llllltm 1 M ' I 1:1 ill »" ; "* . .' r .5- Darnell JUuittraitg Eithrarg Stljaca, JNeui $nrk BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 The date shows when this volume was taken. To renew this book copy the call No. and give to the librarian. HOME USE RULES All Books subject to Recall All borrowers must regis- ter in the library to borrow books for home use. All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs. Limited books must be re- turned within the four week limit and not renewed. Students must return all books before leaving town. V Officers should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town. Volumes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as possible. For special pur- poses they are given out for a limited time. Borrowers should not use their library privileges for - the benefit of other persons. Books of special value '*** and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not allowed to circulate. ■ .in, Readers are asked toco- port all cases of — " ■*• marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. DG 975.f22B43 niVerSi,V Ubrary Taormina 3 1924 028 379 133 olin r^> K '< Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028379133 TAORMINA Other Books by Dr. Bell: Words of the Wood (Poems) (Small, Maynard $• Co., Boston) Art-Talks with Ranger The Evolution and The Philosophy of Painting, Ancient and Modern (Q. P. Putnam's Sons, New York) The Worth of Words The Changing Values of English Speech The Religion of Beauty (Hinds, Noble $ Eldredge, New York) BADA VECCIA TAORMINA BY RALCY HUSTED BELL How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten ; and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago. — Marcus Aurelius. HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE, Publishers 30 Irving Place New York City w *»„--" >1 -• »1 A Uioi^ Copyright, 1916 by Hinds, Noble & Eldredge CONTENTS PAGE Taormina xi Note xvii Avant-Propos xxiii Origin — Early Inhabitants ..... 1 Etna . ,., . . ,.. ...... . 21 Language . . .. . „ ; . > . 31 Ancient Ruins 43 Famous Taorminians 61 Ancient Products 69 Taormina of To-day 75 A Little Story of History Mingled with Tradition . ,., ...... 97 TO THE ONE AT WHOSE SUGGESTION TAORMINA WAS WRITTEN TAORMINA With warmest grays on roof and wall The town is rich in winey tone — The very hill-tops, one and all, Seem made of semiprecious stone. The paths that climb and ways that fall 'Tween olive trees and lemon groves At morn and eve are musical With goatherds piping to their droves. Fair Etna waves her plume of pearl Against an opalescent blue, In the shining robes of a sinless girl, Necklaced with jewels of frozen dew. Upon the middle of the day The light falls golden from the sky ; While 'neath the arches shadows play With purple dreams as moments fly. XI Taormina In every crannied wall there grows, Framed with softened tints of old, Some fairy flower, some vagrant rose, 'Mid splash of green or leaves of gold. Sheltering walls hide terrace-plots, Where modest gardens dream and hold The dews of eve in flower-pots, On ruined shafts of classic mould — Little gardens half aswoon With their own loveliness, and smiles That fall like rain from ardent noon, And drip like rain from fluted tiles. And creeping streets like ribbon-bands, Crinkled, and crawling up and down From castled crests and bold headlands To winding courses through the town. And smiling ruins greet the eye With vibrant tones of glory fled — Where Beauty's tattered garlands lie Still coronal upon her head. Slow-crumbling tower and broken walls Close-clinging where the cliffs are steep ; Xll Taormina And where the silvery moonlight falls And while the liquid shadows sleep. And far below, blue waters lave The very shores Greek fathers saw When unto all the world they gave The glories of their art and law. And this is Taormina — this The spot by Attic poets trod, And made immortal by the kiss Of Beauty — which to me is God. Xlll PREFATORY NOTE NOTE If anything may be said to be acci- dental in this world of law and general disorder, Taormina, surely, may lay claim to the term. In February, 1913, a certain artist and I boarded steamer for Italy. Our purpose was to paint, and to finish a book on Art which we had undertaken to- gether; but, besides a change of scene, our leading desire was for a period of repose, which is ever the delusion of travel. We planned to stay six weeks or so on the Island of Sicily. Mr. Artist was then to return to his studio at home. I was to venture the different whirlpools of strife raging in the Levant. We landed at Messina about the mid- dle of March, and went directly to Taor- mina. A few days after our arrival I was stricken with an illness which nearly proved fatal. Consequently our literary xvii Note work together was interrupted. Mr. Artist painted for the most part alone. I was cared for at my villa — "Riposo" — by the Franciscan Nuns under the direc- tion of Dr. Salvatore Cacciola Cartella — who was indeed both brother and doctor; and several other very pleasant persons ministered graciously to my every need and more. It was during my convalescence that the beauty of Taormina so appealed to me that I felt impelled to make some sketches; and its charm penetrated so deeply into my being that I could not help writing about it. As I grew stronger, I went about gathering such antiques as I could lay hands on — among others, some fine Greek and Roman signets of engraved stone. Such, briefly, is the accidental genesis of Taormina. In the spelling of proper names, I have not thought it advisable to follow a fixed rule. Those names most generally known xviii Note in the Latin spelling are given in the Latin. The same method was applied to those of Sicilian, Greek and English spell- ing. It only remains for me to acknowledge my indebtedness for much general and no little specific information to Sister Mary of the Sanctuary, Mother Superior in the Taorminian Convent of Franciscan Nuns, affectionately known as the "White Sisters" on account of their dress. I have had the opportunity of consulting a rare old MS. lent to me by Sister Mary. I take this opportunity to thank her. I will add that this tender and cultured woman has probably done more for the poor of Taormina during the past six or seven years, than any other one person ever did. Her nuns are truly good angels to the wee waifs of poverty, and as well to all victims of misfortune within their reach and power to help. Whom the children love all men may trust. xix AVANT-PROPOS AVANT-PROPOS What is the destiny of a soul, of a town, of a star? What is the birth of a babe, the death of an old man, the light of a sun gone out? Is destiny a force or an effect; and birth, is it a development of which death is the measure, full and struck off even with the brim? We know not. There was a time when Fate was terri- bly in earnest shaping the awful destiny of this town ; and, strange as it may seem, that was the period of its bloom — the springtime of its beauty. One may well inquire of the gods : "Does the Soul only flower on nights of storm?" In those far-off days, on those stormy nights, Fate sat on the hills and ruled un- questioned. To-day we should impu- dently interrogate the gods; but their seats are empty as very soon all thrones shall be. We challenge the tombs with- out raising a single ghost. We read the XXlll Avant-Propos stars differently now than did their former underlings. And we seem to have for- gotten what once we knew : how strong is the dead hand of sorrow on the throat of the living joy. That, maybe, is what we mean by "the icy hand of destiny." Sorrows aplenty have visited this City on the Hill. But were they sorrows of the Soul, or only a physical sadness? Whence came they; and to what abyss have they led? We only know that where were upheavals of passion, now yawns merely a chasm which reveals noth- ing of to-morrow. To-day, the tragedies of yesterday are but the indirect memories of a dream. The currents of love and hatred have done their best and worst for Taormina. Storm and flood are past — we have not sounded their beginning nor fathomed their end. The present is too full of "the pain of living" to perceive the renaissance of sentiment that shall reclothe these Sicilian hills with glory. XXIV ORIGIN EARLY INHABITANTS TAORMINA Origin Early Inhabitants Far back in the mists of legend — be- yond the range of history — Taormina shimmers in the glow of song colored with fable. The settlement smiles to us through distortive days of the far past. Then as she emerges into the clearer light of recorded time, we are able to see her peculiar beauty. Her garments, it is true, have been torn by irreverent hands, and splashed with in- nocent blood. She has been sunburned and star-kissed, rain-beaten and wind- blown for ages. Yet time, that ruins all things, has only softened some of her harder colors into most alluring tints. So ancient is this town, or so immediate 1 Origin our scale of perception, that we are used to speak of its beauty as immortal. Nor is this figure of speech far wrong. For if there be immortality of individual beauty, we may thus speak justly of some- thing that since prehistoric times has taken root in the "eternal hills" — some- thing that has blossomed down the ages as effectively as sun and rain have kissed Sicilian slopes into rare harmonies of color. To know precisely how old Taormina is would be interesting; and to know some- thing definite of its primitive inhabitants would enlarge our scope of history; but such cold knowledge could serve no high purpose in this sunny land. The irides- cent glamor of invention, in all such in- stances, is as useful as fact, so long as we regard it merely as the halo of imagina- tion, and not as the pure light of truth. The origin of this city has been made en- chanting by fables of the Greek poets ; and 2 Early Inhabitants the Latin singers have enveloped its prim- itive inhabitants with the beauty of mys- tery. Romance rifles the past of its cold tones and disagreeable grays. The lyric impulse riots in color and dotes on throw- ing shafts of gold and showers of purple over the left shoulder of time. If it were not so, then human consciousness would be merely a white island flying through a black sea. Time ruins all things and beautifies all things and recreates all things. Time is the real Artist. Purposeless he works — aimlessly he demolishes — and without de- sign he creates. And yet, I am not so sure of the lack of design in anything. However, proportionately as time with- draws a subject from our present needs and immediate sympathies, the subject be- comes beautified in our sight. It is not essential to the sense of beauty that we should trace anything back to its source; indeed, it might be fatal to that Origin feeling to make the attempt. The j oyous contemplation of a forest stream is not ordinarily intensified by seeking its source. It might be pleasant to follow it upstream, but quite likely it would prove to be a painful and wearisome task before one reached the head. So it is with the acts of life. The enveloping mystery of their source is often merciful, and it usually adds a charm. A fine city and a beauti- ful woman! I wonder if it is always well to scrutinize their past — and is it ever polite ? The origin of Taormina is incidental. Her founders are dim, decorative figures in romantic history. To try to put them into a real world would be as stupid as im- possible. It is of no more human impor- tance, for instance, whether Charybdis was stolen by Jupiter near this town, than whether George Washington in his youth threw a silver coin across the Potomac. Even more, it matters not now whether 4 Early Inhabitants either were real persons in the flesh, since both have become unreal — ideal — per- sonages in tradition. Through the mists of imagination — through the fogs of fame — no personage ever retains his true character very long. No matter how steadily it looms, it is sure to change face with a sort of periodic rhythm which seems to be one of the governing laws of fame. Thus all those leisurely mortals, who are given to the reading of Silenus, will find as much pleasure in his verses as though Jupiter loved with human passion, and Charybdis lived the actual life of a flesh- and-curve woman. "Quanti dall' alte taorminesi roccie Miran nel sottostante mar Caribdi, Che, col fiero ingo j are di uno aperto Vortice, assorbe le sbattute navi ; Tostamente dai marini abissi Altissime le vibra in sino agli astri." How many from the huge rocks of Taormina Look down in the sea at Caribdi, 5 Origin Who, with a tremendous engulfing of an open Whirlpool, absorbs the tossed ships ; Soon after from the abyss of the sea Hurls them very high, as far as the stars. Second Punic War, Bk. IV. The same applies to Ovid's lines. Ceres is forever seeking the lost Proser- pine — still "sighing from town to town beginning with Taormina." The be- reaved mother has taken up her being in the changeless world of Keats' Grecian Urn. In that world she will ever mourn the gloomy Pluto's boldness whilst her radiant daughter was so innocently pluck- ing flowers. Ceaselessly she makes her rounds, visiting "Great Imera and horrid Solina, Agrigento and steep Taormina," according to Fasti, in Bk. IV. All these fancies are as good as facts. Indeed, they are facts of a kind in a world which we all know very well. As too much imitation kills the art of a pictorial Early Inhabitants landscape, so also may it mutilate the charm of letters. And so, while the origin of Taormina is of no consequence to those who visit the place for its beauty, or to ruminate over ruins which have historic interest, it may be well, nevertheless, to correct some er- rors which have been widely copied by those who have written on the subject. Even the well known M. le Cte. De For- bin, who published his Souvenirs de La Sidle in 1823, was in some instances no more accurate in his data than compli- mentary in his remarks on Taormina. Beginning on page 191, he says: "Taormine, Taur omentum, fut batie sur le penchant du mont Taurus par Andromaque, pere de Timee Phistorien; elle fut peuplee de ceux des habitans de Naxos qui purent echapper lorsque Denys le tyran fit detruire leur ville. Agathocle s'en rendit maitre; Auguste y fonda une colonie romaine. Brulee en 893 par les Sarrasins, elle fut detruite en 968 par ordre du calife Al-Moez. Les restes de sa splendeur 7 Origin s'evanouirent ; a peine y compte-t-on aujour- d'hui quatre mille habitans. Taormine est, comme toutes les petites villes de la Sicile, sale, mal pav£e, avec des rues si etroites, que deux personnes peuvent a peine y passer de front. Cette ville a tou jours ete un point militaire im- portant; aussi trouve-t-on a chaque pas des ruines grecques, des murs romains, des tours sarrasines: les opuntia, les ronces, le lierre, se sont empares de ces vains travaux; des pins et des palmiers regnent sur ces decombres, et pyra- mident au-dessus d'eux avec une grace inimita- ble (a). "Une inscription taillee sur la corniche d'une maison construite dans le style florentin et la plus apparente de Taormine peut faire croire qu'elle fut habitee par Jean d'Aragon, apres que son armee eut ete defaite par les Fran9ais. "On trouve aussi dans une eglise situee sur la place de Taormine plusieurs inscriptions grecques ; entre autres, celle-ci : "0JAM02 TON TAIPOMENITAN OAYMIIIN OAT Mm 01 M El TON NIK A 2 'ANT A TIT 61 A KEAHTI TEAEIOL a (a) On montre a Taormine un mur que l'on dit avoir appartenu a une naumachie, et une 8 Early Inhabitants citerne dans le genre de la piscina mirabile. Tout cela est fort degrade. D'ailleurs, encore une fois, a quoi bon une naumachie et des com- bats sur l'eau dans un petit espace, chez un peuple qui habite le rivage de la mer?" Taormina, Tauromenium, was built on the slope of Mount Taurus by Andromache, father of Timeo, the historian ; it was settled by those of the inhabitants of Naxos who were able to escape when Dionysius, the tyrant, destroyed their city. Agothocle conquered it. Augus- tus founded there a Roman colony. Burned in 893 by the Saracens, it was destroyed in 968 by order of the Calif Al-Moez. The remains of its splendor vanished; to-day scarcely four thousand inhabitants are left. Taormina is, like all the little cities of Sicily, dirty, badly paved, with streets so narrow that two persons can hardly walk abreast. This city has always been an important military post, hence one finds at each step Greek ruins, Roman walls, and Saracen towers: the apuntia,* brambles and ivy, have taken possession of these useless works ; pines and palm trees reign on these rem- nants and pyramid above them with inimitable grace (a). An inscription cut on the cornice * The apuntian growths, prickly pear. 9 Origin of a house constructed in the Florentine style and which is the most conspicuous in Taormina leads one to believe that it was inhabited by John of Aragon after his army had been de- feated by the French. There are also to be found in a church situ- ated on the public square in Taormina various Greek inscriptions ; among which, is the follow- ing: The People Of Tauromenion (crown) Olympis Mestos, Son Of Olympis, Who Was Victor In The Pythian Games With a Running Horse of Full Age.* (a) There is shown at Taormina a wall which is said to have belonged to a place for naval battles, and a cistern in the style of the miracu- lous pool. All that is very much dilapidated. Besides, once more, what would be the object of having a place for naval combats and for hav- ing combats on water in a little place, among a people inhabiting the sea-shore? Many authors besides De Forbin have fallen, one after another, into error as to * This inscription with its translation may be found in Vol. XIV of the Inscriptiones Grcecce, No. 434, p. 114. 10 Early Inhabitants Taormina's origin. Nothing, indeed, per- petuates mistakes better than books. One copies another with absurd fidelity and blind confidence. The maker of one book seems to believe that the maker of another was as careful of his data as he is careless of his. Tommasso Fazzello was one of the earli- est authors to state that Taormina was founded by the Greek refugees when Naxos was destroyed by the tyrant Dionysius, the Younger. Perhaps he was the first author of any note to make this mistake. Antiquarian students know, however, from the study of ruins, and otherwise, that Taormina was already old when that massacre occurred. And be- sides, according to Diodorus: "While these things were taking place, An- dromache of Taormina, father of the great historian Timeo, assembled the remaining ex- iles of Nasso and received them on Mount Tauro, which is over Nasso. After having 11 Origin been there some time, the place of their dwell- ing was called Taormina." Now the exiles, who swelled the town and felt the value of security, built new walls around it, and called it Taormina. But greatly preceding this event, "The Siculi had inhabited this mountain (of Tauro) in great numbers, yet without any chosen chief, long before Dionysius gave them the territory of Nasso." Diodorus, Hist. Bk. IV. The Siculi, Thucydides tells us, came over-sea in ships, settled the island, and called it Sicilia. The advent of these new-comers must have been about three hundred years before the settlement of Naxos, and about eighty years before the Trojan War. The same author, in his account of the war made on Naxos by Messina and Syracuse, says: "The Siculi mountaineers came down in great numbers to offer help to Nasso." (Hist. Bk. IV.) 12 Early Inhabitants The ancient Greek geographer, Scila Cariandeo, carefully traced the Peloritan- ian coast, and in his fine description of it speaks both of Naxos and Taormina: "Messina with a harbor, and then Taor- mina, Nasso, Catania, and so forth." Authors, in common with lower ani- mals, differ in opinion. Some declare that Taormina was founded by the Sicani, who changed the ancient name of the island from Trinacria to Sicania. Dio- dorus says (Com. Lib. Bk. V) : "We owe much to Timeo, the historian of Taormina, for unmasking the ignorance of Fi- listo, in showing the Sicanians to have been na- tives of our Island and not strangers." W. C. Taylor, LL.D., M.R.A.S., of Trinity College, cites Taormina as among "the most remarkable cities on the east- ern coast of Sicily" in ancient times. In his chronological discussion of its early in- habitants, he proceeds to say: 13 Origin "The Cyclopians and Laestrigons are said to have been the first inhabitants of Sicily. It is impossible to trace their origin; we only know that their settlements were in the vicinity of Mount ^Etna. Their inhumanity toward strangers, and the flames of iEtna, were the source of many popular fables and poetic fic- tions. It was said that the Cyclops were gi- ants ; that they had but one eye, placed in the centre of their forehead; that they fed on hu- man flesh ; and that they were employed by Vul- can to forge the thunderbolts of Jove. "Next in antiquity were the Sicanians, prob- ably an Italian horde driven southward by the pressure of the Pelasgi, though many ancient writers assert that they came from Spain. They finally settled in the western part of the island, and were said to have joined the Trojan exiles in building Eryx and Egesta. "After the Sicani had been for some ages ex- clusive masters of the island, the Siculi, an ancient people of Ausonia, crossed the strait; and having defeated the Sicanians in a sanguin- ary engagement, confined them in a narrow ter- ritory, and changed the name of the island from Sicania to Sicily. Some centuries after this revolution, Greek colonies began to settle on the Sicilian coast; . . ." 14 Early Inhabitants Perhaps no one can say at this time whence came the earliest settlers of this region of the island now known as Sicily. It is easier to believe that they came by sea than by descent from the Cyclops, as some say. It is not probable that the island was first settled by the Pelasgic tribes, who were not great travelers, and, therefore, were poor colonizers. It is al- most certain, also, that there were many colonies on the island before the Hellenic migrations. At all events, in very ancient times an unknown people inhabited the eastern part of Sicily. And it is probable that, terri- fied by Etna's erratic bursts of anger, and harassed by invaders who were gaining the mastery over them, they left their early homes and went over to build anew on the western and southern shores. This opinion is encouraged by both Thucydides and Diodorus. In the words of the last named author: 15 Origin "The ancient Sicanians inhabited small cities on the tops of mountains, well provided with precipitous cliffs, to protect them from the as- saults of thieves." (Bk. V. Com. Lib.) Passing now to modern times, Fran- cesco Scorso, a noted Jesuit antiquary, says : "There remains now little of the great city of Taormina, devastated as it has been, by Saracen invasions ; indeed the same may be said of it as of the Eternal City : 'You go looking for Rome in Rome.' And so it really is. One looks for ancient Taormina in Taormina. This city that formerly had a circumference of five miles, measures now only two miles around. By examining the ruins, we found that the city once extended from the Gate of the Saracens, near the arch of Mola, to the convent of San Francisco di Paola ; from the convent of the Friar Preachers to that of Santo Agostino ; and from here to the plain of San Leone, beyond the monastery of the Franciscans Observants, to the place called by the peasants, 'Guardiola'." Thus, whatever the origin of Taormina — by whomsoever founded and whenever 16 Early Inhabitants — regardless of the ravages of time and war, and notwithstanding the filth of de- generate days into which it has fallen, the town is, nevertheless, one of the beauty- spots of this warty earth. In the lan- gauge of a great painter: "I have no quarrel with anyone who says, this is the most beautiful place in all the world" 17 ETNA ETNA Without Etna, Taormina would lose half its charm. Indeed, Sicily would not be Sicily if shorn of her majestic cone. From the earliest times Etna has attracted the interest of the world to the eastern shore of Sicily. No other volcano has ever received greater attention of poets, historians, and students of science. As an object of pure scenery it is equalled in some respects, but unrivaled in others. In its mythologic, historic, and poetic associa- tions it towers above all other peaks of earth. It has so grown into the mind of man, that it has become a part of his litera- ture and an inspiration to his pictorial art. It is so transmuted into his romantic con- ceptions, that its concrete value is second- ary to its abstract worth. The name Etna came from a Greek 21 Etna word meaning to bum. The mountain was celebrated by the poet Hesiod, and even by earlier authors known to us. During the Saracen occupancy from 827 to 1090 it was called Gribel Uttamat, or the mountain of fire. A corruption of this name still lingers in the mind of rural Sicily as Mongibello, which is composed of the Italian monte and the Arabic gibel. In the days of mythology, Etna was the prison of the giant Typhon (Enceladus). Flame was his breath and thunder was his groan. When he turned from side to side the whole island quaked. Silius Italicus wrote : Its lofty summits, wondrous to be told, Display bright flames amid the ice and cold ; Above, its rocks, with flames incessant glow, Though bound in icy fetters far below ; The peak is claimed by winter as its throne, While glowing ashes o'er its snows are shown. Some of the ancient poets located the forge of Vulcan in the fiery bowels of Etna Etna. Here also, as Virgil tells us, was the abode of the dreaded Cyclopean giants who had rebelled against Jupiter. The port capacious, and secure from wind, Is to the foot of thundering Etna joined. By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high ; By turns hot embers from her entrails fly, And flakes of mountain-flames that lick the sky. Oft from her bowels massy rocks are thrown, And shivered by their force come piecemeal down. Oft liquid lakes of burning sulphur flow, Fed from the fiery springs that burn below. Enceladus, they say, transfixed by Jove, With blasted limbs came trembling from above ; And when he fell, the avenging father drew This flaming hill, and on his body threw ; As often as he turns his weary sides, He shakes the solid isle, and smoke the heavens hides. Pindar in his Pythian Ode as early as 474 B.C. says: "Typhon is fast bound by a pillar of the sky, even by snowy Etna, nursing the whole year's length her dazzling snow. Whereout pure 23 Etna springs of unapproachable fire are vomited from the inmost depth ; in the daytime the lava streams pour forth a lurid rush of smoke, but in the darkness a red rolling flame sweepeth rocks with uproar to the wide deep sea." Eschylus also refers to this same "mighty Typhon." In the writings of Thucydides is mentioned some of the early eruptions of the mountain. Among the names of the many ancient authors who have paid tribute to Etna may be cited those of Theocritus, Ovid, Livy, Seneca, Lucan, Petronius, Dion Cassius, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Lucilius Jr., and scores of others less well known and of smaller importance. In one way and another these early men, especially the poets, invested Etna with supernatural attributes. Demiurgic di- vinities, mighty demons and fair goddesses clustered around this mighty cone. High revelry was there. Human passions en- larged to terrible proportions by the im- 24 Etna agination hung like a necklace around this enchanted peak. Ominous threats and portentous bolts were hurled from its core of living fire. There were always dissenters among men. Another class of early writers chal- lenged the supernatural characters of this god-like mountain, and treated its phe- nomena as purely natural. They drove away the demi-gods and in their places peopled the cone with the less pictorial figments of natural fact. But the poetic myths clung with tenacity to this grim mountain. Lucilius, Jr. 5 wrote a poem of six hundred and forty Latin hexameters which he called Etna. Superb fiction was slow to give way. Demeter, with torch in hand, wandered over the slopes of Etna for centuries seeking the lost Persephone. Acis and Galatea were loath to leave their native hearth-fire. For ages the hand- some shepherd's blood gushed from under the rock that crushed him, and flowed 25 Etna down the eastern slope into the sea. His blood was changed to water, and the stream to this day is called Fiume di Jaci. Polyphemus and the Cyclops could not easily be disposed of by the processes of natural law. In more modern times such men as Dante, Petrarch and Cardinal Bembo paid their respects to Etna. Fazzello climbed it in 1541 and described it in his work De Rebus Siculis. Fifty years later Antonio Filoteo, who was born be- neath its plumed peak, published a book in Venice on the topography, history and eruptions of Etna. Slowly the gods disappeared before the advance of science. Since then countless works have treated Etna and its phenom- ena. It has been mapped, measured, and studied. It has been described in letters and sung in verse ; it has been painted and etched until its fame is secure as that of the 26 Etna newer Pliocene period that gave it birth from the lowly depths of ocean. Sir John Herschell in 1826 found its height to be 10,872% feet. But like that of a flame its height was not reared to be constant. It varies with its eruptions as its crests fall back into the cauldron of its crater. Older than Vesuvius, Etna towers as a sentinel over the shores of the Ionian sea. Beneath her plume have passed the navies of the world, both old and young. Mer- chant ship and fighting galley, corsair and swift cruiser, pleasure yacht and freighter, passenger steamer and monstrous dread- nought have crawled beneath her shadow like little insects of the sea. Battles have surged against her slopes; strange peoples have scratched her dark sides and deep valleys, and she has given them to eat. Cities and settlements have called her soil sacred because it was their 27 Etna mother-land. They have come like blos- soming flowers and they have fled like spirits of the flesh leaving only their bones behind. She has watched over the destiny of man as a mother over her encradled babe. But her attitude has been one of contempt toward the little ways of men. Her real concern has been with the glories of sunset, and the serenity of dawn. The stars have been her sisters; the solemn night and the hard light of day have been and will continue for ages to be her in- scrutable thoughts. 28 LANGUAGE LANGUAGE In the early days there was no common language spoken over the Island of Sicily. Not only did language differ in the differ- ent cities, but it changed from time to time in the same city. This is well shown in Taormina whose inhabitants spoke at dif- ferent periods barbarian dialects, Doric idiom, Oscan, Latin, Greek, corrupt Greek and Sicilian. The Sicilians spoke a barbarian dialect until Sicily was conquered by the Greeks. Then, according to Diodorus, "the cities situated by the sea were built by the Greeks. The Siculi with their commerce took on also Hellenistic manners and language even to the changing of their names." And naturally when the refugees of Naxos went to Taormina to live under the 31 Language protection of Prince Andromache they took their tongue with them. And nat- urally also the Taorminians persisted in their native speech. Both exiles and na- tives, however, to some extent spoke each other's language, with the result that the speech of one gradually corrupted that of the other. So far as Taormina is con- cerned, this state of mixed linguistics con- tinued until Dionysius supplanted the res- idents with a Greek colony of his mer- cenary soldiers. Following this infamy, the geographer Scila Cariandeo and other authorities, classed Taormina with the Greek cities of Sicily: "Ecco Imera e la prossima Taormina Che si mostrano greche Calcidesi." Here is Imera and nearby Taormina That show that they are Greek of Chalcis. As the Greek colonies spread over Sicily the various Greek idioms took root until the Hellenic tongue became gen- 32 Language eral. This is very well shown in the writ- ings of different authors. Empedocles of Agrigentum, for instance, used the Ionic ; Ibico of Messina wrote in the Eolic; Tecrito of Syracuse, the Doric; while Diodorus of Agyrium made use of the common Greek. Oddly enough, the na- tive Sicilians scorned the polished Attic idiom, while taking very kindly to the others less perfect and not so elegant. Plautus refers to this phenomenon in the Mencenie : "Sebbene un cotal tema pur Grecizzi, Non tiene no dell' Attico elegante, Ma pinttosto del Siculo risuona." Although this theme has something of Greek, It certainly hasn't anything of the elegant At- tic But rather it sounds like Sicilian. The Oscan tongue, of which compara- tively little is known, was spoken by the very early, if not the earliest, inhabitants 33 Language of Taormina. Some of the very oldest monuments show that the Sanniti used Oscan, at least, in their inscriptions. Assio in The Carthaginian War, first book; and Festus in his Observations On The Latin Tongue, lead us to infer that Oscan was the language of the earliest in- habitants of Sicily. Oscan, originally Opscus — softened by the Greeks to Opicus and by the Latins to Oscus — was, according to Livy, spoken by the Samnites and Campanians. It is known to have had a literature, and at one time it was an important language. It resembled the Latin much more closely than any of the other Italian dialects, so called. Taormina, being situated virtu- ally on the frontier between Hellenic and Phoenician civilization, felt at an early date the pressure of Semitic influence. This pressure soon modified the native speech and left traces both in blood and language which have survived the surging 34 Language influx of Ionian and other influences ; some of these may be found to-day among the inhabitants. The Ionian tongue was sym- pathetic with the Oscan; being midway be- tween the Greek and Latin, it was readily superimposed on the Oscan. During the reign of Augustus Caesar it seems to have been as easy to change the language of a country as its artificial boundary-lines. In the case of Taormina it was simply done. Augustus followed the example of Dionysius: merely drove out the dwellers and peopled their homes with a Roman colony. This was a com- mon method of that epoch ; and in this in- stance it marked the rise and signalled the dominance of Latin which held sway until the decline of the Roman colony. As the Sicilians slowly drifted back to Taormina from neighboring villages, di- luting the Roman population, they also corrupted the Roman tongue. Greek was gradually revived, and thenceforward 35 Language both tongues were spoken in Taormina; but there was also a third which is inti- mated by St. Pancrazio's admonition to the common people, who evidently spoke neither Greek nor Latin. He addressed them, according to his translator, Sirin- ondo, in these words: "If you would learn either Greek or Latin, we should be able to make you Christians more easily." Slowly, as Greek power and influence grew, the Greek tongue became more and more general. Latin was retained how- ever in the "Sacred Liturgy" through the influence of the Pope's missionaries, sent from Rome to fan the dying embers of the faith. Then along came the great iconoclast, Leone Isaurico, who overthrew the Roman Patriarchate, and put the province of Sicily under that of Constan- tinople. Thereafter, Greek may be said to have been the language of the island; for it was used not only in civil affairs but in the rites of the Church as well. 36 Language Thus so strongly and deeply rooted had the Greek tongue become in the mouths of the Sicilians that it easily survived the Saracen invasions. For we find Telofane Cerameo, who was archbishop of Taor- mina at the decline of the Mussulman power, addressing his subjects in Greek homilies. But the Greek of Taormina, as of other Sicilian cities, became greatly corrupted through its long intercourse with tongue of Saracen, Goth and Vandal — each of which had left its taint. Then came the Norman rule, and the inevitable effect of Norman speech. And so from the mixture of Oscan, Greek, Latin, Gothic, Vandal, Arabic, Norman, &c, arose the present supple Sicilian language. This language devel- oped a construction of its own. It shows marked individual powers which are cap- able of a high order of expression, in which beauty is not lacking; and of a sufficient 37 Language number of organic traits to entitle it to be justly called a mother tongue. ORIGIN OF THE NAME TAORMINA The ancient name of the town is lost. Pliny speaks of Naxos as the original name of Tauromenium ; his error was ow- ing to the proximity of the two settle- ments, and to the fact that the exiles of the former were received bv the latter. The name may be traced back through many contortions to that of the mountain on which the city rests. During historic times it has been variously spelled: Tauromenium, Tauromenio, Taurominio, Travirmenio, Taurimenia, Tauromenon (Ovid), Tauromenone, Tauromenon (Ci- cero: "I could send the letters to Ca- tania, Tauromenon and Syracuse more conveniently if the interpreter had writ- ten the names of the persons approved." Letter to Atticus, Bk. XVI.), Tabermin (Arabic), Tavermin (Roger of York), 38 Language Taur omeno ( B onfiglio ) , Ta vermina, Tavermena, &c., &c. There is a popular legend to the effect that a couple of lovers named Tauro and Menea combined their names into one which they gave to the town, calling it Tauromenea. The truthfulness of the legend is so improbable, however, that no one above a peasant in credulity ever con- siders it. There is very much more proba- bility in the theory of Gregario Cerameo, one-time archbishop of Taormina, who says: "Taormina was so called from the two words Tauro, meaning bull, and mansione which signi- fies abode; because the refugees of Nasso here made their abode. Therefore they named the city on Mount Tauro where they abode Taor- mina." Mansione, however is from the Latin, and it has been questioned whether Greek refugees would have chosen a Latin word as part of the name which they gave to 39 Language their adopted city. Yet, as Plutarch tells us in his Life of Numa Pompilius, "In those times Greek words were more mixed with the Latin than at present." And it is altogether probable that the process of mixing often included the integral parts of new words. The same phenomenon is frequently encountered in the word-coin- age of to-day, especially among the un- learned. As to the origin of Tauro, as applied to the mountain, Maurolico says that from a distance the two elevations, on one of which is the fortress of Mola and on the other the Castle of Taormina, resemble the horns of a bull; hence, etc. Between the horns lie the remains of a tower once known as Malvicino, which was built by Matteo Palizzo during the reign of Louis, King of Sicily. So much for the name in its beginning and end. 40 ANCIENT RUINS ANCIENT RUINS The circumference of Taormina has shrunken, as Father Scorso has said, and her great monuments have fallen into de- cay. The old colossal structures which symbolized her power and made her fam- ous among the cities of the world have dis- appeared and left scarcely a trace. The vicissitudes of more than twenty-four cen- turies have ground these gorgeous monu- ments into impalpable dust. Yet on this dust fame has thrown a light of glory which has not quite gone out. The eye of man may still gaze on some of her crum- bled walls and broken works, that even now dazzle the imagination. From Fazzello we learn that it was dur- ing the time of Prince Andromache that the most stately monuments were built. 43 Ancient Ruins "Liberty being restored to Sicily in the days of Andromache and Timoleonte the cities be- came more populous and rich with public and private edifices, such as: temples sacred to the gods, courts of justice, pyramids, towers, thea- tres and other monuments of the most perfect workmanship." (Fazzello, Dec. 2. Bk. IV.) One of the oldest and most imposing remains is the theatre, described after this fashion by Antonio Martines, an erudite Sicilian author: "In the eastern part of the city, where so many relics of antiquity have been discovered, there has been lately excavated a large theatre of brickwork, also two cisterns of vast subter- ranean vaults ; of these one is still intact, sup- ported by eight square columns. The cistern measures one hundred and fifty feet in length and thirty-six feet in breadth and thirty feet in height." In his Introduction to the Homilies of Teofane Ceramiti, Archbishop of Taor- mina, Scorso holds forth in this wise : "Fellow Citizens: We have here not only the ruins but even the standing remains of your 44 o < CO W « H