By Miltiades Elia Bolaris
Balkan Illusion - phantasia archaica:
"...it is very interesting to note that many of the authentic ancient Macedonian words, according to their etymology and pronunciation, have a striking resemblance to the appropriate words used in the modern Macedonian language (and other so called "Slav" languages)[sic]."
..."Glaukia(s).
Could this name be derived from the noun "glava" (a head)? In 19th century Macedonia one finds the male name Glavko.". From: "Similarities between ancient Macedonian and today's' Macedonian Culture (Linguistics and Onomastics)" by Aleksandar Donski, celebrity propagandist and folk "historian" from Skopje, FYROM.
There was a lot of commotion in the conservative circles of Rome, in 1901, when the Guerrieri-designed lions of the Aqua Pia fountain, in Piazza della Republica were all of a sudden replaced by four nude bronze nymphs. Commotion or not, the nymphs stayed, and to add insult to conservatism's injury, the people forgot the old Pious Water name and started calling it the Fontana delle Naiadi / the Neiads Fountain.
To make things even worse, some artistically challenged Romani saw the Dolphin the Octapus and the fish in the water fountain, and the whole mix somehow reminded them of their favorite sea food dinner, hence the name "Fritto Misto / Fried (seafood) Mix", stuck for the fountain, to the dismay, I am sure of Mario Rutelli, the Sicilian sculptor who created it.
Dismayed or not, Rutelli was subsequently commissioned to create yet another sculpture, for the middle of the fountain, which he called the Glaucos Group / Gruppo Glauco, which was installed ten years later, in 1911-1912.
Glaukos/Glaucos/Γλαύκος, the human-like sea deity, the sea demon who is portrayed in the middle of the Fontana delle Naiadi was a poor Boeotian fisherman of ancient times, who become immortal by eating a life-giving sea weed.
He grew fins and a fish tail and became an immortal creature of the sea. He was accepted by Poseidon, Nereus and Amphitrite as their companion and became a benevolent sea demon that always run to help seamen in distress in the seas.
He was occasionally metamorphosed into a female, the white faced Glauce / Γλαύκη, a mermaid.There are many personages with the name Glauke/Glauce/Γλαύκη in Greek Mythology. One was an Amazon, also named Hipollyta, who became wife of Theseus. Another Glauce was the daughter of Kyknos (the "bright white" one) who had a child by Ajax. A woman named Glauce was one of the daughters of Danaos and Phoebe (the "illuminating" one).
Read this article in: American Chronicle
Read this article in: American Chronicle
