Neptune and the sea: salvation, storm and oblivion

For the cycle “Life, death and travel in classical mythology”, a meeting with the International Center of Writers of Calabria and the philologist Paola Radici Colace, professor at the University of Messina and director of the Scientific Committee of the CIS, on the theme “Neptune and the sea: salvation, storm and oblivion”, on Thursday 13 December, at 5.00 pm, in the Conference Room.

Introduce: the director of MArRC Carmelo Malacrino and the president of CIS Rosita Loreley Borruto.

It will be an adventure of literature and imagination to discover the myth of Poseidon-Neptune, god of the sea and of all waters, of navigation, storms and earthquakes, which holds the trident in hand, symbol of the power of the deep sea , and towed by seahorses, with a procession of dolphins.

“The journey by sea” is a metaphor of the very life of the human being. “Creator of monstrous beings, often irascible and vindictive, the god can shake the earth, move the tides, provoke earthquakes and tsunamis, swallow men and ships, but in its benign version it can save sailors on their way, make safe and sound come travelers, docking ships in a safe land, creating new islands as a landing place for sailors and offering a calm sea without storms”, Colace says.

“Neptune, father of the legendary winged horse Pegasus, is the archetype of Imagination. It can take any form to reach the most hidden meanders of the Universe and can be transported from one place to another in a flash, eluding time and space”, the scholar tells. “This ability to establish relationships between things, places and distant facts, and to connect the infinitely small with the immeasurably great is the power of water”.