Isola di Ortigia

A Souvenir model painted similar to an old Sicilian horse cart

The name 'Ortygia' relates etymologically to the bird ortyx, the quail, into which Zeus transformed Leto in order to shield her from Hera's wrath.  Zeus consorted with Leto before he married Hera, and because of their affair, Hera in her jealousy hunted Leto over the whole earth so she could not find somewhere to give birth to her twins.  Having wandered through many countries, Leto came to the rocky island of Ortygia and there she gave birth.  When Zeus seduced Leto's sister Asteria, she flung herself into the sea in order to escape his amorous advances, being transformed into a quail by the god, who cast her into the sea where she became an island called Ortygia, but that Ortygia refers to Delos, which is one of the Cyclades Islands.  Wait a minute; I thought it was Leto who was transformed into a quail, and did Asteria fling herself or was she thrown into the sea by Zeus?  So Leto gave birth on her sister who had became an island after becoming a quail?  No wonder I could never follow Greek mythology.  And we didn't get to the part about both of the Ortygias being floating islands, sort of an explanation about their earthquakes.  I always thought of floating islands as dessert.  Talk about falling down the rabbit hole...

Arethusa transformed into a fresh water spring, the fountain of Arethusa, so that the she could escape the unwanted advances of Alpheios

This Ortygia, also known as Città Vecchia, is the historical center of the city of Syracuse with it's own Greek story.  On this Ortygia, Artemis (you remember her, Leto's daughter) transformed the nymph, Arethusa, into a fresh water spring, the fountain of Arethusa, so that the she could escape the unwanted advances of Alpheios, god of the river Alpheus.  All was in vain, however, as Alpheios located his prey and mixed his waters with hers, lots of sex in these stories, mostly non consensual.  That's what happens when all the poets were male.

Piazza Duomo

Syracuse has been inhabited since ancient times, and as a city was founded in 734 BC by Greek settlers from Corinth.  The Greeks found the land fertile and native tribes well disposed to their presence.  The city prospered, and for some time was the most powerful city anywhere in the Mediterranean. The complete population of its territory approximated 250,000 in 415 BC and the population of the city itself was probably similar to Athens.  The power of Syracuse made unavoidable a clash with the Carthaginians, who ruled western Sicily.  In the Battle of Himera, they decisively defeated the Africans led by Hamilcar, leaving Syracuse as the dominant force in Sicily.  A temple dedicated to Athena (on the site of today's Cathedral), was erected to commemorate the event.  Although Athens had never involved itself deeply in Sicilian affairs, it had ties there before the onset of the Peloponnesian War, dating back to at least the mid-5th century BC.  To small Sicilian cities, Athens was a potential counter to the power of Syracuse.  To the Athenians, Sicily was a threat; an unencumbered Syracuse might send grain or other aid to the Peloponnesians.  Syracuse, like Sparta was a Dorian city, while most of Athens and its Sicilian allies were Ionian.  So in the 17th year of the war, word came to Athens that one of their distant allies in Sicily was under attack from Syracuse.  The Athenians felt obliged to assist. In the late 5th century BC, Syracuse found itself at war with Athens. Syracuse enlisted the aid of Sparta to defeat the Athenians leaving them on top until the Romans came.

Duomo di Siracusa

Greek columns and Catholic saints alternate

So what is there to see from those times?  Ortygia's Duomo was built in the 7th century used the original structure of the temple of Athena from the fifth century BC, whose Doric columns are still visible inside the church and along the outer walls.  The Doric temple of Athena built after the victory against the Carthaginians stood on the site of a former temple that dates back to the 8th century BC.  Inside the cathedral maintains its Corinthian columns, 9 on the right side and two in the front while having a Norman nave and a Baroque facade. 

Two Greek temple columns at the back

 Ortygia's most famous son, Archimedes, famously discovered, a method for determining the volume of an object with an irregular shape, or that a hard body displaces less water than fat man in the bathtub with the blues, I hear you moan, I hear you moan, thus inspiring John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival some 2200 years later.  Archimedes lept from his tub and went running naked thru the streets crying, "Eureka! Eureka!" or more likely "heúrēka! heúrēka!" meaning "I have found it!", and so he done kicked da blues.  He was also responsible for the Archimedes' screw a device with a revolving screw-shaped blade inside a cylinder.  It was turned by hand, and could be used to lift water from a low-lying body to a higher level, useful in irrigation canals.  Wait, wait there's more, military inventions such as the "Archimedes heat ray", which was used to focus sunlight onto approaching ships, causing them to catch fire.  In mathematics he calculated the value of π (Pi), proving that the area of a circle was equal to π multiplied by the square of the radius of the circle (πr2), thus ending many arguments about who got a bigger slice, especially on international Pi(e) Day, March 14th.  Archimedes died during the Second Punic War.  Roman forces captured Syracuse after a two- year siege.  Archimedes was studying a diagram when a Roman soldier commanded him to come and meet General Marcellus.  He declined, saying that he had to finish working on his problem. The soldier thus enraged, killed Archimedes.

So what exists to honor Archimedes?  He's got Piazza Archimede but in the middle we find the fountain of Diana Arthemis, work of the sculptor Giulio Muskets in 1906 representing the myth of Arethusa fleeing from Alpheus while he tries to chase her. 

The fountain of Diana Arthemis in the Piazza Archimede