalliope · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in the small tourist and ticketing shop in the Naxos archaeological site in Sicily. It is a charming collection of popular local tales that Francaviglia has collected and illustrated himself. For each one he indicates the town from which it originates, and so we have eleven stories from Trapani, Palermo, Catania, Ragusa and Messina amongst others.

Some of them explain monuments or objects that we see in the island. The most ubiquitous are the ceramic flowerpots heading this review. You see them on balconies, on posts all over. They are supposed to be recipients for basil and hollyhock and their legend behind is a love story between a Christian woman and an Arab. It is a love story with a bad ending, but at least we now have those colourful heads.

We also read the story behind the sinking and the finding of the Dancing Faun, that can now be visited in the Museum in Mazara del Vallo



There are so many popular traditions that these tales can be even categorized in sub-genres, like the "Trovature Racconti", or Tales of Findings. So many civilizations have left remains and treasures, that even before archaeologists began searching for them, the local inhabitants already set out to see what they could find. Another and more alluring name for these tales is that of "Leggende Plutoniche", or legends from Pluto, the god of the Underworld.



As for monuments we have the sculptures in Piazza Università in Catania, that shows a woman, Gammazita" , throwing herself into a well to avoid being forced by a soldier of the occupying forces. Or the Fountain Elephant in the Piazza Duomo in Catania, which, like the Bernini one in Rome, has an obelisk standing on top of an elephant. This elephant could allude either to Eliodoro’s, a magician who terrorised the island from his flying elephant, or to the dwarf elephants that inhabited Sicily (and other Mediterranean islands) in prehistoric times.



Another story gives us the background of Mata and Grifone, the two giants who are paraded in Messina on the day of the Assumption (Ferragosto, or 15th of August)



The story of the boy who swam so extremely well during the times of the Emperor Frederick II of Norman descent explains to us that the island is perched on top of three columns but as there is a ferocious fire burning below its surface, deep in the water, (Aetna?), one of its columns (the one beneath Messina), is partly damaged. Alarming thought for visitors, but the tripod explains the striking shield for Sicily.