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| Peter Paul Rubens, Centaur Nessus abducting Dejanira and Hercules chasing him, 1636, private collection (temporarily at the Galleria Civica in Jesi, Italy) |
Visiting museums and art galleries is an opportunity to find out more about the origins of Italian expressions we use every day. I mention Italian and other romanesque languages because they come straight from Latin and Greek, passing through Latin and Greek mythology. I think of this process of etymology awareness as a way to go beyond our limits. By going through this process we can explore the world of poetry. We can go past the horizon of words.
Based on this introduction, I would like to share my latest discovery with you, surfing through the mythological origins of an expression in particular witnessing the poetry of words which means: dreaming.
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| Peter Paul Rubens, Centaur Nessus abducting Dejanira and Hercules chasing him, 1636, private collection (temporarily at the Galleria Civica in Jesi, Italy) |
I was in Jesi in the Le Marche region a few weeks ago. I visited the town for the first time. The painting gallery was one of the highlights of my trip. Here is one of the wonderful rooms of Palazzo Pianetti I noticed a painting telling the story of the centaur Nessus, in Italian Nesso. So when I read the story of centaur Nessus, the first thing that came to my mind was the Italian expression: "trovare il nesso", in English: finding a link. English makes things easier for its users by selecting 'link' instead of 'nexus' for 'Nessus', 'nesso'. Italian is a little more complicated in expressing the same concept. However, in Italian, we get to appreciate mythology through our language as Nessus was the centaur who was the ferryman of river Eveno. Therefore from now on when I think of finding a link between two things or making a connection between two concepts, I will think of centaur Nessus carrying me from one side to the other of the river Eveno.
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| An angel is watching over our journey Peter Paul Rubens, Centaur Nexus kidnapping Deianira and Hercules chasing him, 1636, private collection |
Isn't that cool or what? I have always tried to figure out what mythology was there for. No one taught me it exactly. I am learning it in recent years by myself by experiencing the function of art and art history in a revival process such as Cama's journey.
After all the above description, it would be fun to know that in English you use the same expression: finding a nexus, literally 'finding a ferryman'. I am curious to know the answer to this question. Your feedback is welcome!
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