entry
Apr. 2003, rev. Mar. 2012
The Four Days of Naples & Salvo d'Acquisto
In a
city full of baroque and neo-classical
statuary, two rather unusual pieces of sculpture stand
out. One is at the west end of the Villa Comunale in the
center of Piazza della Repubblica near the Mergellina
section of town. It is the "Monument to the Scugnizzo"
(photo, left). In the so-called "Quattro Giornate di
Napoli" (Four Days of Naples), a popular uprising
in September 1943 against German forces in Naples saw
Neapolitan scugnizzi
(street kids) engaged in harrying tactics against the
hard-pressed Wehrmacht, the German army, already
in disarray in the face of the Anglo-American invasion
at Salerno. It is part of Neapolitan lore that such
armed civilian resistance helped drive the Germans from
the city. The monument consists of sculpted monoliths
raised on a platform; each slab contains intense detail
of humans involved in war. The monument is the work of Marino
Mazzacurati and was set up in 1963.
[Also see a New York Times account of the
episode in question.] [Also
this link.]
|
added June 9, 2019
What is a Myth? Zeus is a myth. Snow White is a fairy tale. There's a difference. I am trying to clear up some of my own careless usage of such terms as 'lore' (in the passage above this box) and 'myth', and 'mythology' in what I have written about The Four Days of Naples here and in other entries. There is a common use of myth that equates it with fairy-tale, as in "Aw, that's just a myth!" to mean fiction, it never happened. If I have left the impression that that was what I meant, it was sloppy and careless on my part. I meant the primary definition of "myth" as it is used in anthropology -- a body of material that may incorporate historical basis and then involves real events, half-truths, legends-- in short, everything that has to do with the subject. Such myths may serve to explore phenomena of nature, cultural or religious institutions, even the origin of life. They tend to deal with the ancient world but may also have explanatory power when trying to figure out relatively current events such as the episodes in The Four Days of Naples. What really happened? Who was involved? What accounts that we have, after the fact, are factual? To what extent are they embellished? What, if anything, has been left out in order, perhaps, to fit a preconceived notion of "history that should have happened" -- but didn't? How do we know? What are our sources? All of that. So, I am pretty sure that Snow White -- though it sheds light on human nature and serves to instruct children (as do all fairy tales) is not a myth -- it's a fairy tale, a fable. Zeus, on the other hand, is a classical myth, as are the tales of The Illiad and The Odyssey. I know that Greece exists. (I looked it up!) But I don't believe that Zeus lives (or ever lived) on Mount Olympus. As with religious mythology, contention arises among those who have various opinions on why this is a fact and that is not. That contention is with us forever. So if I happen to say "part of the lore of Naples" or refer to the "myth" or "mythology" of the The Four Days of Naples, I mean everything about those events that might help us to explore and understand them. |
Also,
there is a large metal-wrought memorial on via
Toledo (via Roma) at Piazza Carità,
at the north end of the so-called "Spanish Quarters". The
monument is the work of Lidia Cottone and was
erected in 1971. It is dedicated to the memory of
Salvatore D'Acquisto, a 23-year-old Carabiniere
heroically involved in an incident in September, 1943.
One German soldier was killed and two were seriously injured when a grenade exploded in a crate of abandoned munitions they were inspecting. The German commander was convinced, however, that his men had been killed by a booby trap set by the Italian resistance. He went to the nearby Carabiniere station of Torrimpietra near Torre di Palidoro and demanded of the young officer-in-charge, D'Acquisto, that he find those responsible. D'Acquisto argued in vain that the incident had been accidental, at which point the German commander rounded up 22 Italian civilians to execute in reprisal for the "ambush". At that point, D'Acquisto lied and took personal responsibility for the incident. He was summarily executed by firing squad, thereby sacrificing his life for and saving the lives of the civilian hostages.
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