It was the greatest German poet, Johan Wolfgang Goethe, who called Capri a “land where the word of Homer is alive”. In its Greek etymology, Capri is “The island of the boars” and, although we continue to call the ancient staircase that connects Marina Grande to Anacapri Phoenician, almost all historians agree that it was the Greeks who skillfully modeled in the rock his 921 steps. In the Council Hall of the City of Capri, you can admire 16 woodcuts by the painter Frederich Preller the old, depicting the adventures of Ulysses in the Odyssey, with scenes from Capri. In his stay, in 1859, at the old Locanda Pagano, the German painter was so fascinated by the Homeric landscapes of the southern side of the island, that from Via Matermania, along the Natural Arch leads to Tragara, to create these romantic paintings that still illustrate the editions of the Odyssey in German gymnasiums and universities. The walk that is commonly referred to as the “Giro dell’Arco Naturale” is also a small Homeric journey, a little caprese Odyssey, which with imagination retraces the various stages of Ulysses in his return to Ithaca. Thus we discover that the Cave of Matermania is also the sacred place to Leuocotea, the sea deity who saves Ulysses from death and leads him with his white veil on the beach where Nausica rescues him. The giant Polyphemus, pictured in the Grotto of Straw, after being blinded, mad with rage, hurls into the sea, against the ships on the run, gigantic boulders, giving rise to the three Faraglioni: Stella, Di Mezzo and Scopolo. Even now, in the toponomastic caprese, the small road leading from the belvedere of Tragara to the Belvedere del Pizzo Lungo is indicated as Via Polifemo. Many foreign painters, painting this rocky wonder, referred to it as “Polyphemus’ Spur” or “Polyphemus’ Finger”. Arrived at the Piazzetta di Tragara (in Greek: enclosure of goats), the gaze sweeps over the bay of Marina Piccola, where stands in the sea the Scoglio delle Sirene, the Omerica Antemussa, that is the flowered meadow of asfodeli, kingdom of Lighea, the sirena caprese. With slow feet, new Ulissidi, along via Tragara you will return to the heart of Capri.
curated by Renato Esposito
