Hercules Goes Mad

Hercules went mad and murdered his own children and wife in Siracusa on Thursday night. This was the Greek play "Heracles" (aka Hercules) by Euripides, written in 421-416 B.C. and performed here in Sicily in 2007 in the Greek theater in the archaeological park in Siracusa. The theater itself is over two thousand years old, but still in remarkably good condition.

Why did he go mad and do this you might ask? We had the same question (and the script, in English), but it seems that Madness and Iris, along with their dancers, inflicted it upon Heracles. Just minutes before, he was the loving husband and father returned from Hades and wreaking revenge on his family's captor, Lycus, the unlawful King of Thebes.

Of course, Heracles was immediately inconsolably remorseful when he awoke afterwards. The last scene of the play was his making peace with his own father and going off with his friend Theseus, King of Athens, to try and live the rest of his life. The theme was stated simply by Hercules himself: "Whoso prefers wealth or might to the possession of good friends, thinketh amiss. " Good friends are most valuable! "

If you'd like to see the entire script, in English, go HERE.

Our little group of good friends had a great time eating granita and buying papyrus paintings beforehand and then enjoyed a great seafood dinner in Ortygia afterwards, not getting home till after midnight. We really enjoyed the staging, music, special effects (earthquake splits the background and breaks up the floor), the acting (Hercules' father was played by an eminent professor and actor), and the ambiance of the Greek theater. The wife of Hercules personified "drama." She was the original Italian mother, I decided. About the only thing we did not enjoy was the stone seats (hard in spite of cushions). Even the youngsters in our group were glad to get up and walk after an hour and a half of drama.

Tindari: Madonnas, Mosaics, and Much More

Tindari is a place that has it all --breathtaking scenery, Greek and Roman ruins, mosaics, the famous Black Madonna of Tindari, myths, and miracles. Driving along the autostrade from Messina to Palermo on the northeast coast of Sicily, you will see a striking church high, high on a cliff. This is the highest point of the Cape of Tindari, above the town of Patti.

The Black Madonna of Tindari is one of the many historical mysteries and the holiest icon of the island.
What I didn't realize at first was that this was not just a religious Catholic pilgrimage shrine, but also a very old and important historical site. Tindarus, as it was called, was settled during the Bronze Age (about 1500 BC). The Syracusan Greeks refounded it in 396 BC, and in 254 BC it became a Roman city. There is much to see there today, both Greek and Roman. A comparative religionist Stephen Benko points to the erection of churches housing black madonnas on the sites of former temples to Cybele, as is this one in Tindari.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have "a thing" for madonnas and mosaics. So, I was ecstatic to find both at Tindari in the Sanctuary of the Tyndaris Madonna. The church itself was built in the past century and is a beautiful stone structure decorated inside with rich mosaics. Its whole purpose, however, is to house the Black Madonna, which is very old and of unknown origin.

Some say the dark wooden statue was sculpted by St. Luke himself, and that it washed ashore in a small casket, perhaps as early as the 7th century. Others say that she originated in ancient Byzantium and "legend tells that a group of fishermen found it after it fell off a ship bound from the Orient, and handed it over to the local monks. These monks built a sanctuary for it."

The most famous legend says "that once a pilgrim was most disappointed on seeing the Black Madonna and made some disparaging remarks. A short time later the child of the impertinent pilgrim fell over the cliffs. As proof of her mercy and also of her power the Madonna caused the sea to recede and soft cushions of sand to form and catch the child as it fell. It is then that she is supposed to have said 'Niger sum, sed formosa.' (I am black and beautiful.) Since then, Tindari has sat in state above the Mare Secco, the 'dry sea'." Statues of two women, justice and equality, stand near her.

It is indeed the Black Madonna that draws most of the Italian visitors to Tindari, but I discovered that there is much, much more. Beyond the church and the gorgeous clifftop views of restaurants, beyond the tiny town, you will find an amazing Roman-Greek archaeological site with yet another Greek theater and the remains of a very large building called a basilica like I have never seen before in Sicily. This Roman basilica, though, was a "public meeting house," not a temple or church . It straddles the main road, so archaeologists think it may have been a huge gateway into the main square of the city. Four arches still remain, although there were five originally. It is definitely cool to look right through the remains and see the modern church with the Black Madonna in the distance. All around are extensive remains and ongoing excavations of this Roman city that contained a forum, baths, houses, and taverns.


It is humbling to think that this place, alive today with tourists, souvenir shops, and buses, has been a special place to so many different people for thousands and thousands of years. What Goethe once said about Sicily is true: "a marvelous place . . . where many rays of Universal History converge."