The fortune of the myth of Echo, inner voice dear to poets
Paolo Cherchi's unique and splendid volume 'The Wonders of Echo' is published by Milella, in the series Risonanze
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Singular book that opens the series directed by M.o Colazzo. What is new is the theme of the literary game that uses the tools of literary creation to communicate a meaning opposite/different from the normative. Saying one thing for another, apparently in normal speech. A look at the essays. In the initial eponymous one, Eco emblematises the literary game just described. It reconstructs the history of the fortune of the myth of Echo, which, for Cherchi, becomes 'independent' from that of Narcissus, thanks to Petrarch's use of it to explain the 'inner voice' that converses with him. And from then on, Echo becomes a constant presence in Western poetry, right up to the Romantic period, before returning in the second half of the 20th century. In this trajectory, we dwell on the Baroque preachers who study the phenomenon of the voice of a person who cannot be seen (similar in this to the voice of God) and note the paradox of the myth of the incorporeal nymph, without words of her own, only repeating the last words of others.
Stunning reconstruction
.Splendid reconstruction of the history of this myth: intelligence-driven repetition of the way ideas live, form and transform. "Two Retrograde Games" is about reading a text from the end to the beginning. It requires great artistry to create texts that are reversible and consistent with meaning opposite to the original. The game of picturing messages between verse and painting is different: as in 'The Mediterranean Epitaph of Adonis'. It concerns the episode of the periegesis of Venus (canto XVII) in Marino's Adonis. The goddess, while sailing from Cyprus to Kythera, learns that Adonis has been wounded and that only a herb in the possession of the demigod Glaucus in the Dead Sea can save him. Sailing back to Sicily, he traces a line that takes the form of a capital A, which is Adonis' initial. It is the epitaph of the young man inscribed on the Mediterranean, the only tomb worthy of his greatness. It is the play of the figured carme, the reconstruction of which is the fruit of the Cherchi reader's ingenuity. "Il sonetto petrarchesco dello specchio: un carme figurato?" broadens the view in this regard and, for the first time in the history of criticism, Lo specchio (sonnet 360 of the Canzoniere) reveals its figurative nature thanks to Cherchi's close and persuasive reading. This is followed by "De aetatibus mundi et hominis" by the mythographer Fulgentius, in whose prose the use of the lipogram (deletion of a letter of the alphabet for each chapter) is analysed. As always, the 'formal game' conceals complex messages, not visible to the 'literal' reader.
"Onomastics and Chromaticism in the Last Canto of Adonis", analyses the use of colour and names as a sign of communication in the funeral games for Adonis. In "Isopsefi and prophecy: the number game" we have the isopsefia (attributing a numerical value to the letters of the alphabet), whereby if two different names have an equal toto, secret messages, allegorical meanings, ciphers are created. "Brevity, obscurity, sinchesi ne El conde Lucanor by Juan Manuel" is about the sinchisis (excessive hyperbaton), present in a section of a masterpiece of medieval Spanish fiction. This game twists the texts, creating ridiculous effects and nonsense. Finally, 'Thefts, thefts, expropriations. Anecdotes of kleptocriticism' is about the serious game of plagiarism. The phenomenon, treated with wisdom and narrative levity, poses ethical and legal problems that are still highly topical. Reading Cherchi is an experience that is recommended for everyone: profound, enriching and entertaining. The book is the winner of the Forum Traiani 2025 National Literary Prize for non-fiction.
Paolo Cherchi
The Wonders of Eco
Milella, Collana Risonanze, Lecce, 2024, pp. 266
