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.

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...

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.

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:

Akraganta:

Selinunte

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.

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..."

And we complete with a small paraphrase, a few decades after the day the above words were written:

"Rome, even if they passed, flourishes and brings more..."

See the first and second parts of the trek, as well as a report on Magna Graecia.

Part 1: Greeks of Italy’s Magna Graecia: “We don’t feel Greek; we are Greek because no one can change our DNA.”

Part 2: Calabrian Greeks: “We feel close to our brothers in Greece because we know they consider us brothers.”

Sotiris Skouludis is a reporter for Newsbomb.