{"id":7318,"date":"2024-01-15T06:01:33","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T11:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?p=7318"},"modified":"2024-01-15T06:01:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T11:01:36","slug":"greeks-of-italys-magna-graecia-we-dont-feel-greek-we-are-greek-because-no-one-can-change-our-dna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/15\/greeks-of-italys-magna-graecia-we-dont-feel-greek-we-are-greek-because-no-one-can-change-our-dna\/","title":{"rendered":"Greeks of Italy\u2019s Magna Graecia: \u201cWe don\u2019t feel Greek, we are Greek because no one can change our DNA\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Greek City Times &#8211; <\/em><\/strong>Something great is happening on the other side of the Ionian. We are talking about Southern Italy and Sicily, or \u201cMagna Graecia\u201d (Greater Greece) as it was called in antiquity, and there is a good reason for this. An explanation, which Newsbomb.gr found to be true not simply because of the past, romance and nostalgia, which residents of the area or we, from this side, may reasonably have, but because of what is happening today, and it primarily concerns the future \u2013 a Greek future that most of us might not have even imagined\u2026<\/p><p>Here follows the first part of Newsbomb\u2019s journey in Magna Graecia, which includes the regions of Kymi (\u039a\u03cd\u03bc\u03b7, English: Cumae), Neapolis (\u039d\u03b5\u03ac\u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b9\u03c2, English: Naples), Poseidonia (\u03a0\u03bf\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03b4\u03c9\u03bd\u03af\u03b1, English: Paestum), Metapontios (\u039c\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03c0\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd, English: Metapontum) and Taras (\u03a4\u03ac\u03c1\u1fb1\u03c2, English: Taranto).<\/p><p>In the next publication, the second part of the trek will follow in Kroton (\u039a\u03c1\u03cc\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, English: Crotone) and the regions of Kalavria (\u039a\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03b2\u03c1\u03af\u03b1, English: Calabria), while it will conclude with the third and last part in Sikelia (\u03a3\u03b9\u03ba\u03b5\u03bb\u03af\u03b1, English: Sicily).<\/p><p>It is a fact that many residents of southern Italy are turning to their Greek past to integrate it into the present and build a different future. And they are asking for the help of their \u201cbrothers\u201d, as they tell us, from this side of the Ionian, as for them the distinction is only linguistic \u2013 and that is for contemporary reasons \u2013 and not a border one\u2026<\/p><p>Newsbomb had carried out a report, which went viral, about this connection, talking online with institutions from both sides, where we heard locals moved to identify themselves clearly \u2013 and without further discussion \u2013 as \u201cGreeks\u201d.<\/p><p>They explain to us why and what this might mean.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/17-4-1024x679.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297008\" title=\"17 Greek City Times\"\/><\/figure><p>This time, we went to southern Italy and made a marvellous pilgrimage to all the areas where Hellenism once flourished, to the same or even greater extent as it did in mainland Greece. The seed of this flower, as we were surprised to find, was never uprooted and instead had much to give\u2026<\/p><p>In this article, we present the first part of our trek \u2013 there are three in total \u2013 as there are so many amazing things to show that it was decided that they should not be limited to one video\u2026<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/1-70-1024x906.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297009\" title=\"1 Greek City Times\"\/><\/figure><p>Wherever we went, from Naples to Apulia, Calabria and the coast of Sicily, everywhere there were people who wanted to meet the Greeks, to talk to our camera about what they felt, to show us how they meant their Hellenism \u2013 because they were also Greeks in another, administratively, homeland \u2013 as they told us and as you will also find out\u2026<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2-41.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297010\" title=\"2 Greek City Times\"\/><\/figure><p>Mayors, artists, MEPs, historians, ordinary citizens, people who are now living their lives 150 years after the violent dissolution of the kingdom of Naples and Sicily and the incorporation of these areas into the Italian state, and a few decades after the oppression of Mussolini and of the attempt to \u201cstamp\u201d anything that does not strictly promote the Italian identity alone.<\/p><p>Globalisation as it is and its threats, after all, and as we were told, is a problem whose solution can only come for them with the awakening of what they were and what they can and must become. Not something like us \u2013 because it is us.<\/p><p>But with the values \u200b\u200bof Hellenism in mind and the cultivation of a consciousness of the true and the beautiful, like the wonderful temples that are there everywhere, and in a much better condition than here, with the marbles there not catching rust and on the contrary, have many useful stories to tell us \u2013 for today.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/3-64-1024x601.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297011\" title=\"3 Greek City Times\"\/><\/figure><p>We continue to the city and have lunch with our \u201cbrothers\u201d, as they call us, at the foot of Vesuvius, and learn about their pride in being Parthenope, the city of Odysseus. We can also see pride in the stadiums of the team that won the championship a few months ago \u201cin Italy\u201d and not \u201cof Italy\u201d, as they keep telling us because they feel something else\u2026<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/5-55-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297013\" title=\"5 Greek City Times\"\/><\/figure><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/6-27-1024x528.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297014\" title=\"6 Greek City Times\"\/><\/figure><p>Very close is Poseidonia, a real archaeological park with three wonderful temples, much larger than our Parthenon\u2026<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/9-32-1024x578.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297015\" title=\"9 Greek City Times\"\/><\/figure><p>In the first part of the trek, we start from Kymi \u2013 the Euboean colony, as you may have already guessed from the name, and the world-famous oracle of the Sibyl, compared perhaps only to Delphi, just outside Naples.<\/p><p>From there, we moved towards Apulia and Metapontion, the place of Pythagoras. The people there honour him in particular, with the \u201cNaiads\u201d dressed up in ancient Greek costumes, telling us about him and taking us on a tour of where the Samian philosopher flourished\u2026<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/10-31.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-297016\" title=\"10 Greek City Times\"\/><\/figure><p>Somewhere, there is also the \u201cGreek\u201d Apulia, i.e. the Greek-speaking villages, with the inhabitants, despite the times, still speaking Greek and welcoming us warmly\u2026<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/20-6-1024x621.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"840\" height=\"509\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/2024\/01\/15\/greeks-of-italys-magna-graecia-dna\/\">Read more here<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greek City Times &#8211; Something great is happening on the other side of the Ionian. We are talking about Southern Italy and Sicily, or \u201cMagna Graecia\u201d (Greater Greece) as it&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1757,1759,1758,1755,196,1756],"class_list":{"0":"post-7318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-greek-culture","9":"tag-greek-heritage","10":"tag-greek-history","11":"tag-greeks-of-italy","12":"tag-italy","13":"tag-magna-graecia"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/greek.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7320,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions\/7320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}