Holidays! Like it .!; )

Today, we finish learn in school per 2months.! I like it!  I'd like to go with my friends for a long trip, around the Poland. And you? Do you planned something? Enjoy of holidays! Greetings!   And again :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFifEaYWWG8

Hi Everyone,
Poland is so sunny and hot nowadays. The weather is incredible we are melting... :)
The school year is almost finished so the sea, the mountines and the lakes are waiting for us to enjoy.
Stillsome paper work and Holidays... Hurray.
Love to All of you.

Almost in Holidays

Hi everyone!

This is our last week of classes! Some of us will have exams next week, and we are going through a difficult situation because some teachers are thinking to strike on the day of an exam. This
may be a condition for the future of the final year students who wish to go to university.
The weather does not help neither, although it is getting better.
The holidays are coming, bringing with them a few fabulous days of sun!
We hope to go to the beach as soon as possible!




Byeeee :)
Eva P., Catarina L.

Comenius "Lis Diary"

1. "Lis diary" project's general characteristics

State comprehensive institute  of San Marcello Pistoiese was  the  promoter and partner of the project "Lis diary" Comenius 2011/2013.

The project -with a duration of three years - involved seven secondary schools of secondary degrees of the following countries:

Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Turkey.

"Lis Diary" has recently finished with a workshop in Vila Praia de Ancora  (Portugal) on 3-10 may 2013  on 9th may, official closing of the meeting on concomitance with the Europe Day through a sumptuous cerimony that was developed in the town square  with the presence of municipal autorithies, with all the students of "Ancorensis" cooperative school pupils let alone of students and with the teachers from different nations who participated in the project.

2. Organization of activities   

"Lis Diary" planned, for every school year, three stays of a week in one of the associated school institutions.

The host countries, in chronological order, were: 

Turkey - Turgutlu (September 2011)

Ireland - Dublin (February 2012)

Greece - Plomari, Lesbo (May 2012)

Romania - Zimnicea (October 2012)

Italy - San Marcello Pistoiese, Pistoia (February 2013)

Portugal - Vila Praia de Ancora (May 2013)

Every stay plannede a part of an eminently explorative aspect, centred on the territory and its geographic, historical and climatic peculiarities discovery, with a particular attention to folklore and food and wine aspects, too. These elements of "pragmatic" knowledge of taste and traditions of the places worth a visit, bought a particular value exactly because autochthonous people were the guides for the guests to explore their own territory, enabling by this way to the strangers not a tourist approach, but a real cultural discovery and rediscovery.

To the aspects of the immersion in the territory -  through the privileged guide of  inhabitants of the place and in a sensory discovery process that involves the observer tout court - were put beside activities with a typically seminar character. For the single workshops the work groups of the different countries took part in the project and shared opinions with each other with rigor and precision about the works of "Lis Diary", among which Infra.

3.  Organization of the cores of work

The Comenius project provides such basic requirements, solidarity and cooperation between students and ability of the individual working groups. As part of the annual stays, they are in fact united both in the size of learning both in comparison with possible difficulties (interaction in foreign language; immersing in the cultural realities profoundly distant from their own).
Not to be underestimated is the importance of sharing, with its European partners, the dynamics of the design and drafting of projects: a fruitful exchange that often involves the need to expand or at least changes their point of view, often closely linked to stereotypes of national character.
In this sense, the stay of ten days at Zimnicea, Romania, has helped to overcome some of the Italian students clichés that are generally associated with the men from Eastern Europe. The meeting then – after an initial reluctance of Italian parents, reluctant to be far from their children -  is actually a revealed valuable experience of interculturality.
The team of the Italian teachers includes three members: Prof. Angelo Boffa, Prof. Elisa Lucchesi and Prof. David Petrucci and is coordinated by the Headmaster, Ing Maria Lucia Querques.
The students’ team is composed of a student coordinator, Giovanni Albergucci, and a variable number of students between three and twelve units. The students are normally selected into equal parts between the three different courses of study that the Institute Omnicomprensivo State includes in the Upper Secondary: Institute for Administration, Finance and Marketing (AFM), Institute for Mechanics and Tecnology (ITI) and Scientific Lyceum.
As part of the planned annual stays, the team teachers usually spend the night in hotels, while the students are accommodated in the host families of the students of the partner school.
The stays usually provide, in the discovery of the territory, different activities for students and teachers and moments of collective sharing. Then the students usually attend the ordinary curricular educational activities together with colleagues who host them.
The workshops are also characterized by moments of distinct processing and sharing moments between teachers and learners: the constant use of the English language obviously favours the improvement of active skills, both written and spoken.

4. The theme of the project: "Life Story Diary"

 
The theme of the project "Life Story Diary" focuses on the daily lives of European students: what is really important to them, how they see the world and interpret the world around them.
In this way, it will promote the effective exchange of experiences between young Europeans.

The project logo was created by the Italian team coordinated in the graphics processing by Prof. Paolo Vitali.

Technically it is based on a blog platform Weebly divided into three different sections:
My country / News, My world / News, My feelings / My thoughts.
The students were invited to express freely in thoughts and emotions, but also to share teaching experiences and literary trails carried out in the ordinary school activity.
In each encounter, of an international character, students and teachers have then identified the post to be included in the diary to be published in hard copy, at the end of the project.
We hope, in this way, to promote European integration and also to be able to share what it means to feel young lato sensu in Europe nowadays.
Detailed information is available on the project website "Lis Diary":
http://lisdiary.weebly.com/

5. The thematic of the Italian team: Lis and the 'mad' flight

 
Each partner country was invited to draw up, in the final phase of the "Lis Diary" Comenius, a theme about the journey that pointed out, worked out the main points for reflection within the planning.
The students of Scientific Lyceum "E. Fermi "San Marcello Pistoiese, coordinated by me, proceeded to draw up an itinerary of literature dedicated to the theme of travel and focused, specifically, on the figure of Ulysses, traveller for excellence.
The title of the course, Lis and the 'mad flight', clearly refers to the famous phrase of Dante's Inferno XXVI.
The route is imagined as a metaphorical journey Lis - prototype of a European citizen without a face and a well-defined nationality - in the great sea of ​​literature.
Each post-thirteen total - was produced by small groups of two / three students belonging to different classes and is organized as a narrative continuum that investigates the figure of Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey to the 'mad flight' of Dante.
The last two posts, written by students of IV Scientific Lyceum and therefore of more complex articulation as to the content, analyse finally some topical issues, such as the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI and the Italian political situation on the eve of the last elections.

Hello,
in the next week we'll have a Science Fair and a Book Fair. We also will have a "Food Bank Against Hunger" to help every family in need all around town. A lot of students will be in all of the supermarkets and mini-markets in town, and ask people to buy something to the bank, so we can help the families and students in our school that need it. It also collects and distribute ten thousands of tons of products and support along the year more than 1400 institutions in Portugal. At least 216000 people receive the products that the food bank gives them.
It's really important to help people around us! We can't let people, especially students from our school starve! Our help will make a big difference. 

Curiosity: 
The first "Food Bank Against Hunger" was open in the United States, Phoenix(Arizona) in 1966. This idea was brought to Europe in 1984, and to Portugal in 1992 with opening in Lisboa. After that, many others food banks were opened in Portugal.

Love, Joana S (a little of Catarina L.) xoxo

Greek pupils preparing the Comenius corner.....!!!!

Hello there!
Next week we're going to have a science fair where we (students and teachers) are going to present a lot of chemistry and science  experiences, with daily objects such as forks, spoons, cups, mirrors, clips, pots, among others...
This year the third term has been very  exhaustive and hard. This year we have a lot of exams, especially the eleventh and twelfth grade.

The weather is getting better and although we would like to go out with our friends,and go to the beach too [Of Course]... It's kind of boring to stay at home to study and prepare the experiences for the Science Fair.

Holidays,where are you?


Kisses from your friends,

Joana S. , Eva, Catarina L. and Joana O.

What we did this days...

The sun came out this week for three days but it’s raining again. Helping the bad weather we have loads of tests and in 3 weeks we are having really important exams. Some of us are having a portuguese test tomorrow and we have to study an important book – Memorial do Convento - from a well know portuguese writer, José Saramago that won the Nobel Prize of Literature, check it out…    ;)

Today we are a bit sad about the game of last night. Our portuguese team (Benfica) went to Amsterdam to play the Europa League Final. We fought well but it wasn’t enough unfortunately we lost but we have our heads high and we came out with our pride. 

Hi!
Last week we had the Irish, Greek and Italian teams here (Portugal), plus the teachers from the other teams like France, Poland, Turkey and Romania. The experience was fantastic and the people we met were really nice and we want to repeat all this experience!
We miss all of you, and we hope that you learned something from our culture and our habits.

Joana S. ; Catarina Laranjeira and Marta Caçador (And a little of Joaquim Ribeiro)  :P

xoxo

Hi!
We are very excited to participate in comenius it was a great experience.. now we are in vila praia de ancora in Portugal and we have a great time..!!! today we were getting in groups to drawing the cover for lis diary book.. the best of all will be the cover for the book!!! We look for to enjoy this trip.. And we hope that comenius will be continue in the future to give the oportunity to students to communicate and come closer with many diffirent cultures!!!   rafaela and vaso

Comenius 2013

In groups we came together and went to the library to come up with an idea for the pitch. When we finished we presented the book cover and the idea behind it. It was a great way to communicate and bring all of the students from different countries together. At the end of the pitch the teachers decided which group won.

The irish team; Joana S.; Eva and Mariana. :)

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :D


Today we were put into seven different groups and we had to create the front cover for Lis Diary. At the beginning of the meeting we had today, we said a few things about the person next to us. Then we were told what our task for the afternoon was. Within our assigned groups we brainstormed different ideas and after an hour we had to present our final idea to the rest of the students and teachers. All the ideas presented were different and unique, however we all agreed that the Comenius project is all about being united by learning about each other and working as a team. We all learned how to work as a team with people from different countries and to respect others . We had a great time getting to know other people from different countries.

Italians' opinion

Italian group is happy to have the opportunity to be in Portugal and to take part in the Comenius Project.. We want to thank all of the people that organized this project and we hope that it can continue in the future and it can give the same opportunity to other people. Grazie!

Italian group.

25 April - The Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução dos Cravos), also referred to as the 25 April (Portuguese: 25 de abril), was a military coup began on 25 April 1974 in Lisbon, Portugal, and which overthrew the dictatorial regime of the Estado Novo. This movement would lead to the fall of the Estado Novo and the withdrawal of Portugal from its African colonies.

The name "Carnation Revolution" comes from the fact no shots were fired and when the population started descending the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship and war in the colonies, carnation flowers were put into the muzzles of rifles and on the uniforms of the army. These events effectively changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship into a democracy, and produced enormous social, economic, territorial, demographic, and political changes in the country. The revolution was unusual in that the revolutionaries did not use direct violence to achieve their goals.

The revolution was engendered in a very original way by the military, after taken the most important radio stations they gave the signals to the army to go out to the streets by using two songs one very well knowed and listen, "Depois do Adeus" from Paulo de Carvalho and another that screamed for liberty and fraternity intitled, "Grândola Vila Morena" written by a opponent of the regime Zeca Afonso. This song it’s still used in protests.

The Estado Novo was an authoritarian regime which differed from fascist regimes by its lack of expansionism, lack of a charismatic leader, lack of party structure, and more moderate use of state violence. Salazar was a Catholic traditionalist who believed in the necessity of control over the forces of economic modernization in order to defend the religious and rural values of the country, which he perceived as being threatened. One of the pillars of the regime was the PIDE, the secret police. Many political dissidents were imprisoned at the Tarrafal prison in the African archipelago of Cape Verde, on the capital island of Santiago, or in local jails. Strict state censorship was in place.

The Portuguese celebrate the national holiday of Freedom Day on 25 April every year to celebrate these events.

@ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution

Grândola Vila Morena

Hello,
today me and my friends are really sad due to the weather, it's raining like: 

http://thegirlwhofellintotherabbithole.tumblr.com/post/12548984167

And we are like:

http://suicidemylove.tumblr.com/post/47681654005    

Because we want:

http://missmacaronii.tumblr.com/post/47692686178

bye bye, http://clammus.tumblr.com/post/47580925926

Catarina , Eva and Joana

Easter in Vila Praia de Âncora

On the past March 30th , was held for the second time the event entitled "The largest Easter table of the country", in Vila Praia de Âncora. As in the previous year had many visitors who enjoyed the confectionery craft land products and handicrafts, among many other products exposed on the 400-meter that formed the table, occupying several streets. This event was attended by several artists (painters and sculptors) that during the event filled his canvases inspired by the joy of this festival, as the street performers. The event counted with the participation of several local groups that entertained the people with the best of our traditions. This festivity, was the result of the great efforts of traders and communities such as Parish Councils, for the success of it. The population expects that next year this event will be held again, to make Easter a happier celebration.

Catarina, Eva and  Joana 

Easter in Poland.

Hello, I'm on English lesson, and I'm sending you  greetings for Easter from Poland. ;) There is a lot of snow in Polnad, and  -12 at night. I feel like Christmas is coming... in April. ;)  I'm looking for a Christmas tree, have you seen one? ; )

Easter is coming

Hello from Poland :)
Happy Easter to all Comenius Schools.

Lis and the "Mad Flight"

                                                    9. On the secluded beach of Purgatory

                                                                                                            February 12, 2013
                                                                                            San Marcello Pistoiese, Italy

We earlier reported to the second canto of Dante's Divina Commedia (see above).
Guardian of the kingdom otherworldly 'middle' is Cato the Uticensis, a complex figure, on which it is appropriate to rest for a while.
Historically, he is a well-known political figure, described as having a sum righteousness, incorruptible and impartial and perhaps for this reason hated by many influential men of the time. Great supporter of Pompeo, he paid for his loyalty with his own life and he decided to kill himself while he was in Utica, because he was being chased by the soldiers of Caesar.
In the Commedia, as already mentioned, we find him as the protagonist of the first two cantos of the Purgatorio and even guardian of that kingdom, even if, as suicide, we expect him to share the terrible vegetable fate reserved to Pier delle Vigne in Inferno XIII and, in general, to the violent against themselves.
The choice of Dante, apparently incomprehensible, is actually fully justified if we analyze the reasons for the suicide of Cato himself, which occurred in 46 a.C in Utica.
The latter in fact chose to end his life as an act of extreme virtus, rather than give up the political freedom that now Caesar had reserved for the supporters of Pompeo.
In Purgatorio (vv. 70-75) is the same Virgil to indicate clearly the ethical impulse that motivated the suicide:

Now may it please thee to vouchsafe his coming/ He seeketh his liberty which is so dear/ as knoweth he who life for her refuses/ thou know'st it; since for her to thee not bitter/ was death in Utica, where thou didst leave/ the vesture that will shine so, the great day./

Precisely because of the keyword, liberty, we can understand why Cato, instead of Hell, is found to be the guardian of Purgatory, that is the afterlife where souls are purified and they find freedom from sin.
Using as interpretative model the Auerbach's figural thesis (see above) we can see in the image of historical Cato traits of figura futurorum, that is the political anticipation of the libertarian backing that will assume purely moral traits in its otherworldly size and, therefore, eternal.
In fact, according to Auerbach, the historical Cato is the 'figure' who gave up life in the name of individual liberty, while in Purgatory he appears, as unveiled or fulfilled figure, as the emblem of freedom tout court, that is the special power given to man to choose how to act through the use of free will and thus to save themselves - even dying - from eternal damnation. 

G.Mucci

Editorial supervision by Elisa Lucchesi

Lis and the "Mad Flight"

8. Never stopping to the appearance

13^th February 2013

San Marcello Pistoiese, Italy

Dante also wants to write a poem inspired by the ancient ones, and takes as his privileged model the Aeneid of Virgil. An epic perspective, therefore, crosses the Comedy.

This time it is, however, a new Christian epic.

In fact, Dante's journey explicitly recalls not only to Aeneas' journey in Hades, but also what Paul did in the third heaven, or even, according to medieval legends, hell itself. Classical and medieval sources are then taken to find a new legitimacy to the theme of the meeting with the deads.
Indeed, this latter is taken as the foundational structure of the design of a new Christian civilization which can recover even the vital instances of the ancient and pagan past and to select both from the history and the present episodes and characters that foresee a future of possible salvation.
With Dante, the encounter with the deads, therefore, stop being a single episode and also becomes the structural basis of the narrative and of an entire religious, ethical and political project.

In this sense, it is essential to speak of polysemy: in fact, the Commedia has different levels of reading and you can focus on the literal, the allegorical, moral or analogical, that is the spiritual, meaning.

A reading in a symbolic key of Dante's text makes extensive use of two rhetorical devices that enable us to understand the hidden messages of the text: the figure and allegory. Although at a first glance, they appear to be similar rhetorical trickeries, a more careful analysis shows profound differences.

In fact, allegory is defined as the translation of an abstract and timeless concept in a concrete image that refers to a code known both to the writer and the reader: for example, in this regard, the famous forest of Inferno, allegory of the sinful conditions of life in which man can lose himself in self-destruction.

In contrast, the figure is in fact built on a character or a historical event. A true story becomes a figure of another one when it can be interpreted as foreshadowing of what is destined to be fulfilled in the future.

Such a kind reading is typical of the medieval Christian world: in this perspective, for example, the freeing of the Jews from slavery in Egypt foreshadows Christ's redemption and absolution from all sin.
We can find a clear example of it in Purgatory II (vv. 46-48) in which the souls, arrived on the beach in front of the mountain of Purgatory, sing unanimously the Psalm 113, In exitu Israel, a clear reference to eternal salvation that awaits man after the painful purgatorial purification.

So, according to the figural conception, the entire earthly life is a figure of eternal destiny.
Dante in his Commedia, however, introduces an important new perspective taking as a privileged point of view, no longer that of the land but of the afterlife.
In this way, all the author discovers, about the afterlife, is but the full realization of the facts and individuals whose earthly life was foreshadowing of what is now lead.

A great scholar of the Comedy figures was the German critic E. Auerbach, who has clearly shown that each occurrence of Dante's entire narrative isn't accidental at all, but designed in every detail to provide valuable information concerning the fate of humanity and not just the private life of Dante or individual historical events .
All other-world meetings symbolize the steps that every-man, in this case played by the pilgrim, must face. Each time you come across historical individuals representing not only the manners and customs of their times, but also the eternal and universal truths, since each of them retains an extraordinary realistic wealth.

In this way it is created a very close and vital bond between concrete and abstract, singular and collective, private and public.

Thanks to figural interpretation we can understand how the world of the deads conceived by Dante is a kind of open book on the values ​​and the true meaning of earthly life, but also the saving plan where the history of all humanity finds its complete fulfilment.

Greta Vacchiano.

Editorial Supervisor: Elisa Lucchesi.

Lis and the "Mad Flight"

7. "Is there a love to dying for?"

February 13, 2013

San Marcello Pistoiese, Italy

By quoting the fast apparition of Dido's soul in the book of the dead from Aeneid (cfr. supra) we have marked how the frowning spirit of the suicided queen engineers into Aeneas a strong regret.

However, it is worth focusing a moment on this tormented love story and on its tragic reveals, usually considered to be precursors of the proverbial hostility between Rome and Carthage.

In the Virgilian play, Aeneas arrives with the fleet of Trojan exiles near the Punic city at the behest of the goddess Juno, who, after having persuaded Aeolus, sets off a storm on the hero and his companions. To welcome Aeneas, in the city dear to Juno, the queen will be Dido, exiled from Tyre and the virtuous Sichaeus widow.

An overwhelming passion begins between the two, by the will of the goddess Venus, which is destined to a tragic outcome, since Fate does not allow the fusion of the two peoples by a marriage. The hero begins to prepare secretly the start thinking in this way to weaken Dido's inevitable pain of separation.

But the queen guesses that and Fame confirms that the preparations are full-swinging for departure: she spent the last night in a sleepless restlessness.

So at the sunrise, after some long night suffering, Dido sees the vacuum port and the leaving ships. Then she curses Aeneas and his descendants, hoping that an eternal hatred divides forever the two peoples. The love suffering of Dido, which makes her similar to a "cerva da freccia piagata (deer wounded by an arrow)", it will find peace at last in a painful and self-induced death, after a slow agony.

It is perhaps for this reason that his brief appearance, now as a spirit from shadow, in Aeneid VI is so touching: instead Aeneas that was appeared insensitive in Aeneid IV shows his very strong love for Dido, although they can not join in marriage pact against the wishes of Fate.

If he could, he would have gladly stopped on the shores of Carthage, but as he sadly

says, "la legge dei numi […] con la sua forza mi urgeva -the law of the gods [...] urged me with his strength-" (Aeneid VI, 461-463).

What emerges from that is a deeply pessimistic view of human existence: the two unfortunate lovers are configured as unaware of their destiny and manipulated like puppets by the gods to achieve some purposes which, however they exist, are characterized as inscrutable.

On a closer inspection there is a truly tragic perspective, whose echoes can still be marked in a contemporary artistic and literary production (cfr. infra, in this regard, the considerations raised-up on the play "Paladini di Francia -Paladins of France-").

Martina Castelli, Alice Guerrini, Maria Ferrari.

Lis and the "Mad Flight"

6. “Father and son”

February 13, 2013

San Marcello Pistoiese, Italy

In the VI book of Eneide, the son of Venus and Anchises get off Cuma, an ancient greek colony, where the oracol of Sibil, the prophetess, lies.

This one is deeply in love with Apollo and suggests the hero to invoke mercy of God who's temple lies in a place near the cave. Aeneas, after invoking Phoebus, asks the prophetess to take him  to Hades to meet the father Anchises.

Sibil shows Aeneas the difficulty of the task and warns him that he cannot obtain what he wishes before placing some symbolic actions after which he will be allowed to enter the Hell with the help of his guide. 

After overcoming the imposed actions, Aeneas can start his own descensio ad Inferos. After going past the vestibule and being carried by Caronte over the Stige's swamp, he will meet some souls, including the one frown and hostile of Dido, who suicided herself precisely because of him (compares infra). Then, he will reach the coveted Anchises who, after the firsts crying words shared with the son, will calm him about the destiny of his descent and the Roman future.

So, In this book (Eneide VI), the encounter with the dead marks not only a generational deal, but also the transmission of an egemony and a power able to link myth to history. In fact, Virgil's production differs from Odyssey, in which we can find only a succession of generations that founds a mythology and at the same time a sense of community based on social and political relations.

Just in this renewed prospective the hero undertakes an after-life trip searching for not a fortune-teller, but his own father (compares Odyssey XI).

Moreover, Anchises himself will reveal Aeneas what future deserves to him and his descendants, not his mother, as it happened in Odyssey XI. So, the announcement of future glory is evident in a continuity between patrilineal generations.

Besides, the novelty of Anchises' prophecy consists of a political omen in which there are important historical references.

The private feelings of Enea (the love for his father, the remorse for the suicide of Dido) become part of a common historical frame and political project.

The appearance itself a aversa (adverse) and inimica (inimical) Dido (vv. 469 and 472) goes beyond the personal vicissitude and alludes to the carthaginian revenge and to a conflict which will cover with blood the Mediterranean for over a century.

Gloria Ceccarelli, Francesca Santi

Lis and the "Mad Flight"

5. Insights on Homeric catabasis

February 13, 2013

San Marcello Pistoiese, Italy

The encounter with the dead in the canto XI from Odyssey is without any doubt composed of more parts, showing different sources and next superimposing. Nevertheless, in its different parts, it shows an own basic coherence. The discordances in the content let the mythopoetic shade intact, which links strictly the public sort to the private destinies both to the framework itself and the single episodes of the play.

In contrast with the Homeric tradition, in which the dead are not allowed to dialogue, because they aren't gifted with any emotions or thoughts at all, here the unnatural encounter takes place by a shamanic libation which not only gives them the word, but the ability to spread the truth:

“E quando là le famose larve dei morti/ avrai supplicato, un montone sacrifica/ e una pecora nera volgendone all'Erebo il capo/ e volgi te stesso al cospetto del fiume:/ anime spesse vedrai apparire dei morti” (Afterword you will have begged there the famous shadows of the dead, make a sacrifice a ram and a black sheep turning its head to Erebus and turn yourself towards the river: thick souls of the dead will appear to you).

Odissea X, vv. 526-530

Each encounter, in which the dead, telling the past life, reveal the sense to Ulysses, transforms into a particular attention to the generational range.

In fact, the first soul which Odysseus recognizes in Hades is the one of Elpenor who invokes a sense of mingling among the living, a burial that the descendants can see and recognize in order to preserve the memory:

“ma bruciami, ornato dell'armi che avevo,/ e un tumolo innalza sull'ido del mare/ grigio: che giunga anche ai posteri il nome/ di quest'uomo infelice” (But burn me together with the weapons I had, and lift a tomb on the Ido of the grey sea: let my name, the name of this unhappy man, arrive to the descendants too).

Odissea XI, vv. 75-78

The continuity in which the Homeric dead are interested, does not consider the individual, but a meaningful part of the values of a community. So that the sort of humanity is always integrated in an universe of signs that shares both to the mortals and to the gods, thanks to which we are able to build a circularity of the meaning between the living and the dead.

In an analogy with the XXIV chapter of Biblical Genesis in which the servant Arram is sent by Abraham to find a wife for his son Isaac, the divine sign designating the chosen one can be found, according to Tiresias, Ulysses will be able to see the sign in order to put an end to the hostility of Poseidon and finally return to Ithaca (Odyssey XI compares vv. 133-183).

Even in the encounter with his mother, it is Anticlea herself who becomes the symbol of the coexistence between a private feeling and an important social interest, until now bypassed and left aside in a way that is altogether too modern. As the daughter of Romantcism a large number of twentieth century critics stressed the "private" part of the interview, the feelings between mother and son.

However, we cannot ignore the emotional and personal involvement of the final part of the meeting:

“Perchè, madre, svanisci, sebbene/ io brami di stringerti a me, così/ che anche nell'Ade abbracciati possiamo/ di questo triste gemente colloquio godere?” (Why are you disappearing, mother, even if I crave to hold you tight, so as, even in Hades, we can be glad of this sad and moaning encounter, by staying embraced?).

Odissea XI, vv. 208-211

Odysseus shows strongly his desire to verify the words of Tiresias regarding the royal privilege of Laertes and Telemachus, and the faithfulness of Penelope (Odyssey XI compares vv.180-190).

The episode focuses on a structure of a sequence of parallelisms in which the perspective of social hierarchies and political power are never neglected: Laertes sleeps with servants, Telemachus feasts with the important people of the city, and Penelope, who cries every night, allowing no-one to usurp the throne of Ulysses.

Giovanni Albergucci, Matteo Bizzarri