Books / Monografie by Paolo Daniele Scirpo
"It's the first supplement of the journal DIACHRONIA (ΔΙΑΧΡΟΝΙΑ), pubblished in 2005 at Athens (G... more "It's the first supplement of the journal DIACHRONIA (ΔΙΑΧΡΟΝΙΑ), pubblished in 2005 at Athens (Greece) with 19 papers of young Sicilian resercher dedicated to Archaeology of Sicily (from Prehistoric untill Byzantine time)".
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Papers / Articoli by Paolo Daniele Scirpo
in Μ.Ι. Στεφανάκης, Μ. Γιαννοπούλου, Μ. Αχιολά (επιμ.), «Πολύτροπος». Τιμητικός τόμος προς τον καθηγητή Νίκο Σταμπολίδη, Ρέθυμνον: Μεσογειακή Αρχαιολογική Εταιρεία,., Dec 13, 2023
Alla ricerca di un tema che potesse essere adatto quale umile omaggio alla persona ed allo studio... more Alla ricerca di un tema che potesse essere adatto quale umile omaggio alla persona ed allo studioso Nikos Stampolidis, mi è tornato in mente uno dei suoi primi contributi, dedicato proprio ad un cratere siceliota ed apparso in greco nella rivista Αρχαιολογικά Ανάλεκτα εξ Αθηνών . Così, a mo’ di contraltare, ho pensato di offrire alcune osservazioni su un’esemplare ceramico della madrepatria conservato in Sicilia, a Palazzolo Acreide. Si tratta di una c.d. Fruttiera (οπωροδοχείον) di fabbrica greco-orientale che è esposta nella Collezione Judica, conservata al Museo Archeologico “Gabriele Judica” di Palazzolo Acreide (SR).
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E. Terzi (a.c.d.), Grecia e Italia 1821-2021. Due secoli di storie condivise. Atti del Convegno Internazionale (Atene, 31 maggio-3 giugno 2023) [Sermonalia, 5], Atene: Edizioni BPT, 2023., Jun 6, 2023
Una delle figure più emblematiche del panorama letterario greco risulta essere quella di Anghelos... more Una delle figure più emblematiche del panorama letterario greco risulta essere quella di Anghelos D. Terzakis.
Nato a Nauplio ai primi del Novecento ma trasferitosi in giovane età ad Atene, si laureò in Giurisprudenza all’Università di Atene ma decise poco dopo di non esercitare la professione di avvocato ma di dedicarsi interamente alla sua vera aspirazione: la letteratura.
Nel corso della sua poliedrica carriera, Terzakis si cimentò nella scrittura di racconti, romanzi ed opere teatrali, ed accanto ad un’instancabile attività di traduttore di classici e contemporanei, affiancò il suo lavoro di direttore di due riviste letterarie della capitale a quella ben più prestigiosa di Direttore artistico del Teatro Nazionale di Grecia.
Il suo rapporto con l’Italia è segnato inizialmente dall’orrore della guerra. Volontario sul fronte albanese, sopravvisse al conflitto e ne illustrò l’andamento con il suo saggio storico (Epopea Ellenica), sulla base dei dati militari forniti dal Ministero Ellenico della Difesa.
Ma il Teatro lo riportò in Italia. Appassionato del bel canto, in qualità di Direttore del Teatro Nazionale di Grecia, mise in scena molte opere liriche italiane ed in qualità di Direttore artistico, siglando un legame indissolubile fra la Sicilia e la Grecia, quando in visita a Siracusa, assistette agli spettacoli classici che dal 1914 organizzava l’Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico nell’antica cavea del Temenite. Lì iniziò l’idea del gemellaggio con il festival teatrale di Epidauro.
Uno degli aspetti meno noti del Nostro fu il suo amore verso la “Decima Musa”. Dopo aver seguito un corso di Cinematografia a Roma, il Nostro iniziò a scrivere molte sceneggiature (molte rimaste inedite) ed arrivò a dirigere anche una pellicola (Un’avventura notturna), rielaborazione del suo romanzo “La città violetta”, con protagonista il famoso attore Dinos Iliopoulos e musica di Manos Chatzidakis.
Dell’opera di Anghelos Terzakis, quasi nulla però è noto in Italia , in mancanza di traduzioni della sua opera omnia. Questo breve ritratto prosopografico è il dovuto φόρος τιμής che ritengo abbia ampiamente meritato nel corso della sua lunga carriera.
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Siracusa Antica - Nuove prospettive di ricerca, Nov 30, 2022
L’area di piazza Duomo in Ortigia è stata spesso oggetto di indagini archeologiche fin dai tempi ... more L’area di piazza Duomo in Ortigia è stata spesso oggetto di indagini archeologiche fin dai tempi di Paolo Orsi, che si premurò di pubblicare i risultati delle sue ricerche nella speranza di ricostruire il palinsesto storico di questa zona centrale dell’isola. Con gli ultimi scavi urbani (1998-1999) condotti da Giuseppe Voza, allora Soprintendente per i Beni Culturali di Siracusa, il quadro si è quasi del tutto completato. Una sorta di Agorà degli Dei sembra che trovasse luogo nell’area dell’odierna piazza e nelle zone adiacenti, in cui sono state trovate tracce di almeno tre temene di epoche diverse. Artemide, Athena e probabilmente Afrodite, assieme a Hera e Apollo e Demetra, sembra avessero un loro santuario sull’isola.
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Quaderni del Mediterraneo, Oct 10, 2021
In questa comunicazione si illustra il rapporto di Luigi Bernabò Brea con le antichità di Akrai, ... more In questa comunicazione si illustra il rapporto di Luigi Bernabò Brea con le antichità di Akrai, sub-colonia siracusana fondata nel 664 a.C. sui Monti Iblei in Sicilia. L’arrivo dell’archeologo nel paese di Palazzolo Acreide negli anni del II conflitto mondiale coincide con un secondo periodo di ricerche intense nell’area della città antica. I risultati di queste indagini sono raccolti nella sua monografia AKRAI , dove con la collaborazione di Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli e Clelia Laviosa, si offre una prima sintesi sul phrourion siracusano. La monografia dedicata al tempio di Afrodite chiude trent’anni dopo (1986) un ciclo di studi che ha visto in BB il principale artefice della rinascita locale dell’amor patrio, con la fondazione di Associazioni Archeologiche e con la creazione dell’Istituto di Studi Acrensi (1980). Le ricerche successive condotte dalla locale Soprintendenza alle Antichità di Siracusa e quelle più recenti condotte dall’Università di Varsavia hanno usufruito dell’enorme eredità che BB ha lasciato alla comunità scientifica, indicando nuovi campi d’indagine forieri di interessanti risultati.
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Religion and Cult in the Dodecanese during the first millennium BC. Recent discoveries and research results. International Conference (Rhodes, 18-21 October 2018), 2023
Στις αρχές του 7ου αιώνα π.Χ., και οι κάτοικοι των Δωδεκανήσων αισθάνθηκαν την ανάγκη να μεταναστ... more Στις αρχές του 7ου αιώνα π.Χ., και οι κάτοικοι των Δωδεκανήσων αισθάνθηκαν την ανάγκη να μεταναστεύσουν σε αναζήτηση μιάς νέας πατρίδας, στην οποία θα μπορούσαν να επιβιώσουν. Η αποικιακή εκστρατεία, που χρηματοδοτήθηκε από την εμπορικώς ευημερούσα νέα πόλη της Λίνδου, υπό την καθοδήγηση ενός πολίτη της, του Αντιφήμου, συνέλλεξε τους εποίκους όχι μόνο από το νησί της Ρόδου, αλλά και από άλλα κοντινά νησιά. Μετά από μία στάση στην Κρήτη, όπου άλλοι άποικοι προσχώρησαν υπό την οδηγία του Εντίμου, η ομάδα έφτασε στη νότια ακτή της Σικελίας, όπου ιδρύθηκε (688 π.Χ.), η μικτή αποικία της Γέλας, στις εκβολές του επωνύμου ποταμού. Η ακμή της επεκτατικής πολιτικής για την νεογέννητη αποικία επιτεύχθηκε περίπου έναν αιώνα μετά, με την ίδρυση της υπο-αποικίας του Ακράγαντος (580 π.Χ.). Ο ρόλος του Ροδο-Κρητικού πανθέου στην ανάπτυξη της πόλεως της Γέλας (και στη συνέχεια του Ακράγαντος) αποτέλεσε καθοριστικό παράγοντα σταθεροποιήσεως για την εύθραυστη συνύπαρξη μεταξύ των διαφορετικών εθνικών ομάδων. Οι στάσεις που στοίχειωσαν την ιστορία των Ροδο-Κρητικών αποικιών, ήσαν πράγματι δείκτης μιάς ισορροπίας που τελικά διασπάστηκε με την έλευση της τυραννίας. Οι δυναστείες των Δεινομενιδών στην Γέλα και των Εμμενιδών στον Ακράγαντα υποστήριξαν τις Ροδιακής καταγωγής φατρίες των δύο πόλεων σε βάρος των Κρητικών και η ‘ροδιοποίησις’ των λατρειών υπήρξε άμεση και άφθαρτη συνέπεια της πολιτικής τους, που εκδηλώνεται επίσης σε όλες τις περιοχές της Σικελίας, που κατέληξαν υπό τον έλεγχο των τυράννων.
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Titolo in italiano: Tracce di culti cretesi in Sicilia: Afrodite a Gela
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Come tributo alla memoria di uno dei miei maestri, il compianto prof. Vincenzo La Rosa, ho offert... more Come tributo alla memoria di uno dei miei maestri, il compianto prof. Vincenzo La Rosa, ho offerto un piccolo intervento sull’esistenza ad Akrai, sub-colonia di Siracusa, posta sui monti Iblei, di un Ginnasio da individuare in un’area solo parzialmente scavata, tra il Bouleuterion ad Est e la plateia odos a Nord. Indizi più che probanti sono inoltre la scoperta di epigrafi dove è citata la carica di Ginnasiarca, una su di un mosaico con la dedica ad Eros, e un frammento di corona bronza di alloro.
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The Heroic cult played an important role in Greek society, constituting not only the link between... more The Heroic cult played an important role in Greek society, constituting not only the link between the world of Gods and that of men, but also fulfilling innate needs such as that of the city’s identity. In his Sicilian excursus, Thucydides does not mention any echo name for Akrai’s founder, the first sub-colony of Syracuse, founded in 664 BC on the Hyblaean mountains. Undisputed traces of heroic worship can be found, however, both towards the hero par excellence, Herakles, and towards private individuals (military or not) who in the Hellenistic age are revered in Heroa extramoenia, like that of the c.d. Templi Ferali. During the reign of Hiero II (275-214 BC), the urban development of Akrai goes hand in hand with the creation of a civic conscience culminating with the very brief experience of monetary coinage, on the eve of the taking of the Syracusan metropolis by the Roman legions of the consul Marcellus (212 BC).
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Πρακτικά του 12ου Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου, Jan 24, 2019
At the beginning of the 7th century BC, we assist at the birth of the polis on the islands of Rho... more At the beginning of the 7th century BC, we assist at the birth of the polis on the islands of Rhodes and Crete, after a long fermentation period following the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization. The commercial activity of Lindos and the unstable demographic condition of Crete were the two main factors that led to many people from different ethnic origin and social class, to emigrate and follow the flow of Greek colonization in the West.
Based on their knowledge of the area, thanks to exchanges that the Aegean merchants had already had with Sicily in previous centuries, the colonists under the leadership of the two settlers, Antiphemos of Lindos and Entimos of Crete (probably from Gortyn), founded on the south coast of the island, at the mouth of the eponymous river, the mixed colony of Gela (688 BC).
The cornerstone of the social class of the new town was evidently the Pantheon, resulting in the coexistence of ancient cults of Cretan and Rhodian origin. With the passage of time, these cults evolved and crystallized as a reflection of the new order of things that the Deinomenides dynasty imposed after painful stasis in the middle of the 6th century and the first tyrannies of Pantares’ sons in the early 5th century.
Founded in 580 BC by a mixed group of settlers originating primarily from Gela, Akragas inherited, according to Thucydides, the “Geloan Laws”. Among the deities included in the pantheon of the sub-colony, traces of Cretan religiosity recognized as endangered in Gela’s metropolis during the social and national crisis of the first half of the 6th century, found fertile ground here and flourished.
Starting with the analysis of literary and archaeological evidence, noting similarities in the religious sphere between the islands of the Aegean (Rhodes and Crete) and Siceliot colonies, reveals the form of Velchanos, the young god of eternal regeneration, of Cretan origin, who was revered and remembered in many ways by some of the population of Akragas. With the disappearance of the Cretan “phratry” after the fall of the polis to the Carthaginians (406 BC), only a distant echo of the god survived and was collected (and misunderstood) by later literary sources.
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in S.A. Cugno, Patrimonio culturale, paesaggi e personaggi della Sicilia sud-orientale. Scritti di archeologia e museologia iblea, Oxford, BAR International, 2017, pp. 47-59., Nov 1, 2017
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The recent analysis of the literary sources carried out by Gianfranco Adornato, it is clear that ... more The recent analysis of the literary sources carried out by Gianfranco Adornato, it is clear that we need to distinguish two strands of tradition about Akragas, one concerning the origin of the polis (sub-colony of Gela, founded around 580 BC) and on the other hand, the one about the origin of the Emmenidai’s genos. To celebrate Theron’s victory which took place in the chariot race at Olympia in 476 BC, Pindar would have created (or saved) in his II Olympic ode the family tree that starting from Cadmus, king of Thebes, would come up to the tyrant of Akragas and whose tormented stories would have been mentioned in the ode Pindaric’s Scholia. It remains doubtful, however, a passage of the Theron’s ancestors from Gela, metropolis of Akragas. A support of marble louterion bearing an inscription, found there in the early 20th century by Paolo Orsi, could be the missing link for the correct reconstruction of the eventful past of Emmenidai’s genos, thus confirming also the traditional affection of the family for the Olympic and the Isthmian Games. So, an alternative hypothesis would tie this heroic cult (clearly of private nature) with the participation of Boeotian gene, as the Emmenidai of Akragas.
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This brief paper derives its title from that of a recent monograph dedicated to the rediscovery o... more This brief paper derives its title from that of a recent monograph dedicated to the rediscovery of Greece, through the knowledge of the more accessible "Magna Graecia" whose antiquity, essential destination for every European who travelled in Grand Tour, allowed him to put foundations of modern archaeological science.
My purpose is not to further highlight the importance for Archaeology tout court and the classic one in particular, of the study of the antiquity from Magna Graecia, but to highlight how much of it is accessible not only to an audience unskilled but also (and especially) in the classrooms of the departments of Archaeology in the country. Far from wanting to criticize in already difficult times such as those we cross, the university institution in Greece, at the same time it's sure that a new way to expand the training offer of the new archeology scholars, can only be of benefit, and for this, we may hope that the recent opening towards new academic frontiers may come back to these shores who received, until the 8th century BC, the Greek colonists of the motherland.
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in R. Chowaniec (ed.), Unveiling the past of an ancient town. Akrai/Acrae in south-eastern Sicily, Warsaw: University of Warsaw - Department of Archaeology., 2015
Bibliografia archeologica su Akrai (1558-2015)
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Entrusting the passage of souls on the other side of Acheron, people places in the ancient tombs ... more Entrusting the passage of souls on the other side of Acheron, people places in the ancient tombs a donation for the " ferryman " and a funeral wealth that could somehow serve the deceased in his eternal abode in Hades. Among the most common, as well as pottery, can be found anthropomorphic and zoomorphic clay statuettes, linked by a direct thread to the sphere of the divine. In this paper, we want to pay attention on the small Akrai, sub-colony of Syracuse, where since its founding in the second quarter of the 7th century BC, the religious life of its inhabitants in pursuit of peace, under the watchful eye and detached of the Olympian pantheon, was focused to make benevolent the souls of the dead or to exorcise the evil forces that in the mouth of poets, had taken the monstrous form notes in mythology. The phenomenon of the heroic cult in Akrai had found, especially in the Hellenistic age, a not indifferent political support, in the person of Hiero II, king of Syracuse. Th...
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Entrusting the passage of souls on the other side of Acheron, people places in the ancient tombs ... more Entrusting the passage of souls on the other side of Acheron, people places in the ancient tombs a donation for the “ferryman” and a funeral wealth that could somehow serve the deceased in his eternal abode in Hades. Among the most common, as well as pottery, can be found anthropomorphic and zoomorphic clay statuettes, linked by a direct thread to the sphere of the divine.
In this paper, we want to pay attention on the small Akrai, sub-colony of Syracuse, where since its founding in the second quarter of the 7th century BC, the religious life of its inhabitants in pursuit of peace, under the watchful eye and detached of the Olympian pantheon, was focused to make benevolent the souls of the dead or to exorcise the evil forces that in the mouth of poets, had taken the monstrous form notes in mythology. The phenomenon of the heroic cult in Akrai had found, especially in the Hellenistic age, a not indifferent political support, in the person of Hiero II, king of Syracuse. The stone quarry (latomeion) on the south-eastern of Acremonte, already active in the late 6th century BC, changes destination towards the end of Agathocles’s kingdom (4th century BC), when we assist its transformation into a worship place whose evidence has also inspired the scholarly name “Templi Ferali”, perhaps attributable to Paolo Orsi. Some materials, finally, from the Judica Collection and from stores of the Archaeological Museum in Syracuse, allow us to glimpse the divine and monstrous forms who, as glimmers of light in the darkness that still reigns on our knowledge of the religious sense and beliefs of Siceliotes, accompanied the earthly journey of the Acrenses.
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Η λατρεία του Ηρακλέους μαρτυρείται στην Γέλα και στον Ακράγαντα από μικρές αλλά σημαντικές ενδεί... more Η λατρεία του Ηρακλέους μαρτυρείται στην Γέλα και στον Ακράγαντα από μικρές αλλά σημαντικές ενδείξεις, επί το πλείστον αρχαιολογικές, και διατηρείται ζωντανή καθ’όλην την διάρκεια της κλασσικής και ελληνιστικής εποχής. Σ’αυτό το άρθρο, ακολουθούνται τα ίχνη της λατρείας αυτής στα νησιά (Ρόδο και Κρήτη) από που, κατά τον Θουκιδίδη, προήλθαν οι άποικοι που ίδρυσαν την Γέλα (689/8 π.Χ.) στη νότια ακτή της Σικελίας και επισημάνεται η ‘πολιτισμική’ διάστασις της ηρωικής μορφής του, ως καταλληλότερο εργαλείο στην προσπάθεια των Ελλήνων να αναπαράγουν στο αυτόχθονο τριγύρο τους περιβάλλον τις ιδανικές συνθήκες ζωής που στερότουσαν στην πατρίδα, ώστε να εξασφαλίσουν την κατοχή τους.
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Addenda (2003-2007) e Corrigenda della Bibliografia archeologica su Akrai.
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Books / Monografie by Paolo Daniele Scirpo
Papers / Articoli by Paolo Daniele Scirpo
Nato a Nauplio ai primi del Novecento ma trasferitosi in giovane età ad Atene, si laureò in Giurisprudenza all’Università di Atene ma decise poco dopo di non esercitare la professione di avvocato ma di dedicarsi interamente alla sua vera aspirazione: la letteratura.
Nel corso della sua poliedrica carriera, Terzakis si cimentò nella scrittura di racconti, romanzi ed opere teatrali, ed accanto ad un’instancabile attività di traduttore di classici e contemporanei, affiancò il suo lavoro di direttore di due riviste letterarie della capitale a quella ben più prestigiosa di Direttore artistico del Teatro Nazionale di Grecia.
Il suo rapporto con l’Italia è segnato inizialmente dall’orrore della guerra. Volontario sul fronte albanese, sopravvisse al conflitto e ne illustrò l’andamento con il suo saggio storico (Epopea Ellenica), sulla base dei dati militari forniti dal Ministero Ellenico della Difesa.
Ma il Teatro lo riportò in Italia. Appassionato del bel canto, in qualità di Direttore del Teatro Nazionale di Grecia, mise in scena molte opere liriche italiane ed in qualità di Direttore artistico, siglando un legame indissolubile fra la Sicilia e la Grecia, quando in visita a Siracusa, assistette agli spettacoli classici che dal 1914 organizzava l’Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico nell’antica cavea del Temenite. Lì iniziò l’idea del gemellaggio con il festival teatrale di Epidauro.
Uno degli aspetti meno noti del Nostro fu il suo amore verso la “Decima Musa”. Dopo aver seguito un corso di Cinematografia a Roma, il Nostro iniziò a scrivere molte sceneggiature (molte rimaste inedite) ed arrivò a dirigere anche una pellicola (Un’avventura notturna), rielaborazione del suo romanzo “La città violetta”, con protagonista il famoso attore Dinos Iliopoulos e musica di Manos Chatzidakis.
Dell’opera di Anghelos Terzakis, quasi nulla però è noto in Italia , in mancanza di traduzioni della sua opera omnia. Questo breve ritratto prosopografico è il dovuto φόρος τιμής che ritengo abbia ampiamente meritato nel corso della sua lunga carriera.
Based on their knowledge of the area, thanks to exchanges that the Aegean merchants had already had with Sicily in previous centuries, the colonists under the leadership of the two settlers, Antiphemos of Lindos and Entimos of Crete (probably from Gortyn), founded on the south coast of the island, at the mouth of the eponymous river, the mixed colony of Gela (688 BC).
The cornerstone of the social class of the new town was evidently the Pantheon, resulting in the coexistence of ancient cults of Cretan and Rhodian origin. With the passage of time, these cults evolved and crystallized as a reflection of the new order of things that the Deinomenides dynasty imposed after painful stasis in the middle of the 6th century and the first tyrannies of Pantares’ sons in the early 5th century.
Founded in 580 BC by a mixed group of settlers originating primarily from Gela, Akragas inherited, according to Thucydides, the “Geloan Laws”. Among the deities included in the pantheon of the sub-colony, traces of Cretan religiosity recognized as endangered in Gela’s metropolis during the social and national crisis of the first half of the 6th century, found fertile ground here and flourished.
Starting with the analysis of literary and archaeological evidence, noting similarities in the religious sphere between the islands of the Aegean (Rhodes and Crete) and Siceliot colonies, reveals the form of Velchanos, the young god of eternal regeneration, of Cretan origin, who was revered and remembered in many ways by some of the population of Akragas. With the disappearance of the Cretan “phratry” after the fall of the polis to the Carthaginians (406 BC), only a distant echo of the god survived and was collected (and misunderstood) by later literary sources.
My purpose is not to further highlight the importance for Archaeology tout court and the classic one in particular, of the study of the antiquity from Magna Graecia, but to highlight how much of it is accessible not only to an audience unskilled but also (and especially) in the classrooms of the departments of Archaeology in the country. Far from wanting to criticize in already difficult times such as those we cross, the university institution in Greece, at the same time it's sure that a new way to expand the training offer of the new archeology scholars, can only be of benefit, and for this, we may hope that the recent opening towards new academic frontiers may come back to these shores who received, until the 8th century BC, the Greek colonists of the motherland.
In this paper, we want to pay attention on the small Akrai, sub-colony of Syracuse, where since its founding in the second quarter of the 7th century BC, the religious life of its inhabitants in pursuit of peace, under the watchful eye and detached of the Olympian pantheon, was focused to make benevolent the souls of the dead or to exorcise the evil forces that in the mouth of poets, had taken the monstrous form notes in mythology. The phenomenon of the heroic cult in Akrai had found, especially in the Hellenistic age, a not indifferent political support, in the person of Hiero II, king of Syracuse. The stone quarry (latomeion) on the south-eastern of Acremonte, already active in the late 6th century BC, changes destination towards the end of Agathocles’s kingdom (4th century BC), when we assist its transformation into a worship place whose evidence has also inspired the scholarly name “Templi Ferali”, perhaps attributable to Paolo Orsi. Some materials, finally, from the Judica Collection and from stores of the Archaeological Museum in Syracuse, allow us to glimpse the divine and monstrous forms who, as glimmers of light in the darkness that still reigns on our knowledge of the religious sense and beliefs of Siceliotes, accompanied the earthly journey of the Acrenses.
Nato a Nauplio ai primi del Novecento ma trasferitosi in giovane età ad Atene, si laureò in Giurisprudenza all’Università di Atene ma decise poco dopo di non esercitare la professione di avvocato ma di dedicarsi interamente alla sua vera aspirazione: la letteratura.
Nel corso della sua poliedrica carriera, Terzakis si cimentò nella scrittura di racconti, romanzi ed opere teatrali, ed accanto ad un’instancabile attività di traduttore di classici e contemporanei, affiancò il suo lavoro di direttore di due riviste letterarie della capitale a quella ben più prestigiosa di Direttore artistico del Teatro Nazionale di Grecia.
Il suo rapporto con l’Italia è segnato inizialmente dall’orrore della guerra. Volontario sul fronte albanese, sopravvisse al conflitto e ne illustrò l’andamento con il suo saggio storico (Epopea Ellenica), sulla base dei dati militari forniti dal Ministero Ellenico della Difesa.
Ma il Teatro lo riportò in Italia. Appassionato del bel canto, in qualità di Direttore del Teatro Nazionale di Grecia, mise in scena molte opere liriche italiane ed in qualità di Direttore artistico, siglando un legame indissolubile fra la Sicilia e la Grecia, quando in visita a Siracusa, assistette agli spettacoli classici che dal 1914 organizzava l’Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico nell’antica cavea del Temenite. Lì iniziò l’idea del gemellaggio con il festival teatrale di Epidauro.
Uno degli aspetti meno noti del Nostro fu il suo amore verso la “Decima Musa”. Dopo aver seguito un corso di Cinematografia a Roma, il Nostro iniziò a scrivere molte sceneggiature (molte rimaste inedite) ed arrivò a dirigere anche una pellicola (Un’avventura notturna), rielaborazione del suo romanzo “La città violetta”, con protagonista il famoso attore Dinos Iliopoulos e musica di Manos Chatzidakis.
Dell’opera di Anghelos Terzakis, quasi nulla però è noto in Italia , in mancanza di traduzioni della sua opera omnia. Questo breve ritratto prosopografico è il dovuto φόρος τιμής che ritengo abbia ampiamente meritato nel corso della sua lunga carriera.
Based on their knowledge of the area, thanks to exchanges that the Aegean merchants had already had with Sicily in previous centuries, the colonists under the leadership of the two settlers, Antiphemos of Lindos and Entimos of Crete (probably from Gortyn), founded on the south coast of the island, at the mouth of the eponymous river, the mixed colony of Gela (688 BC).
The cornerstone of the social class of the new town was evidently the Pantheon, resulting in the coexistence of ancient cults of Cretan and Rhodian origin. With the passage of time, these cults evolved and crystallized as a reflection of the new order of things that the Deinomenides dynasty imposed after painful stasis in the middle of the 6th century and the first tyrannies of Pantares’ sons in the early 5th century.
Founded in 580 BC by a mixed group of settlers originating primarily from Gela, Akragas inherited, according to Thucydides, the “Geloan Laws”. Among the deities included in the pantheon of the sub-colony, traces of Cretan religiosity recognized as endangered in Gela’s metropolis during the social and national crisis of the first half of the 6th century, found fertile ground here and flourished.
Starting with the analysis of literary and archaeological evidence, noting similarities in the religious sphere between the islands of the Aegean (Rhodes and Crete) and Siceliot colonies, reveals the form of Velchanos, the young god of eternal regeneration, of Cretan origin, who was revered and remembered in many ways by some of the population of Akragas. With the disappearance of the Cretan “phratry” after the fall of the polis to the Carthaginians (406 BC), only a distant echo of the god survived and was collected (and misunderstood) by later literary sources.
My purpose is not to further highlight the importance for Archaeology tout court and the classic one in particular, of the study of the antiquity from Magna Graecia, but to highlight how much of it is accessible not only to an audience unskilled but also (and especially) in the classrooms of the departments of Archaeology in the country. Far from wanting to criticize in already difficult times such as those we cross, the university institution in Greece, at the same time it's sure that a new way to expand the training offer of the new archeology scholars, can only be of benefit, and for this, we may hope that the recent opening towards new academic frontiers may come back to these shores who received, until the 8th century BC, the Greek colonists of the motherland.
In this paper, we want to pay attention on the small Akrai, sub-colony of Syracuse, where since its founding in the second quarter of the 7th century BC, the religious life of its inhabitants in pursuit of peace, under the watchful eye and detached of the Olympian pantheon, was focused to make benevolent the souls of the dead or to exorcise the evil forces that in the mouth of poets, had taken the monstrous form notes in mythology. The phenomenon of the heroic cult in Akrai had found, especially in the Hellenistic age, a not indifferent political support, in the person of Hiero II, king of Syracuse. The stone quarry (latomeion) on the south-eastern of Acremonte, already active in the late 6th century BC, changes destination towards the end of Agathocles’s kingdom (4th century BC), when we assist its transformation into a worship place whose evidence has also inspired the scholarly name “Templi Ferali”, perhaps attributable to Paolo Orsi. Some materials, finally, from the Judica Collection and from stores of the Archaeological Museum in Syracuse, allow us to glimpse the divine and monstrous forms who, as glimmers of light in the darkness that still reigns on our knowledge of the religious sense and beliefs of Siceliotes, accompanied the earthly journey of the Acrenses.
Η Αγορά των Ακρών δεν έχει ακόμη απεκαλυφτεί, αλλά εντοπίσθη στη δεκαετία του ‘90, χάρη των αεροφωτογραφιών που παρήγγειλε ο τότε Έφορος Αρχαιοτήτων των Συρακουσών, ο Giuseppe Voza. Δυστυχώς, καμμία ανασκαφή ακολούθησε την ανακοίνωση της ανακάλυψης.""