Greek Italy – Una Fazza Una Razza

Much of southern Italy was settled by the Greeks 2,500 years ago, and these areas form what we still know today as Magna Graecia (Greater Greece). As a result, southern Italy became a center of Greek culture, music, and language for hundreds of years. Greece has also been occupied in the past by the Romans and Italians. To this day, we can see the Greek influence in Italy and the Italian influence in Greece, through architecture, music, food, and language. Naples, for example, was a city founded by the Greeks, and its name derives from the Greek Nea Polis (New City). Naples was also a Greek-speaking city until the 9th century BC. It is an ancient Greek city, with a ‘secret abandoned’ underground city, where there are many original city walls, and even a Greco-Roman theater where the famous Emperor Nero used to perform opera! The underground city can be visited on guided tours organized by Napoli Sottoteranea -‘Napoli Underground’. In Piazza Bellini in the center, you can also see some Greek ruins of the original city Agrigento, Sicily, is famous for the Valle dei Templi (Valley of the Temples), one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, and is a UNESCO Heritage Site of Humanity.

There are many Doric Greek temples just outside the main center of Agrigento, including the Temple of Hercules, the Temple of Zeus, and the Temple of Concordia. The Greeks arrived here in 734 BC. C. and named the small island of Ortigia in Syracuse by ‘ortgyia’, the Greek word for ‘quail’, as it was ‘quail-shaped’. (How did they know what it looked like from above…?) They also built several temples, such as the Temple of Apollo in the central Piazza Pancali, and the Temple of Athena. They also built the Arethusa fountain, named after the legendary nymph of Arethusa, which is now a ‘gathering’ for local youth. Also, inland from the main center of Syracuse, they built the largest theater in Sicily.

With many areas of southern Italy speaking Greek for many years (Naples spoke Greek until the 9th century), it is not surprising that there is some Greek influence in some accents or dialects in the south. It is true that the Greek language in general is very different, but there are some words that still remain. With the Romans also occupying Greece, the Romans may have introduced a few words into the Greek language….. Griko and Grecans are languages ​​spoken by Italians living in the Bovesia Calabria region, and could be described as pidgin languages Italo-Greek. These languages ​​are becoming extinct and a law has been enacted to protect them, although some believe it may be too late.

The Greek, Arabic and Spanish influence on the music of southern Italy can be heard when listening to various pieces of music and songs, both modern and traditional, for example Mari by the Neapolitan artist Nino D’Angelo. Both southern Italian and Greek traditional music use similar instruments, such as the mandolin (similar to the Greek bouzouki) and the tamburello (tambourine), which is the most important percussion instrument in Italy’s musical tradition. The ‘tamburello’ was originally introduced through Greek influence in southern Italy, and also through Arabic influence in Sicily. The tarantella is a famous traditional dance from southern Italy and is directly related to the ritual of the cult of Dionysus (the patron god of wine) from ancient Greece. It is named after the tarantula spider. Around the 16th and 17th centuries, people were poisoned by deadly tarantula bites from the Lycosa Tarantula, and it was believed that they could only be cured by frantically dancing. The dance began with a regular rhythm, and then gradually accelerated. The victim goes into a ‘trance’ and dances in a state of ecstasy so much that they are exhausted. Once they reached exhaustion and slowed down, it would be taken as a sign that they had healed. There is obviously a lot of Greek influence in the history and music in the areas of Magnia Grecia where Griko and Greacanic are spoken.

Greek and southern Italian cuisine share many similarities. Mainly, this is due to the fact that they are two areas of the Mediterranean located very close to each other, sharing similar climates and soils…so they use and grow similar products, for example olives and olive oil, aubergines , zucchini, peppers, garlic and tomatoes. This in turn results in similar dishes and recipes. However, there is also Greek influence in some southern Italian cuisines and vice versa, due to historical factors; Greek occupation in southern Italy and Roman occupation in Greece. For example, when the Romans occupied Greece, many Greek tutors were hired by wealthy Roman families for their children, as well as Greek chefs for their kitchens… Other dishes to compare are the Neapolitan dish Parmigiana with the Greek Moussaka, (both dishes include layers of similar ingredients such as aubergines, tomato sauce and cheese), Campanian pepperonata with salata me psites piperies from the Greeks (a roasted pepper salad with olives) and Campanian melanzane a scarpetta (also known as melanzane a barchetta) to the melitzanes papoutsakia from the Greeks (stuffed eggplant halves; Italian scarpetta and Greek papoutsakia mean ‘shoes’ in reference to their appearance).
No wonder, then, that Italians and Greeks have a saying “Una Faccia Una Razza” (pronounced una fatsa una razza in Greek)! (Literally translated, it means “one face, one race” and refers to the similarities and history of Greece and Italy.)