One of the most beautiful areas of Sicily is located along the eastern coast of the island and it is the Riviera of the Cyclops: this is a land where history and legend come together, cloaking every place and village with fantastic and fascinating stories, from that of Aeneas who landed here to save his friend Achaemenides to that of Jupiter who, in the forest once present in the area, hung the bodies of the Titans he defeated.
Then there is the legend of Aci and Galatea, two mythological characters whose thwarted love is said to have given rise to the villages scattered along the Cyclops Riviera and in the immediate hinterland.
The legendary love of Galatea and Aci
Ovid, in Book XIII of his work Metamorphoses, tells of the Cyclops Polyphemus, an inhabitant of the volcano Etna, who was madly in love with Galatea: she was one of the fifty Nereids, that is, the nymphs who were the daughters of Nereus and Doris. Galatea was beautiful and had skin the color of the moon: it is not surprising that to fall in love with her was also Acis, a young shepherd who was also handsome, the son of the nymph Simetide and the god of forests and mountains, Pan. The story goes that Acis, while grazing his flock of sheep by the sea, met Galatea, and the two young people fell madly in love with each other.
Each of Polyphemus’s courtships therefore went unsuccessfully, fueling the Cyclops’ anger and thirst for revenge: one day, in fact, while Galatea and Aci were walking lovingly on the beach, Polyphemus saw them and unleashed all his wrath on the shepherd boy. He took a rock and hurled it at Aci, killing him.
Maci’s cuna cartoon
When Galatea heard the tragic news she rushed to her beloved and wept so much over his tortured body that she pitied the gods: in fact, the latter decided to turn poor Aci blood into a river, which would reach from Mount Etna to the same beach where Aci and Galatea met.
It is said that this little river, which in Sicily they call U Sangu Di Jaci, is none other than the Lavinaio stream, called by the Greeks Akis, whose waters are in fact reddish.
Aci’s body, on the other hand, again according to legend, was literally dismembered into nine parts, falling back to the same places where the Catanese villages whose names all begin with Aci were born.
In the Villa Comunale of Acireale, famous for the island’s most important carnival, there is a sculptural group depicting Aci and Galatea at the saddest moment of their love, which is when the nymph finds her lover dead.
Photo by catania.italiani.it
The most beautiful villages in the name of Aci: from Aci Castello to Aci Trezza
Among the most beautiful villages associated with the legend of Aci is Aci Castello, located together with Aci Trezza on the Riviera of the Cyclops, in front of the spectacular Isole dei Ciclopi Marine Protected Area. The village is famous for its Norman Castle, situated atop a sharp rocky promontory of volcanic origin that emerges from the crystal clear sea: it seems that following the eruption of Mount Etna that followed the 1169 earthquake, a lava flow joined this promontory to the mainland. A flight of steps from Piazza Castello leads up to this fortress, which in the past also hosted Roger of Altavilla and Robert Guiscard: today the castle houses the Civic Museum, dedicated to the paleontology, archaeology and mineralogy of the area.
Aci Trezza, on the other hand, is identified with I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga, set in this very village in front of which are the Faraglioni dei Ciclopi: legend has it that they were thrown by Polyphemus after being tricked and blinded by Ulysses and his companions. From Aci Trezza one can also glimpse Lachea Island, where Odysseus landed but found only goats. In Aci Trezza a visit to the Casa del Nespolo, a characteristic house in 19th-century Sicily where, in the novel, a family of fishermen lives. Today this house is a museum where memorabilia and objects related to both the novel and Luchino Visconti’s film inspired by Verga’s work are on display.
The other villages linked to the legend are Aci Sant’Antonio, where there is the Museum of the Sicilian Cart linked to the folklore and history of the island, Aci Bonaccorsi which hosts the “National Fireworks Festival” in August, Aci Santa Lucia, the ancient Aci San Filippo and Aci Platani, where the Museum dedicated to peasant culture and the Mother Church where paintings by Platania and Vasta are preserved.
Faraglioni of Aci Trezza
0 Comment