Are you a lover of legends? Discover the fascinating island ofIschia, in the Gulf of Naples, a locality full of places to be discovered, animated by myths and tales that make it even more intriguing.

Typhoeus, the rebel giant

Characterized by continuous earth movements, volcanic eruptions and inhabited by wild people, the island of d'Ischia in the past aroused feelings of awe and was seen as an inhospitable place. The island's natural phenomena are said to be the result of the punishing action of a supernatural being, the god Zeus, toward the giant Typhoeus.

The giant was begotten by the gods Tartarus and Gaea specifically to be Zeus' opponent and claim the throne for the second lord of the world, Cronus. Zeus, enraged, hurled a mountain at him and succeeded in defeating him, condemning him to lie under it. Thus was born the island of Ischia.

The giant did not give up and, trying to free himself from the weight of the island, turned his breath into a volcano and from time to time continues to shake it.

It happened Casamicciola, when Ischia really shook

"Casamicciola happened" or even "I make Casamicciola happen" are idioms that have long since become part of the Italian language, particularly Neapolitan. The term Casamicciola is used as a synonym for earthquake, mess, disaster, since disaster really happened here.

The island ofIschia is not actually a real island but, as the legend of the giant Typhoeus goes, is the upper part of a volcano, about 900 m high from the sea floor and nearly 50 km wide. Consisting mainly of volcanic rocks, landslide deposits and sedimentary rocks, it has had several periods of activity with large explosive eruptions.

In the summer in 1883, a tremendous earthquake leveled the small town of Casamicciola with almost all its dwellings and damaged neighboring ones such as Lacco Ameno, Forio, Barano and Serrara Fontana, causing as many as 2313 casualties, most of them in Casamicciola, including the parents of the philosopher Benedetto Croce, then 17 years old, fortunately extracted alive. Today, seismic activity, which is continuously monitored, is very modest.

Nature is wonderful, but it can also be powerful and frightening, able, with its unstoppable force, to take away in an instant what surrounds us.

Cercopes, the island monkeys

Another legend tells of the time when the island was haunted by Cercopes. The Cercopes were dastardly thieves who plundered all who landed there. The wrath of Zeus also arrived here and sent his sailors to liberate the island, slaughtering the Cercopes and turning them into monkeys.

From then on, all who landed on the island heard the screams of monkeys and believing it to be inhabited by Pythecians, they named it Pithecusa.

The Magician's Cave and the Sirens

On the southeastern flank of the island, among the high cliffs, we find a small cave, a valuable refuge during storm surges. Fishermen often stopped in the cave and told of the apparition of a good-natured-looking old man, with a white beard and flowing hair, sitting on the rock. To the mysterious spirit, called the Wizard, were attributed the power to make the surrounding sea incredibly fishy but also to help fishermen.

Also appearing in the cave were young and beautiful maidens with mysterious voices who cheered the men's anticipation, perhaps the mysterious sirens.

The Legend of the Crucifix of Relief

Legend has it that a wooden sculpture, the crucifix, was found at sea by a group of sailors heading to Sardinia, stranded on Ischia because of a storm. Upon reaching the island, they decided to secure the crucifix in the Church of Relief, then a convent, to return to pick it up when they could leave again. Curiously, the sailors could no longer carry the crucifix outside since every time they tried, the entrance to the convent disappeared before their eyes, so they decided to leave it at Ischia. Immediately, devotional practices toward the Crucifix "from the sea" began.

Many religious tales identify shores, cliffs, and headlands as meeting places between the living and the dead.

In island beliefs, the beaches on the night before the feast of St. John are traversed by the janare, witches capable of ruining lives with magic rites, spells and evil eye, from which one can defend oneself with handfuls of sand. The story goes that a man buried his donkey on the Maronti Beach in Barano, hoping to cure it of the aches and pains that afflicted it, but when he went to free it, only the head remained of the poor animal, with a mocking laughing muzzle. The body is said to have been swallowed up by powerful chthonic and underwater forces, the same forces that returned the Crucifix.

The Sybil's Cave in Ischia

A further legend points to the caves of Ischia as the home of the Sibyl, who, attracted by the waters with wonderful properties, went to Ischia in the summer. Persecuted by the tyrant Aristodemus, she would take refuge at the Castiglione, like so many families who had rebelled against the master of Cumae and his barbaric methods of government. Only after her death did the Sibyl return free to her abode. Tradition has it that in the very cave near the Castiglione, the Sibyl would announce the coming of Christ the Redeemer.

The sacred waters of Nitrodi

It is said that women of'Ischia are beautiful but those of Barano even more and that they owe their beauty to the waters of Nitrodi. These waters originated from the punishment of a nymph, when her skin, hair and beautiful limbs were dissolved as water, the water of Nitrodi.

During the plague the Sibyl learned from the oracle a prophecy, "The salvation you seek will come only from the Nymph," who took advantage of it by presenting herself as the savior but only after receiving votive gifts at altars consecrated to her. The nymph stole nitro and sulfur to mix with the healing waters to accomplish her misdeed but was discovered and lost her senses. Her body became a stone and as punishment for the theft, she was changed into a spring, since then called the water of Nitrodi, from the smell of the nitro he had stolen.

Ischia, land of the Phaeacians

Ischia is said to be precisely the legendary Land of the Phaeacians. Ulysses Having arrived here exhausted, he bathed in the warm waters of the Gurgitiello to regain his strength and met the beautiful Nausicaa.

The Phaeacians were a people of navigators in Greek mythology. In theOdyssey, famous opera, Homer tells how they welcomed Odysseus and gave him the ship with which to return home, knowing that they would incur the wrath of Poseidon, the god of the sea.

The demigod that gives life to the waters of Bagnitiello

Acmeno, a demigod born of the nymph Euplea, lived in human guise on the island of Ischia. One day, jumping from one bank of a stream to the other, he fell into the middle of the waters. No one heard his cries for help, and his prayers to the gods were also in vain. Zeus however, moved by pity, did not abandon him completely and told him "you will flow with salutary waters that will alleviate sicknesses and bring joy," so the young man's limbs dissolved and he continued to live in the waters of the island of Ischia, in the waters of the Bagnitiello.

What are you waiting for to visit the island of Ischia to relive these fascinating legends?