{"id":563,"date":"2016-03-27T17:52:11","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T21:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/?p=563"},"modified":"2016-03-28T13:27:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T17:27:16","slug":"cyclops-on-mount-etna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/sicily\/cyclops-on-mount-etna\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclops on Mount Etna"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On our last full day in Sicily, we visited the awe-inspiring\u00a0Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe.\u00a0The contrast of black volcanic rock against pure white snow made it feel like we had stepped foot\u00a0on an entirely new planet.<\/p>\n<p>According to Greek\u00a0mythology, the Cyclops made their home on Etna, where they were tasked by the gods to craft weapons under the forgeries of the volcano. \u00a0Seeing Mount Etna with my own eyes was particularly meaningful for\u00a0me, as many ancient authors have discussed\u00a0this site in their various works. In Book IV of the <em>Georgics<\/em>, for example, Vergil uses a metaphor to compare bees diligently making honey with the Cyclops obediently forging thunderbolts on Mount Etna. In Book VI of the\u00a0<em>Odyssey,<\/em>\u00a0Homer places the cave of Polyphemus, the Cyclops who imprisons Ulysses and his men, on the slopes of Etna as well. Seeing as\u00a0the volcano has now been transformed into a bougie ski resort littered with folks donning bright, neon one-piece snowsuits and is completely different from the imaginations of Homer and Vergil, I was particularly delighted to find several snow-Cyclops\u00a0dotting the top of the mountain. We approached one cautiously for a quick photo op&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_564\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-564\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-564 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_8122-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8122\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_8122-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_8122-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/114\/2016\/03\/IMG_8122-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-564\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Classicists nervously pose with the terrifying, giant one-eyed Cyclops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On our last full day in Sicily, we visited the awe-inspiring\u00a0Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe.\u00a0The contrast of black volcanic rock against pure white snow made it feel like we had stepped foot\u00a0on an entirely new planet. According to Greek\u00a0mythology, the Cyclops made their home on Etna, where they were tasked by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sicily","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/italian-3008-spring-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}