Magna Graecia calls out to Greece: Sicily, the largest "Greek" island in the Mediterranean

Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean with a great and rich history, is well known for many reasons besides its beauty. It was an island on which the Greeks who settled worked extensively since 700 BC, creating a new Greece with all the elements of their classical culture. Today's Sicilians still remember it - or rather, they remember it again and turn to their roots to create a better future... The third and final part of Newsbomb.gr's long journey to Magna Graecia.

Newsbomb.gr carried out a great trek in Magna Graecia, highlighting a modern and exciting trend of many residents who honour their Greek heritage, seeking a stronger connection with us, the "Motherland" as they call us. We also highlight that our classical culture - and more - is evident everywhere and is duly honoured.

We introduced you to Cumae, Naples, Poseidonia, Metaponto and Taranto in the first part of the itinerary. The second part followed with Kroton and Calabria, while we also presented you the report from the Greek-speaking villages of Apulia and Calabria, where the inhabitants are not only Greek but also speak their own Greek dialect, Griko.

We end up with the third and last part that closes this trek on the island of Sicily.

Magna Graecia, namely southern Italy and Sicily, is full of surprises, mainly because it justifies its name for its history and today. The Sicilians, a people with such a special culture, honour and return to their roots, which are Greek, as the first - but also later - inhabitants of the island were Greek settlers from Chalkida, Athens, Rhodes, Crete and elsewhere.

Despite the many conquests that the island experienced, visitors will realise almost immediately that the saying "Una faccia, una razza" (one face one one race) finds full application here, while the culture of the island, its great monuments, the cuisine and so much more, do not look like they are Greek, but they are Greek…

As many residents feel today, they are looking for a glorious future in their heritage, based on the values of classical antiquity, of which they are members as much as we are, on this side of the Adriatic.

See Newsbomb.gr's itinerary in Sicily:

We take the ferry from Calabria and cross to the port of Messina, and from there, we go down to the eastern coast of Sicily and Taormina (ancient Tauromenio), a super-popular tourist destination, almost at the foot of Etna. There, university professors and scholars await us in an idyllic landscape who asked to see us, to express to us what Greekness is for them and why their island is full of it.

3 127 — "Clearly, Greece is very present not only from a purely linguistic point of view but also from the point of view of the cultural traditions in the area where we live".

4 86 — "There are many myths that come precisely from what was a dominant culture, which took shape in both language and mythology, shaping Sicilian culture."

5 124 — "So we feel Greek within us, we also have this Greek spirit that wanders in our soul; in fact, we have this great sense of hospitality that is characteristic of the Greeks".

6 78 — Gennaro Galdi, president of the Euro-Mediterranean Academy for the Arts: "Through art, we can illustrate both the ancient greatness of Greek art and Greek culture. Something that also happens in Sicily and Campania, but which needs to be further strengthened for the new generations."

We continue to Naxos - yes, you read that right - a colony of ours since 734 BC, while the area was recently - again - renamed after the Cycladic island for everyone to remember their origin.

There, and next to Portara - yes, it exists here too - teachers inform us about how the children in the schools are nurtured with all these things which here, we probably sideline them...

8 52 — Giuseppe Carmeni, Educator: "We are proud of our origins, and as a club, we always seek to pass on our roots to new generations."

9 64 — Giovanni Bucolo, Organiser of the "Greek Festival": Today we want to recreate this spirit here in Naxos, where the Greek language is no longer spoken, but our spirit has remained Greek because we have these memories and the feeling of this great cultural and historical heritage that comes to us from Greece, so we have direct ties. The 'Greek Festival' wants to narrate this bond."

Passing from Catania and to the southern coast of Sicily, where we continue the journey, for those who don't know, a real ancient Greek miracle occurs, which only those who visit it can perceive in its entirety.

Initially, Syracuse was probably the most important city of Magna Graecia and one of the most important in the entire Mediterranean, which was once where Archimedes worked. The inventor of the Antikythera Mechanism remains the "local hero" of the still beautiful city, as is evident everywhere.

In its ancient theatre, something wonderful is happening: Since 1914, with only the two world wars and the pandemic interrupting it, a two-month summer festival of ancient Greek performances has been held - last year, a record was set with 160,000 spectators.

11 43 — Carlo Castello, Archaeologist: "When the Romans entered Syracuse, it was as if they entered Mars. Because it was the world of Archimedes"...

On the southern coasts, we are headed to Gela, Akraganta (English: Agrigento) and Selinous (English: Selinunte), where everywhere we were warmly welcomed to explain to us how important Greekness is to them and how much they "practice" it today, with an eye on tomorrow...

It was something that we realised this easily, noting especially the great ancient temples that are fortunately preserved – Akraganta, in particular, is a modern ode to classical civilisation, with great temples five times the size of our own Acropolis.

We cannot help but think what form Greece would have had if only a part of the ancient architectural marvels had been saved, as happened there.

Gela:

12 31 — "Gela is an archaeological site, a very important city indeed, founded by Rhodian and Cretan settlers in 688 BC."

13 18 — Giuseppe Carnevale: "We are proud of this symbol with the Greek brothers because we still want a privileged agreement with the Greek nation in the future because many of us feel that we have Greek origin."

14 9 — Angelo Presti, Topographer: "It is important because we need to know the past to have a better future. Knowledge helps us and protects us".

15 30 — Giuseppe Ammatuna, Doctor: "I hope that our relations between Greece and Magna Graecia will continue over time and become stronger with many exchanges, especially cultural but also commercial, and primarily friendly."

16 17 — Letizia Rustico, Archaeologist of the Ministry of Culture: "What I studied in books, I feel in my culture, it has entered right into my personality. Greek history is the most important history for an archaeologist to know. For any archaeologist. Because the Greek culture in Sicily has produced a very deep bond, a bond that has been precisely written in history and that is inextricably linked to this region."

Akraganta:

18 8 — "The importance for today is the dissemination of values, for the world to realise the fact that everything they do, everything they see around them, is part of a very ancient heritage, the Greek heritage that starts here from the Bronze Age, until the Byzantine era. In the 21st century we must try to preserve these values. In a time when everything will become globalized, and all these values will be erased and nullified, we are here to remind the new generations where our ancestors came from. And some of us are crazy enough to dress like them because that's how we feel; we feel like Ancient Greeks."

19 6 — Ancient Greek "delicacies", from the cultural association "Phoenikes".

20 16 — Wine, from an ancient Sicilian wine variety, just as the ancients drank it...

21 2 — Giuseppe Castallana, an archaeologist who participated in the excavations of Akraganta, describes the history of the great city to us.

22 3 — Gabriele Onolfo, dressed as the god Aris

23 1 — Alessandro Catania: The most important tool is the events so that the places come alive again, and we transmit an image to the people who today are unaware of our own reality, i.e. who do not have the memory of where we come from, and to give through the events and the spectacles primarily a message that reaches more directly and clearly, and to the next generations.

24 1 — We couldn't help but meet a group from Corinth...

Selinunte

26 2 — "We see from the design of this temple the greatness of the city. A 100-foot-long temple of the time, as long as a football field, but above all, characterised by the open plan, open to the sky, the central part of the temple reminiscent of the design of many important temples and in Greece, the motherland."

We journey into the interior of Sicily and, after a necessary stop at the Temple of Segesta - miraculously saved in the recent great fires.

We arrive in Palermo, where we hear great stories about the place and the culture from people like us, who consider us their brothers and compatriots.

Great Byzantine church in the centre of Palermo

29 1 — Alessandra D' Acquisto, Guide: "The influence on Sicilian art remains strong throughout the Middle Ages, and this chapel is one of the best examples of Byzantine art we have in Palermo."

30 4 — "The influence of the Greek language is found almost everywhere...

And we are heirs, we have Greek blood in our DNA."

The last stop before the return was Himera, where one of the most triumphant battles of ancient Hellenism took place.

"The connection between Greece and Magna Graecia is a matter of survival."
Somewhere here ends the great trek, which surprised and delighted us in Magna Graecia.

Andreas Velissaris, an educator, helped us with the contacts he maintains with our "brothers", as he tells us, to highlight this important issue of the connection that took place but can also take place today, with a great perspective for tomorrow.

We asked for his comment, and he told us the following:

"The connection between Magna Graecia and Greece is a matter of survival for both. Magna Graecia has been economically plundered by Northern Italy since the 1861 tragedy when the Northern Italians conquered it with the direct result of its impoverishment and demographic disintegration.

"1861 was also the year in which the mafias operating in the South were established, resulting in the migration of 70% of the population of the South to other countries or to Northern Italy. With the demographic collapse of the last decades, which continues, in 30 years, Greece will find itself with a population of 8 million, which will mean the reduction of its geopolitical power.

"This will endanger several programs related to the Greek future, and above all, it will make Greece's dependence on Brussels more suffocating. The connection with Greece will help Magna Graecia overcome all the pathologies the Italian state created. And the connection with Magna Graecia will help Greece regain its power in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, it will allow her to have an independent political and cultural role.

"Eighteen million people live in Magna Graecia. Only in Argentina of 46 million live about 20 million immigrants from Magna Graecia. The connection of Greece and Magna Graecia will create a Hellenism of approximately 60 million worldwide, which will be a number that will allow the Greek element to ensure its sustainability in the future and will enable it to take the lead economically and culturally."...

A Facebook page has been created for the Greece-Magna Graecia connection, with hundreds of thousands of followers:

We close with the words of our great painter, Yannis Tsarouchis, with which he accompanies his unknown work that we found on the internet and belongs to the private collection of Giwrgos Damianos, having something to fill in at the end.

"From Magna Graecia to Mother Greece: Mother, you are late. Wake up, Odysseus. The Tree of Life has dried up. The monastery of Kasoulon has been torn down. Maria Boukali has not yet appeared. Mother, I am dying, dying, dying..."