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Aci Trezza
Aci Trezza () is a town in Sicily, southern Italy, a ''frazione'' of the comune of Aci Castello, c. 10 km north of Catania, with a population of around 5,000 people. Located on the coast of the Ionian Sea, the village has a long history of maritime activity. Aci Trezza is a popular spot for Italian vacationers in the summer. The patron Saint of the town is St. John the Baptist. The Festa of San Giovanni is celebrated each year during the last week of June in his honor. The Islands of the Cyclops Off the coast of Aci Trezza are three tall, prominent sea stacks. According to local legend, these were the great stones thrown at Odysseus in the epic poem ''The Odyssey'' by the monster Cyclops. The islands are thus referred to as the "isole dei ciclopi" (islands of the Cyclops, or Cyclopean Isles) by locals. This complements the notion that the Cyclops once had a smithy below Mount Etna, which looms over the village to the northwest. Cultural references Giovanni Verga's novel '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', the poem is divided into 24 books. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey lasted for ten additional years, during which time he encountered many perils and all his crew mates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. The ''Odyssey'' was originally composed in Homeric Greek in around the 8th or 7th century BCE and, by the mid-6th century BCE, had become part of the Greek literary canon. In antiquity, Homer's authorship of the poem was not questioned, but contemporary scholarship predom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the fathers of cinematic neorealism, but later moved towards luxurious, sweeping epics dealing with themes of beauty, decadence, death, and European history, especially the decay of the nobility and the bourgeoisie. He was the recipient of many accolades, including the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, and many of his works are regarded as highly-influential to future generations of filmmakers. Born to a Milanese noble family, Visconti explored artistic proclivities from an early age, working as an assistant director to Jean Renoir. His 1943 directorial debut, ''Ossessione,'' was condemned by the Fascist regime for its unvarnished depictions of working-class characters resorting to criminality, but is today renowned as a pioneering work of Ital ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Malavoglia
''I Malavoglia'' () is the best known novel by Giovanni Verga. It was first printed in 1881. Background The readers' good reception of the short story ''Nedda'', published in 1874, encouraged the project of a "sea sketch" entitled ''Padron 'Ntoni''. In a letter dated September 1875, Verga informs the publisher Treves that he has almost finished a new story and he will receive it soon. Six years will pass instead: ''Padron 'Ntoni'' will be transformed into a novel, entitled ''I Malavoglia''. In a letter to his friend Salvatore Paolo Verdura, Verga states that ''I Malavoglia'' is the first of a cycle of five narrative works, the '' Ciclo dei Vinti'', a "phantasmagoria of the struggle for life, which extends from the ragman to the minister and the artist". The other works of the cycle are '' Mastro-don Gesualdo'', '' La Duchessa di Leyra'', ''L'Onorevole Scipioni'' and ''L'uomo di lusso'', works which deal with the problem of social and economical advancement. ''La Duchessa de Ley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Verga
Giovanni Carmelo Verga di Fontanabianca (; 2 September 1840 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian realist ('' verista'') writer, best known for his depictions of life in his native Sicily, especially the short story and later play ''Cavalleria rusticana'' and the novel ''I Malavoglia'' (''The House by the Medlar Tree''). Life and career The first son of Giovanni Battista Catalano Verga and Caterina Di Mauro, Verga was born into a prosperous family of Catania in Sicily. He began writing in his teens, producing the largely unpublished, but currently quite famous, historical novel ''Amore e Patria'' (''Love and Homeland''); then, although nominally studying law at the University of Catania, he used money his father had given him to publish his ''I carbonari della montagna'' (''The Carbonari of the Mountain'') in 1861 and 1862. This was followed by ''Sulle lagune'' (''On the Lagoons'') in 1863. Meanwhile, Mr. Verga had been serving in the Catania National Guard (1860–64), after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Etna
Mount Etna, or simply Etna ( it, Etna or ; scn, Muncibbeḍḍu or ; la, Aetna; grc, Αἴτνα and ), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina and Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is one of the tallest active volcanoes in Europe, and the tallest peak in Italy south of the Alps with a current height (July 2021) of , though this varies with summit eruptions. Over a six-month period in 2021, Etna erupted so much volcanic material that its height increased by approximately , and the southeastern crater is now the tallest part of the volcano. Etna covers an area of with a basal circumference of . This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands surpasses it in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyclopean Isles
The Cyclopean Isles (Italian: ''Isole Ciclopi''), noted for their rows of basaltic columns piled one above another, lie not far from Mount Etna off the eastern coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. Geology Formed about 500,000 years ago, the Cyclopean Isles are of volcanic origin and may at one time have been attached to Sicily. The Cyclopean Isles strongly resemble the Giant's Causeway on the northern coast of Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Staffa off the western coast of Scotland. The latter, closest in appearance to the Cyclopean pair, differs mainly in having the columns piled in terraces, one above another. Homer's legend There is an ancient tradition that the islands at one time formed part of the mainland of Sicily. Homer has a curious story about the manner in which they became detached, towards the end of the ninth book of the ''Odyssey''. When Odysseus visited Sicily it was inhabited by the Cyclopes, said to have had only one eye, on the forehead. Odysseus enc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyclops
In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; el, Κύκλωπες, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguished. In Hesiod's ''Theogony'', the Cyclopes are the three brothers Brontes, Steropes, and Arges (Cyclops), Arges, who made for Zeus his weapon the thunderbolt. In Homer's ''Odyssey'', they are an uncivilized group of shepherds, the brethren of Polyphemus encountered by Odysseus. Cyclopes were also famous as the builders of the Cyclopean masonry, Cyclopean walls of Mycenae and Tiryns. In ''Cyclops (play), Cyclops'', the fifth-century BC play by Euripides, a satyr play, chorus of satyrs offers comic relief based on the encounter of Odysseus and Polyphemus. The third-century BC poet Callimachus makes the Hesiodic Cyclopes the assistants of smith-god Hephaestus; as does Virgil in the Latin epic ''Aeneid'', where he seems to equate the Hesiodic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odysseus
Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's ''Iliad'' and other works in that same epic cycle. Son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus and Acusilaus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (''polytropos''), and is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning ( grc-gre, μῆτις, mêtis, cunning intelligence). He is most famous for his ''nostos'', or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War. Name, etymology, and epithets The form ''Odys(s)eus'' is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, we find the variants ''Oliseus'' (), ''Olyseus'' (), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Stack
A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology. britannica.com They are formed when part of a is by , which is the force of the sea or water crashing against the rock. The force of the water weakens cracks in the headland, causi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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