Virgils Golden Egg
and other
Neapolitan Miracles
Virgils Golden Egg
and other
Neapolitan Miracles
An Investigation into the Sources of Creativity
Michael A. Ledeen
First published 2011 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Copyright 2011 by Taylor & Francis.
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2011010267
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ledeen, Michael Arthur, 1941-
Virgils golden egg and other Neapolitan miracles : an investigation into the sources of creativity / Michael A. Ledeen.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4128-4240-2 (acid-free paper)
1. Naples (Italy)Civilization. 2. Naples (Italy)Intellectual life. 3. Naples (Italy)Social life and customs. 4. Creative abilityItalyNaples. 5. LifeSocial aspectsItalyNaples. 6. DeathSocial aspectsItalyNaples. I. Title.
DG845.6.L43 2011
945.731dc222011010267
ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-4240-2 (hbk)
Contents
Naples isnt easy. You need good guides, and Ive been fortunate, starting with my first one, Elsa Romeo, the widow of the great Sicilian historian Rosario Romeo. I had just finished a book on Machiavelli and wanted a bit of chaos, and I had a theory about Naples that I wanted to test (after a while I rejected it). She offered to go there with me, and we spent a week walking the streets, mostly in the Spaccanapoli area around the Croce Institute, which Rosario had directed for a while in the sixties.
There have been many good guides over the years, including the entire Filangieri family (above all Dragonetto and Fulvia), Professors Giuseppe Galasso and Marino Niola, Giobbi Greco, Ciro Paone (the driving force behind Kiton), Annamaria Cirillo (of the Libreria Neapolis in Via San Gregorio Armeno, the same street that specializes in cresh figures), Davide Azzolini (one of the producers of the Naples Film Festival), and my old friend Pietro Forquet, one of the all time great bridge champions.
It is a great treat to return to Transaction and to Irving Louis Horowitz and Mary Ellen Curtis. Ours is a friendship that goes back to the late 1960s in Saint Louis, and were too old to stop now. Anyway, our dogs, who are wiser than we are, would never tolerate it.
As you will see, a lot of this book has to do with religion, of a special sort. There is a considerable body of scholarly and literary work on religion in southern Italy generally, and Naples particularly, and if you are stimulated by Virgils Golden Egg you ought to have a look at some of it, from Carlo Levis famous novel Christ Stopped at Eboli to more recent non-fiction works, mostly untranslated alas, by Galasso and Niola.
Its traditional to dedicate books to someone, and for me the incarnation of the Naples I think I have come to understand is the maestro of the Ospedale delle Bambole (the Dolls Hospital), Luigi Grassi, and his daughter Tiziana. They made a terra cotta figure of Virgil the Sorcerer for me, and he sat on my desk for several years, answering questions and telling jokes. I couldnt have done it without him. Or his creators. This is a book about creativity, so it is dedicated to Gigi and Tizi. Thanks.
A very long time ago, Naples was threatened with catastrophe, as it has so often throughout its long history. The great volcano Vesuvius was festering, and the land shook all around the Bay of Naples, threatening to break the walls of the royal castle on the tiny island of Megaride. In their fear, the people turned to Virgil, the great Latin poet and sorcerer, and Virgil crafted a golden griffins egg, sealed it in a crystal sphere, and locked it in an iron cage. He buried the egg in the castles foundations, thereby providing stability to the castle, and eternal life to Naples. But there was one condition: the egg must remain intact, precisely where he had placed it. If the egg were to be damaged, Virgil warned, the city would fall and the castle would sink into the sea.
Ever since, it has been known as Castel dellOvo, the Egg Castle.
This marked a watershed in the mythic history of modern Naples, which was earlier known as Neapolisthe new (Greek) cityand earlier still as Parthenope, after a lovelorn siren. Life in Naples has always been about magic. The popular legends surrounding the life of Virgil are as engrossing, elegant, and sometimes frightening as the British tales of King Arthurs sorcerer and adviser, Merlin. Virgil, it is said, was raised by a Celtic magician and astrologer named Stimichon, who was the apprentice to a man named Magius or Magus. Virgils mother was Magius breathtakingly beautiful daughter Maia (She Who is Great), and it is said that the god Jupiter, desperately smitten, turned himself into gold leaves that floated on the wind into Maias house, and dissolved in her wine cup. She conceived Virgil after drinking Jupiters essence, and Virgil was thus semi-divine. Dryads arrived to assist in his birth, and there was a golden star on his forehead when he emerged from Maias womb. He walked and ate real food from the moment of his birth, and flowers bloomed where the newborn Virgil set his feet.
The poet Virgil, about whom we have historical evidence rather than the stuff of legend, came naturally by both his magical and literary talents, for his mother was the sister of the great writer Lucretius. No wonder that Virgil saved and sanctified Naples, wrote the Aeneid, and guided Dante through the darkness of the Inferno to the gates of paradise. He even gave his bones to the city. His will provided that he be buried in Naples, and the people sealed his bones in an ampoule and placed it in the Egg Castle. Virgils bones protected Naples from foreign occupation, just as Aristotles bones protected Palermo. The magic of Virgils bones lasted a thousand years, and tradition holds that Naples only fell when the ampoule cracked, thus opening a fault in the citys defenses.
Virgil performed many miracles for Naples, and they were piously chronicled all over Europe throughout the Middle Ages. He banished flies and kept both land and sea serpents under control. He found a magical way to prevent meat from spoiling, and he placed a wondrous two-faced mask at the gates of the city that blessed those that entered and cursed those that left. Both the blessing and the curse remain active in the hearts of his heirs. Although they are among the worlds most active migrants, and millions have gone abroad to find work, Neapolitans believe, in the words of one of their most beautiful songs, that one cannot live far from Naples.
Anyone who wants to understand Naples has to begin with magic and legend, both of which permeate Neapolitan history. Fifteen hundred years after the salvation of the Egg Castle, a Neapolitan writer produced the first European collection of fairy talesthe
