Tetradrachm of the polisof Rhegion (present-day Reggio Calabria) in Bruttium, south Italy. On the obverse, a lion’s head; on the reverse, the head of Apollo, crowned with laurel. Artist unknown; minted between 410 and 387 BCE. Photo credit: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com
How many words do you know to describe the land? Language reveals a lot about a people. In the village of Bova, in Southern Italy’s Calabria, the Museo della Lingua Greco-Calabra “Gerhard Rohlfs” takes a closer look at this connection between the calabresi and their land, specifically the community that speaks an ancient Calabrian Greek language in the Aspromonte Mountains, way down south in the toe of Italy.
BOVESIA: GRECO-CALABRO– CALABRIAN GREEK IN BOVA, CALABRIA
Bova, at the heart of the Bovesia, is the last bastion of Greek speakers in the Province of Reggio Calabria. (The other Southern Italian enclave of historically Greek-language communities is the Grecìa Salentina near Lecce in the Salento peninsula on the heel of the boot.) In Calabria, the dialect spoken by an ever-dwindling handful of people is called grecanicoorgreco-calabro. This Greek dialect is one of Italy’s official minority languages.
How long have they been speaking Greek in Calabria? Does this language stem from the time of Greater Greece, beginning in the 8th century BC or from the Byzantine Period from the 6th to 12th centuries AD? Scholars differ on this point. Although Calabrian Greek has followed its own developmental path, it is categorized as a modern Greek language with Calabrian and Italian influences. Interesting to note, however, that the grecanico in Calabria also contains numerous ancient-Greek words, which have long disappeared from the language spoken in Greece today.
The Museum of the Calabrian Greek Languag
The Museum of the Calabrian Greek Language in Bova explores different aspects of the language through photos, historic documents and artifacts, as well as audio-visual material. Gerhard Rohlfs (1892 – 1986) was a German linguist, whose area of study was Romance languages, in particular, those spoken in Southern Italy. Often referred to as an “archeologist of words,” he asserted that Italian-Greek descended directly from the days of Magna Graecia, contending that the ancient Romans had not been able to Latinize the entire Italian peninsula.
The museum is located in what is often referred to as Bova Superiore, the old town located on the top of a hill, complete with numerous churches and castle ruins. Along the streets of historic Bova and down a hillside trail, the farmer’s life is also remembered in the Sentiero della Civiltà Contadina – Path of Rural Culture, with large millstones, olive and bergamot oil presses, drinking troughs, and other objects relating to the agrarian existence of the bovesi (people from Bova) not so long ago.
Museums and even the attractions help keep memories of the old town and the old life alive. Many bovesi moved to the coastal town of Bova Marina and much further beyond.
Today, Bova, Calabria counts fewer than 500 residents. Although it has its fair share of abandoned houses, many have been renovated to the point that the historic center has been named one of the Borghi più belli d’Italia (Italy’s most beautiful villages) as well as one of only eighteen in Italy to be named a Gioiello d’Italia (Jewel of Italy).
Willgrecanicosurvive?
Very few young people speak their native tongue, and with the focus on English and other languages, Latin and even ancient Greece in the schools, the prospects are less than rosy. Several cultural groups and schools offer classes, but learning a modern language is difficult, no less an ancient one. To dedicate the proper amount of time and energy, there must be a very strong motivation.
The treasures of Hera : Greek antiquities from Crotone, in southern Italy’s Calabria
In Crotone there was one of the most important sanctuaries in Magna Graecia (the area of southern Italy populated by Greek settlers from the eighth century BC). It was dedicated to the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus and queen of the gods, who was venerated here as the protector of women, as well as a type of Mother Nature.
Excavations in Crotone in 1910 uncovered a treasure trove of gold, silver and bronze votive offerings to the goddess, which provide insight into the people and traditions of the time.
The most outstanding piece is a glistening gold diadem, or tiara, shaped out of a band of gold leaf and decorated with both a braid pattern and foliage garland. Interestingly, coins used in Crotone from the fourth century portrayed a crowned head of Hera.
To this day, the diadem still maintains its golden glow and is quite a treat to stumble upon in the museum.
Beautiful Women of Ancient Medma in Rosarno, Calabria, Italy
Medma, Rosarno? For most travelers to Italy, these names will not ring any bells. The former was an ancient city-state of Greater Greece and the latter is its modern-day counterpart in Calabria. Medma’s terracotta is exceptionally beautiful. You can see a few pieces in the collection of the British Museum, or visit the archeological museums in Rosarno and Reggio, and have your fill.
The terracotta figurines from Medma are particularly striking. The sculptures were fashioned from a local clay that has lent their characteristic reddish color. Medma had close ties with Locri Epizephyrii, a colony established in the 7th century BC by women from Locris in central Greece. Handsome ladies, no doubt.
MEDMA HISTORY
The Locrians founded Medma (or Mesma) in the 6th century BC. Locri lies over the mountains along Calabria’s eastern coast on the Ionian Sea and Medma is on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western shore at what would have been less than a day’s walk back in the day. The present city is called Rosarno and its center sits on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Gioia Tauro. Today, state highway 682 goes west across the peninsula from just north of Locri.
From the dimensions of the excavations of the area, Medma would have been able to accommodate over 4,000 citizens in its heyday during the Greek period. The town was mentioned by Roman writers. However, it is thought that the population eventually moved and founded nearby Nicotera some time in the 2nd century AD.
Excavations have uncovered numerous artifacts as well as structural remains of the city. Judging from the craft of the terracotta and bronze pieces discovered in the necropolis and sanctuary areas, Medma had a distinctive and sophisticated lifestyle with particular emphasis on the exaltation of beauty. Interesting to note that Locri Epizephyrii, the founding city-state, was a matriarchal society that was unique in the Greek world.
MEDMA’S LADIES
The wealth of terracotta includes many female heads and busts. These votive offerings would have been divine representations or stylized images of the donors, themselves. Various hairstyles frame the noble faces set off by classic earrings or a modest crown. What are they all thinking behind those half smiles?
The enigmatic expressions date these sculptures between the late 6th to the 5th century BC. The following terracotta figures with a rigid, frontal stance, one seated on a throne and the other standing, offer winged creatures that bring to mind the cults of Aphrodite and Persephone.
Another standing female figure from the Archaic Period balances the high cylindrical head covering of a goddess with a wreath in her left hand and a pomegranate, the symbol of fertility, in her right.
MEDMA ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN ROSARNO
Numerous ancient objects from Medma are on display in the archeological museum in Reggio Calabria, and in 2014 the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Medma-Rosarno opened in the city of Rosarno, which is in the Province of Reggio Calabria less than an hour’s drive north of Reggio. More information can be found on the Museo Medma’s Facebook page.
The treasures of Hera : Greek antiquities from Crotone, in southern Italy’s Calabria
In Crotone there was one of the most important sanctuaries in Magna Graecia (the area of southern Italy populated by Greek settlers from the eighth century BC). It was dedicated to the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus and queen of the gods, who was venerated here as the protector of women, as well as a type of Mother Nature.
Excavations in Crotone in 1910 uncovered a treasure trove of gold, silver and bronze votive offerings to the goddess, which provide insight into the people and traditions of the time.
The most outstanding piece is a glistening gold diadem, or tiara, shaped out of a band of gold leaf and decorated with both a braid pattern and foliage garland. Interestingly, coins used in Crotone from the fourth century portrayed a crowned head of Hera.
To this day, the diadem still maintains its golden glow and is quite a treat to stumble upon in the museum.
Aphrodite, Persephone, and Adonis relief 400-375 BCE. The J. Paul Getty Museum. Images from mharrsch on flickr and Getty Museum.
“This pair of terracotta altars depicts the death of Adonis, a God of vegetation, and the rituals that were celebrated in his honor. On the altar on the right, Adonis, looking weak, sits supported in the arms of his lover Aphrodite, the Goddess of love. Adonis was born of an incestuous love between the Assyrian king Theias and his daughter Myrrha; Aphrodite was smitten by the infant Adonis’s great beauty and hid him in a box (cista), which she entrusted to Persephone. When Persephone opened the box, she too fell in love with the beautiful infant and decided not to give him back to Aphrodite. Zeus interceded in the quarrel between the two Goddesses and ordered that Adonis should spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third with Persephone, and the last third wherever he liked— Adonis chose to devote that time to Aphrodite as well. The woman at bottom right, sitting on the box, is likely to be Persephone. On the left altar, three women rush to the scene, carrying musical instruments: a tympanum, or drum, and a xylophone.
Small terracotta altars such as these would have been used for private worship, perhaps to burn incense. This pair still bears traces of burning on its upper surfaces, as well as pigment used for decorating the relief figures. Stylistic features of the figures and their drapery, as well as the type of clay that was used, suggest that the altars were made in Medma, in Southern Italy.”
How many words do you know to describe the land? Language reveals a lot about a people. In the village of Bova, in Southern Italy’s Calabria, the Museo della Lingua Greco-Calabra “Gerhard Rohlfs” takes a closer look at this connection between the calabresi and their land, specifically the community that speaks an ancient Calabrian Greek language in the Aspromonte Mountains, way down south in the toe of Italy.
BOVESIA: GRECO-CALABRO– CALABRIAN GREEK IN BOVA, CALABRIA
Bova, at the heart of the Bovesia, is the last bastion of Greek speakers in the Province of Reggio Calabria. (The other Southern Italian enclave of historically Greek-language communities is the Grecìa Salentina near Lecce in the Salento peninsula on the heel of the boot.) In Calabria, the dialect spoken by an ever-dwindling handful of people is called grecanicoorgreco-calabro. This Greek dialect is one of Italy’s official minority languages.
How long have they been speaking Greek in Calabria? Does this language stem from the time of Greater Greece, beginning in the 8th century BC or from the Byzantine Period from the 6th to 12th centuries AD? Scholars differ on this point. Although Calabrian Greek has followed its own developmental path, it is categorized as a modern Greek language with Calabrian and Italian influences. Interesting to note, however, that the grecanico in Calabria also contains numerous ancient-Greek words, which have long disappeared from the language spoken in Greece today.
The Museum of the Calabrian Greek Languag
The Museum of the Calabrian Greek Language in Bova explores different aspects of the language through photos, historic documents and artifacts, as well as audio-visual material. Gerhard Rohlfs (1892 – 1986) was a German linguist, whose area of study was Romance languages, in particular, those spoken in Southern Italy. Often referred to as an “archeologist of words,” he asserted that Italian-Greek descended directly from the days of Magna Graecia, contending that the ancient Romans had not been able to Latinize the entire Italian peninsula.
The museum is located in what is often referred to as Bova Superiore, the old town located on the top of a hill, complete with numerous churches and castle ruins. Along the streets of historic Bova and down a hillside trail, the farmer’s life is also remembered in the Sentiero della Civiltà Contadina – Path of Rural Culture, with large millstones, olive and bergamot oil presses, drinking troughs, and other objects relating to the agrarian existence of the bovesi (people from Bova) not so long ago.
Museums and even the attractions help keep memories of the old town and the old life alive. Many bovesi moved to the coastal town of Bova Marina and much further beyond.
Today, Bova, Calabria counts fewer than 500 residents. Although it has its fair share of abandoned houses, many have been renovated to the point that the historic center has been named one of the Borghi più belli d’Italia (Italy’s most beautiful villages) as well as one of only eighteen in Italy to be named a Gioiello d’Italia (Jewel of Italy).
Willgrecanicosurvive?
Very few young people speak their native tongue, and with the focus on English and other languages, Latin and even ancient Greece in the schools, the prospects are less than rosy. Several cultural groups and schools offer classes, but learning a modern language is difficult, no less an ancient one. To dedicate the proper amount of time and energy, there must be a very strong motivation.
When planning for you, we always consider what time is sunset, especially if you are a photography enthusiast. Yes… when I talk with you about your desires for your itineraries, I get into a lot of details about your interests and how you like to travel, and I customize your tour to the hour (If that’s what you want.). So, when you visit Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, the light is just right on the Temple of Hercules for a beautiful photograph. #experiencesicily #sicily #thisissicily #agrigento #templeofhercules #temple #tempio #ancientgreek #ancient #doric #architecture #unesco #sicilia #siciliabedda #italy #italia #sicilyvacation #sicilians_world #ig_sicily #igerssicilia #instasicilia #sicily_tricolors #traveltogether #authenticsicily #sicilytour #whatsicilyis #sicilytravel #viverelasicilia (at Valle Dei Templi Agrigento) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIXST9LF-4-/?igshid=1mytpceq1443d
The doric temple at Segesta, built c. 420 BCE by a Sicilian architect who was influenced by his Greek forefathers’ design styles, sits in the Trapani Province countryside. #experiencesicily #sicily #segesta #doric #temple #calatafimi #grecoantico #ancientgreek #sicilia #siciliabedda #italy #italia #sicilyvacation #sicilians_world #ig_sicily #igerssicilia #instasicilia #gf_italy #siculamenteDoc #sicily_tricolors #ig_visitsicily #Sicilia_PhotoGroup #smallgrouptours #traveltogether #authenticsicily #sicilytour #whatsicilyis #sicilytravel #viverelasicilia (at Tempio di Segesta) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLHHQX-lPgJ/?igshid=173by1r1ikwmv
Unlike many of the other temple ruins that one can visit throughout Sicily at Agrigento, Segesta, and on the acropolis of Selinunte, the sacred area of the Santuario della Malophoros (at Selinunte) was not a single rectangular building with Doric-style columns. It was an enclosed, walled, complex (a temenos) with a regal entranceway (called a propylaeum). The tall, thick perimeter of the Sanctuary enabled devotees to Demeter, Persephone, and Hades to practice their secretive rites in private. Here in this photo, you can see our group from May 2019 exiting the 6th century BCE sanctuary. (More on the rites in a future post.) Last Tuesday’s presentation about the Myths and Mysteries of Sicily: Western Sicily Part 1 was recorded. You can watch it at https://youtu.be/vWByeJXoxUM #experiencesicily #sicily #selinunte #demeter #persephone #divinefeminine #malophorus #sanctuary #ancientgreek #ancient #sicilia #siciliabedda #italy #italia #sicilyvacation #sicilians_world #ig_sicily #igerssicilia #instasicilia #siculamenteDoc #sicily_tricolors #ig_visitsicily #Sicilia_PhotoGroup #traveltogether #authenticsicily #whatsicilyis #viverlasicilia #sicilytour (at Selinunte) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKnhvVOldn8/?igshid=1r0hxastpz8vm
Templo de Atenea en Paestum, Italia. Tiene 6 columnas frontales por 13 laterales. La pronaos estaba decorada con columnas de estilo jónico así que es de los primeros que combina ambos estilos. Espectacular….
