Journal history

The Symplegades, or the mythological Cyanean Rocks clash together and impede the journey beyond the threshold

The Erring Rocks, or Dancing Islands are mythical forms of that prodigious passage beyond which there is the Island of the Blessed. In India, the notion of “Sailing Islands” represents the “worlds” or the different “states of being”: on a sailing island, surrounded by the Ocean, all 'manifestations' are possible. It is a dynamic Gate linking Sky and Earth which, originally, were one single entity. Any pair of opposites repeats the perilous passage that the Hero-Artist humbly goes through. The apparent antitheses, such as “north-south”, cannot be absolute, but only logical extremes of a ‘divided’ form, a threshold to cross without being devoured or overwhelmed. The threads of which the universe consists.

Le Simplegadi, specialistic on-line journal, aims at reflecting on the ‘future’ (and the present) of the languages and literatures in the era of globalisation, when the ‘north-world’ and the ‘south-world’ are apparent extremes of the threshold to cross in order to recompose the unique fabric of existence.

In ancient times and for ‘traditional’ cultures, poets and bards, are members of a privileged ‘order’ within the learned class, such as the Brahmins in India. In Ireland their profession was hereditary, and their apprenticeship difficult. Druids and erudite poets (Filidh) were also judges, they had priestly functions, such as divination and prophecy, and in this they were similar to Siberian shamans, when they lead their audience in ‘Another’ world. For the Australian Aborigines life is an embroidery of songs and stories (Songlines), where individual, historical and mythic experiences are constantly interwoven with their Dreamtime.

There was magic in these tales, once upon a time!

We therefore hope that the easy access to information characterising our world can become a way to weave a network of plots, a creative interlacing of stories, tales, poems, legends and myths providing ‘another’ web.

Weaving has always been considered a ‘feminine’ activity. The female spider creates the world from her own bowels, and the Parcae are spinners intertwining destinies. In the Islamic tradition, the loom represents the structure of the universe and its constant movement. In North Africa the humblest housewife possesses a loom composed of four wood pieces, symbols of the whole universe. The Moon intertwines our destinies. Many Goddesses hold spindles and distaffs in their hands and govern the unravelling of Life’s yarn, through weaving they create new forms, ‘predestining’ (on the anthropological plane) and ‘harmonising’ (on the cosmological plane). In the multifarious tapestry of the cosmos, spinners and weavers open and close cycles.

 

Antonella Riem

Bibliography

Coomaraswamy, Ananda, K., Il Grande Brivido. Saggi su simbolica e arte, Milan, Adelphi, 1987, p.423. See “Le Simplegadi” chapter, pp.417-41.
Gnisci, Armando, Poetiche dei mondi, Rome, Meltemi, 1999.