The Greek Heritage chapter
The Cavallina fountain is at the beginning of the Greek chasm
The Greek Heritage chapter
Welcome to my hub called, the heritage chapter.
Everywhere you go and any place you visit has got its own history, the
past history of that place is seen in those things that are left from the past;
those things that are left from the past is the heritage of that particular
place; so, when we talk about heritage it is obvious that we are looking for
things that have come from the past, these things left from the past could be
old buildings, statues that those people have made in the past and are still
there and many other things, it also includes the way of life that those people
have lived and some of this way of life may still be seen in the way the people
of that place behave.
So when we use the word heritage it has many uses, but here we are using
it to tell you about history events of my native town; we all know that when we
look at any place in the world we know that it has got a history of its own, so
we wonder what has happened in that part of the world and what are the sign
left of the past that we can use to tell its history, of course there are also
things that are still there and this is the heritage of that place, as we were
saying above. Now, in this article we are going to discuss
about some heritage or history of Genzano di Lucania, therefore we are going to
mention what sort of heritage we inherited in Genzano, from our ancestors or
other ancient people that once lived there.
We would like also to mention here briefly the history of the name of
Genzano: it is believed that the name of Genzano comes from the legend of Ian
and San and the name is virtually the two names put together, I believe that we
have mentioned it already at length somewhere else, so there is no need to
repeat that here, so let us talk about the other heritage.
In Genzano di Lucania, there is a chasm called the Greek chasm, and
perhaps we should have called this article, Genzano Greek chasm heritage
chapter, to be more specific, but anyhow, let us discuss here and now about
this chasm, which is the other chasm on the other side of Genzano; for the
readers that have not read our previous hubs I repeat here, that the old town
of Genzano was built between two chasms and in our last article we have talked
about Saint Antuon or Saint Michael chasm where most of the Genzanesi make wine
or used to make wine when I was young in these caves dug in the walls of the
chasm below the town, but here today we are going to talk about the other chasm,
that the local call the Greek chasm, which as I have said, it is on the other
side of the town and below the town itself starting from fountain called
Cavallina.
So, let us try to explain the name of this Greek chasm first; some
writers that have written about Genzano history lately all seem to admit that a
very long time ago the Greek were living here in this part of southern Italy,
and therefore in the chasm that we are going to talk about as well, and that is
the reason why it is called the Greek chasm even today from the elders of
Genzano.
There are reasons to believe that this event of the Greek being in that
chasm would be right, because, if one keeps in mind how the human race migrated
from the Middle East to Europe; and also history tells us that 700 BC or there
about Greece had colonies in southern Italy, which might have lasted until the
Romans took over. So let us assume that the Greeks were there anyhow, because
what is going to follow later on is only going to reinforce this assumption. As
there is also another story about this Madonna of Genzano that we are going to
tell you in our future hubs, we can only say here that this Madonna effigy is
very much like the effigies that the Greek were making about the Roman times.
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The town history and heritage
Looking at old history books, we have to admit that there is not much
written about Genzano di Lucania town history in the distant past. However the
myth says that Genzano is very old and it was named from a legend that tells us
that a young guy called Iens (yens) fell in love and eloped with a young
princes called San, they went to live in the caves that were in the chasm below
Genzano and later on started to build the town above the caves a small castle,
the name is virtually the two name of the lovers put together Iens-san (yensan,
or jenzan) I am saying this because I know that in strict dialect of the town
even today it is pronounced Yenzan with no G at the beginning and no O at the
end.
(For those people that can read Italian, I am going to paste here a couple of links that modern writers have written about the history of Genzano di Lucania: One of this is Ettore Lorito, and here is a link that may get you to see his writing works, Scrittori e poeti, another writer has these two link, here, Arch. Pietrapertosa - Storia e dintorni - Genzano di Lucania, this writer has two links and both are very interesting,
http://ass-gentius.blogspot.it/ ,
let us hope they work)
Now let us talk for a moment about more recent history that a recent
write has discovered in the archive of Potenza; this writer is Ettore Lorito
and you can find is writing, if you follow the link of (scrittori e poeti, (as
shown above)) one of the first times that Genzano is mentioned in the archives
is that of two brothers Secondo and Donato who were Christian martyr in the
year 258 AD, as they were beheaded in Genzano ordered from council Valeriano,
which I guess was a Roman council for that part of Italy. This seems to be the
oldest record found written in Genzano history and not much else; so, let us go
back to the Greek chasm story.
Because in this hub we would like to tell or describe to you the chasm
on the other side of Genzano that we call the Greek chasm, we have to say that
this chasm starts about fifty meter from the fountain Cavallina, or perhaps I
should say that at the beginning of the Greek chasm is where the fountain
Cavallina is, then suddenly the chasm becomes very deep and a real chasm that
is hard to go into it, and nobody goes there, unless you have to go there and
know the way how to get there; anyhow this part of Genzano is called the Greek
chasm, so, by this very name it is understood that a very long time ago there
must have been a colony of Greek people living there, and perhaps also in the
surrounding country side.
About the Greek people and whatever happened to them nobody seems to
know today, as there is no trace of them and there are no records to check
with. So one is forced to assume that very likely that there was a war, or
something of that sort and they were driven out. Or perhaps they just mixed
with the rest of the inhabitants of Genzano and nobody remembers; or perhaps,
as time went by lots of other things happened that changed the shape of the
chasm, so, it became impossible for them to live in the chasm, because of the
erosion and other natural factors which slowly changed the shape of the chasm,
and the use of the chasm, there might be other factors as well, but let us now
talk about the more recent history of this place.
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Recent history of Genzano’s Greek chasm
We all know that how time passes lots of things slowly change, as we
have already mentioned here above, this has also happened to the Greeks and
their chasm; so, nowadays the Greek chasm has been deserted from the people of
Genzano for a long while, because most of the people would be afraid to go into
this chasm as it is today; you see, today there is only a small part that is
still used and a track or road that can take you to the other chasm. Now let us
see the reasons why this has happened: Apart that it can be dangerous because
of the abrupt drops in the level of the land, it can also be unsanitary as lots
of rubbish used to be dumped into this chasm, and this would include also the
human excrement that used to come out at the bottom of the chasm, when there
was no proper sewer laid in town; and plus most of the men that lived in the
old town when they had to go, they used to go and squat on the shoulders of the
chasm and do it there, in order to save their women folks the extra sanitary
work that they had to carry out: And this unpleasant task I am going to write
later on how it was done, from the young women that lived in those times. (Now that I think about it, to live in those
time was much harder than today.)
In the Greek chasm nowadays there are only a few good caves that can
still be used, and most of the rest have been abandoned because it is
impossible to get at them, since the erosion has made the chasm deeper, so now
some caves are left exposed halfway up the vertical cliff of the chasm.
I believe that the erosion became worse in this chasm because: there is
the fountain Cavallina upstream at the very beginning of the chasm, and also
because, as the town grew larger most of the town’s storm water drainage was
diverted into this chasm, and together with this drainage they built also a
simple and effective sewerage system for the town of those days. The dunghill
masonry was built all underground, except for the opening where they used to
drop the dung, and it was connected through a drain which came out at the
bottom of the chasm. All this may seem ridiculous today, but I am sure that in
those times was seen as a great improvement.
Now at this point I would like to point out to you that there are some
large masonry works in this chasm, because across the chasm there are two
massive masonry walls, and one of them is so massive that seems as if it wants
to hold the banks of the chasm apart. These two walls have been built for
several purposes in mind, and the most important one would be to prevent any
landslide which would endanger this old part of the town, and to stop the
erosion that could undermine this part of the town, and also to hide the
drainage and sewer system. So the only thing that could be seen of the sewer
system was only a large barred opening about three feet square at ground level,
which was situated a short walking distance from the town’s fountain Cavallina;
and this archaic but effective old sewer system was still being used when I was
young. Not from my family, because we were lucky enough as we were connected to
the modern sewer system long before I was born. But it still was used only from
those less fortunate people in the community, which for some reasons of their
own had not been able to connect to the modern town’s sewer yet, so they had to
use the old system as it was done in the old days, this must have been the most
hated job of them all that the young less fortunate women had to do during
their lives, so let me write about it even though I hate doing it, because it
is so hateful and at the same time necessary, in order to explain how the
people were living in the past.
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The most hated job of them all
Before we start to tell you about the most hated job of them all that
the women folks of Genzano had to do in those times; we would like to point out
to the modern generation to compare those times and the ways that even the best
people had to make do, in order to live a decent life then, as there was no
other ways available; We know that for the younger generation of today all this
may seem crazy even to talk about it, but in those times that was how most
things were done, because there was no other way, and if there was a way it was
expensive and only a few people could afford it.
Now looking back at the time when I was young, I still remember how the
unspeakable job was done, from the women folks of those last unfortunate
families that were still using the old sewer system; they had to do this
horrible job two or three times a week, and they would feel so ashamed while
they were doing it, because this would expose them in a mental way about lack
of privacy, so they felt ashamed and what a shame it was compared to nowadays
privacy and living standard.
Now, there is more to tell about this happening, because in those times
young people sometimes were almost cruel and they would enjoy to see the funny
part of it all without thinking that their actions would greatly upset the
other party concerned; now that I am older and wiser I would have felt sorry
for those women that had to use the old sewer system: But then as a young man;
I and my teenager male friends thought that it was very funny, when we would
see in the evening just before dusk, a couple of women per household come out
of their houses with their own dung balanced on their head so to speak. One of
them would carry this round and wide rimmed ceramic container balanced on her
head, the other would be carrying a bucket and a sort of little broom which was
a sort of brush with a long handle.
They would be coming out of their houses, and they would try to go the
back ways as much as they could, and try to be invisible if they could as they
didn’t want to be seen. Can you just imagine some teenager girls doing this low
and unspeakable service, while some teenager boys would be prying on them from
a distance? What a shame! Those girls must have felt terrible to say the least,
only because they were doing the most hated job of them all, which was to
dispose of their own human excrement; but, it was necessary and inevitable.
Anyhow when they reached the square opening of the sewer, they would help each
other to bring the contains down from their heads and would throw the dung down
the square hole; and then the one with the bucket would go to the fountain and
bring a bucket of water to wash the ceramic container. And finally return to
their homes relieved that their dirty job was done, and they would be all right
for a few more days.
Can you just imagine any young girls that are living today to do such a
shameful job, I have nothing else to say but just compare. So, when old people
say that today generations are better off and lucky to be born now and not
then, they are telling us the truth, because I am pretty sure that there is no
one that would volunteer to do that job. Here we could say a lot more and
compare the youths of today with the youths of the past and see what has
changed since then, but we will refrain from doing that, as it is not my life
story and I intend to continue with my story.
So, see you next time, where we are going to tell you about the Madonna
story. Now just to let you see how important this Madonna that we are going to
talk about is, here is a link to you tube that shows you the old town and this
Madonna some of this Madonna feast: Genzano di Lucania Festa Madonna 2011 (Paese Vecchio) - YouTube
See you in our next hub.
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