PARTHENOPE, THE LOST TOMB
Where is the tomb of Parthenope, the mermaid? Who was this mythological figure?
The city of Naples was founded ad the end of the IX century B.C. by Greek settlers from Rhodes, who landed on the islet of Megaride and settled on the promontory of the mount Echia where they imported their cults and their beliefs, starting right from that of Partenope who gave the name to the first settlement.The mermaids were mythological beings with the head of woman and the body of bird, only later represented as half woman and half fish, who used to make the sailors sick with their persuasive songs and made their boats crush on the rocks.Once Ulysses met them, because he had been warned by a wizard, he didn’t let himself be tempted and went beyond it. At the end of the story, Parthenope was so sad that she threw herself into the sea from a cliff and died, while her lifeless body came to Campania and was turned into a promontory.
Maybe the body of the mermaid is guarded in the place chosen for the first settlement in via Nicotera, while according to another thesis it is kept below the church of S. Lucia a Mare or in the church of S. Giovanni Maggiore where an epigraph with her name was found. The ancient scholars, such as Pliny the Older and Strabo, indicated as a place of burial the mount Echia or the mouth of the river Sebeto; her body might be on the hill of S. Aniello in Caponapoli, where was found the head of a woman dating back to the Hellenistic age, now known as “Donna Marianna the head of Naples” and rearranged at Palazzo San Giacomo in Piazza Municipio. However, there are those who place the tomb in the area of the San Carlo Theatre, based on the archaeological findings made in the cemetery of Pizzofalcone in via Nicotera.
In short, the mystery of the Parthenope’s tomb remains unsolved today. Perhaps this is why the famous writer Matilde Serao said about her: <<Parthenope is not dead, she has no tomb. She lives, splendid, young and beautiful, for five thousand years; she runs on the hills, on the beach. She is the one who makes our city drunk with light and crowds of colors, she is the one who makes the stars shine in the peaceful nights>>.
