See Naples and Live – 12: Half Man, Half Fish

 

Strange figures abound on the streets of Naples – some so odd that there is not always agreement as to who they even are...

Just up the road from the apartment in which I stayed in the Universita district was the bas-relief of this intriguing character, adorning a wall.

Some refer to him as "the hairy man", as if he were a kind of urban Bigfoot. But the large dagger he carries has led to him being given more specific identities.

Some claim that this is a depiction of Orion – the giant huntsman who ended up placed among the stars by Zeus.

But most people – including me – prefer to see this as the much more fascinating Cola Pesce (or Nick the Fish), a legendary character bound up strongly with Naples and with Sicily, and also with the ubiquitous Sirens who once held terrifying sway along the Odyssean coasts of south-western Italy (of which more soon in this blog).

Cola (short for Niccolo) was a boy who spent so much time swimming that his mother said he might as well be a fish. And that's what he more or less became, spending most of his time in the sea. When he wanted to travel long distances, he allowed himself to be swallowed by a large fish – and then, when he reached his destination, he used his knife to cut the fish open from the inside and escape.

The king heard of Cola's prowess and used him to locate treasure in the Bay of Naples, and also to report back on how the island of Sicily was supported by vast pillars rising from the seabed.

To find out how deep Cola could go, the king asked him to follow a cannonball fired into the sea. Cola did as he was ordered and caught the cannonball way down in the depths... but then the sea mysteriously closed over him and trapped him there forever.

The image of "the hairy man" or perhaps "the wavy man" is said to have been found in the 13th century but it's been argued that it is much, much older.

It certainly looks like Cola, the boy who grew up to live – and die – in the sea.

But there are other depictions of the marine hero... See below for a more contemporary one, also from the streets of Naples.