Testo in italiano

COZZO MATRICE

Right in the center of Sicily there is an enchanting body of water, which, seen from the top of the skies, we could say from Mount Olympus, looks like the eye of a Cyclops who has the head of Trinacria: it is Lake Pergusa.

On the shores of her, a beautiful girl was often seen, who with her handmaids rejoiced among the fragrant flowers, the warm rays of the sun and the everlasting wonderful colors of this island.

Her name was Persephone or Kore if you prefer and she was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of fertility. Her father was none other than Zeus, who was also demeter’s brother. But in those times and especially in Olympus, it was common! While one day she walked happily right on the shores of this lake from underground, at full speed, a cart pulled by powerful horses and driven by Hades: the king of the underworld, who was also the brother of Demeter and Jupiter and therefore the uncle of Persephone. As soon as her uncle saw her niece so well-grown, he grabbed her by her hips, and with the cart driven by him, he carried her underground.

In short: the uncle married her!

At that time, as mentioned, it was common!

Demeter, desperate mother, as soon as she heard the news from Kore’s maids, immediately called the powerful husband-brother and father of her daughter, Zeus, begging him to intercede.

And then Zeus, who by nature loved peace, declared: let’s do this, for six months  Hades keeps her underground and for 6 months Demeter returns to you, here on surface.

And so it was established that the 6 months that Persephone remained underground corresponded to autumn and winter; and the 6 months that  she returned to  surface of the earth corresponded to Spring and Summer.

And here is the cave, just above Lake Pergusa, from which on March 21st of each year the beautiful Kore brings flowers, love, and fertility back to the whole world.

It is a beautiful place, where you can feel all the energy of a land, Sicily, whose history is one of the great columns that support the entire planet.

Cozzo Matrice, as this small hill is called, is a plateau from whose summit the fields and splendid horizons of wheat and poetry of central Sicily embrace.

And then, that lake below, that magic eye, where Persephone once gathered flowers and sang and danced; where once his uncle Apollo grazed the flock of the Sun; where a little further on Theocritus would have invented bucolic poetry.

Here, on the top of Cozzo Matrice, are the ruins of ancient civilizations of the past: you can see tombs carved into the rock, stones belonging to the walls of ancient houses and the remains of what was perhaps a temple.

You can smell the Sicilian thyme and the sheep walk around happily.

This place has been inhabited since the second millennium BC and the ground is full of fragments of the past.

Well, we have just told you the romantic story of Persephone, the beautiful Sicilian Goddess.

And most importantly, now you know why Spring brings flowers and serenity to the earth.

This also happened in Sicily.