If you love journeys full of stories and legends to tell and discover, do not miss this itinerary that will take you into the past of Naples and its surroundings.
La city of Neapolis, an ancient Greek colony, hosted the Universiade, University Olympics, and what better place could they choose than “Partenope”, as the city is called by many, a name that takes from the siren to which its origin and foundation is linked.
What the legend tells
Various legends have been told about this wonderful creature and one of them is praised by Homer in the thirteenth canto of the Odyssey.
Ulysses, who was known for his curiosity, wanted at all costs to listen to the song of the sirens, wonderful creatures that attracted navigators with their angelic and melodious voices, and then killed them. The man took precautions: he ordered his men to put wax plugs on their ears and tied himself to the mast of his ship forbidding his men to untie it. The idea had its effects, Ulysses did not fall prey to marine creatures. The sirens were very upset and for the disappointment they committed suicide crashing on the rocks.
La Parthenope siren, was carried by the sea currents right between the rocks of Megaride (where today Castel dell'Ovo stands). There she was found by some fishermen who worshiped her as a goddess. Once he landed on the islet, the mermaid's body dissolved into the morphology of the Neapolitan landscape, whose head is leaning to the east, on the hill of Capodimonte and the foot, to the west, towards the promontory of Posillipo.
The city, even after centuries, continues to be called the "Neapolitan city" and the beautiful Siren is its symbol, a fountain has also been dedicated to it in Piazza Sannazzaro.
Legends around Naples
We also find the myth in the places surrounding the city: Capri it is in fact considered the land of the sirens. Observing it from the Gulf we can see the features of a female body with the head corresponding to Mount Tiberio and the sides near Mount Solaro.
There is also another version, it is said that Partenope was a girl who lived in Greece, in a village overlooking the Ionian Sea. The woman was in love with the young Cimon, but their love was opposed by the father who had promised her to Eumeo. One day the two lovers decided to escape and landed on the Italian coasts, here they discovered a very fertile land and soon the word spread.
Many arrived on the coasts of Naples to visit such a wonderful place and Partenope became the Lady of the Neapolitans.
Naples and Magna Graecia
But the one on Partenope is just one of the many links that bind the Neapolitan and Campania culture to that of Greek mythology and the culture of Greece. Traces of Magna Graecia are still found today on our territory.
In the historic center of the city of Naples you can find an infinite number of sites full of traces of the prestigious past, a path that can be completed in the city's museums.
The Greek-Roman Naples would have developed mainly in the area of the current historical center. The first outpost of the city, founded by a group of Rodian navigators in 800 BC and then enlarged and inhabited by Greek colonists from Cuma starting from 680 BC, corresponded to the area between the islet of Megaride (where today the Castel dell 'Ovo) and the hill of Monte Echia (Pizzofalcone).
In this area, few remains of the oldest history of Naples remain: in particular, on Mount Echia, there are remains of a necropolis from the Cumana era, as well as the ruins of the villa of the Roman patrician Lucullus, from a later period.
The structure of Neapolis, preserved to this day, it was inspired by the foundations of Athenian town planning.
The thick defensive walls, formed by a double curtain of tuff blocks, surrounded the city following the profile of hills and valleys.
A section of the ancient walls is now visible in an open-air excavation in Piazza Bellini; the level, lower than that of the current road, demonstrates how the city of Naples has developed, over the centuries, by successive stratifications, so that in many areas the city today stands on the remains of the Roman one, which in turn had been built on the Greek one.
The history of the port
Where today we admire the Castel Nuovo, once stood the port of Neapolis. In fact, the sea reached here and thanks to the excavations for the construction of Line 1 of the Metro, the pier was discovered, where the Greeks docked their ships.
Extraordinary is the discovery of some sanded wrecks. We are talking about three Roman ships found in 2004 (called A, B and C): two are "onerary" ships (from the Latin onerarius: meaning weight, cargo) used for commercial transport and therefore comparable to our cargo ships, and one is a “horeia”, which carried very special passengers, the port easement, and was also used for activities related to fishing and the unloading and loading of goods.
Towards the ancient city
The walk along the promenade will take us to historical center of the city, from Via Mezzocannone will begin a journey within what was theancient city, included in the current historic center.
From the courtyard of the Federico II University and turning left, we will be able to admire the first remains of the fortification of the city, which lined the maritime side.
The fortifications partly lean on the University building, making this testimony even more fascinating.
About the walls of Neapolis, the ancients remember them particularly impressive and the rest of the city was famous for its impregnability. They were arranged along the edges of the plateau and were protected by natural valleys that surrounded them, constituting real defensive ditches. They were built with blocks of tuff that created, in some cases, a double curtain of walls connected by bridles and consolidated by a compact mass of earth and tuff flakes; in other cases there is a single curtain, however consolidated, as some points required less defense.
From the ascent of Via Mezzocannone, you walk along what was once the western wall perimeter of the ancient city. Here we come across further evidence of walls near the "Cinema Astra". The remains are literally wedged between the entrance to the cinema and a bar, further demonstrating that today's city of Naples lives on the ancient one.
Traveling through Spaccanapoli
When you reach the center of Piazza San Domenico Maggiore you have the church of the same name in front of you, while on the right via Benedetto Croce and on the left Via San Biagio dei Librai. Precisely where the square stands today, in the Greek-Roman era one of the entrances to the city was placed, the so-called Porta Cumana, so called for the direction of the road that led to Pozzuoli and Cuma. It is interesting to walk the stretch of Via Benedetto Croce up to Piazza del Gesù, thus continuing to follow the famous street commonly called entirely Spaccanapoli, which divides the urban agglomeration in two.
The Complex of Santa Chiara, which boasts, next to the Museum and the beautiful majolica cloister, an archaeological area consisting of the most complete thermal system found in Naples.
Before resuming the journey towards Via San Biagio dei Librai, and to walk along the lower decumanus in all its charm, a short stop in this square is a must, known as “del Nile” because it houses the statue dedicated to the Egyptian river in its center.
A city open to foreigners
The river divinity is represented through the image of a bearded man lying on the water holding a cornucopia and surrounded by putti and a sphinx. It is a work datable between the I and II century. AD period in which the area of the square was called regio Nilensis because there was a district of ancient Naples inhabited by oriental populations. The particular presence of Egyptians in Naples is explained by the commercial growth that the city had in this period, which favored the presence of foreign communities such as the Alexandrian one, which was particularly influential, given that in the same area perhaps there was also a temple dedicated to their deity Isis. In the museum there is a statue of Isis.
A little curiosity: the square is also called "Largo Corpo di NapoliAnd this is because until 1657 the statue lacked the bearded head, suggesting that it was a woman who personified the city of Naples and who fed its inhabitants as it did with the putti who drink from his chest.
The presence in the heart of ancient Naples of a neighborhood of Egyptian people and even of a temple built by them should not surprise us, and it demonstrates how Neapolis was a city open to foreigners and their culture, as well as to integration.
The ancient road system
There is no doubt that the thing that we can best distinguish in the historic center of Naples is precisely theancient road system, and this is because the modern streets do nothing but retrace the ancient ones, becoming the best preserved monument of the Greek-Roman city.
In fact the road we now call Via San Biagio del Librai runs exactly along the lower decumanus of the ancient city.
The urban layout of Neapolis consisted of three main streets, oriented in an east-west direction, which the Greeks called plateai and the Romans decumani (as we say today in your language). The three major parallel roads we find today, starting from the North, in Via Anticaglia, in Via Tribunali and Via San Biagio dei Librai.
The decumans had an entrance door at the beginning and at the end and were intersected by smaller and narrower streets called stenopoie and then cardines. The intersection with the minor roads created the insulae, neighborhoods where the houses stood. This road scheme, which can be covered entirely, probably refers to the orthogonal scheme of roads devised by the famous architect Hippodamus of Miletus, very famous for having also drawn the plan of the city of Athens. The impressive geometric regularity of the urban scheme is lost only in the areas intended for public use, such as those of the agora / forum and the acropolis.
Once our journey is over, in search of the Greek roots in the streets of the city, we can head towards the National archeologic museum, where it will be possible to admire all the testimonies found during the excavations (especially of the metro line 1).
Paestum, Cuma and Velia
Other areas of the Campania region also tell us about Greek origins: for example Paestum, Cuma and Velia.
Cuma is one of the oldest Greek colonies in Italy, it was founded in the eighth century BC and at its feet is still today theAntro of the Sibyl, linked to the famous myth of the seer.
It is an Acropolis full of temples, from which we have the opportunity to see a landscape of great beauty.
In the city of Paestum instead, in the Piana del Sele, we can find the magnificent Doric temples, the Basilica, the temple of Neptune and the temple of Ceres.
The Archaeological Museum of Paestum preserves precious artifacts found in the area and in the Heraion del Sele and the frescoes of Lucanian tombs, as well as the very famous ones of the Tomb of the Diver, represented during the opening ceremony of the 2019 Naples Universiade.
Finally we find the city of Velia, also known as the ancient Elea, which was the seat of a famous philosophical school: that of Parmenides and Zeno. Today the remains of an Ionic temple and theater are visible. The Porta Rosa, in the city walls, is one of the most beautiful and best preserved examples in Magna Graecia.
