"Mistress of the Animals" by Maristella Tagliaferro

Potnia Theron - Mistress of the Animals - antefix 1st century AD
National Archeological Museum of Altino - Venice - Italy

Maristella Tagliaferro reads "Mistress of the Animals"
Venice, 14 September 2014 - video by Stefano Soffiato


Πότνια Θηρῶν / Mistress of the Animals
Thou catchest two rampant lions by the manes
while watching over the entrance to mother-town Altino: 
save the lagoon from the fierce attacks
of those people who sneer at ancient wisdom.
Some want to disembowel her to let in
poison spitting new steel monsters,
some others spread poisons on soil, waters, air.

I wish to go back to the salt marshes,

to smell salicornia, santonico, parietaria,

to immerse my sight in the purple colour of limoniums.

To let the Moon girl, Selina, lead me

into the green-torquoise shallow waters,

among winding sea anemones,

spirographis protuding from the mud

with their tentacles as orange as the sun,

sea stars peeping out

in between red and brown algaes.

Πότνια Θηρῶν, I wish to commit to you

our tough symbol:

Sabión the crab.

And to find you again,

Mistress of the Animals,

in the beating of my fearless ancient heart,

where light, music, harmony master

the quiet flowing of the waters.

While fighting in the front line to avoid one more destruction in the lagoon - a damage that I feel would kill Venice - I wrote some verses getting inspiration from a little statue on display at the National Archeological Museum of Altino - Venice - Italy: Ἡ Πότνια Θηρῶν, The Mistress of the Animals (1st century AD), an antefix on a building at the south-west entrance on the Via Annia, the same direction I travel when I go to Altino.

The shallow waters of the lagoon, as seen through the pictures by Selina Zampedri, were good inspiration to me too.

I dedicate these verses to Massimo Bray and to all of us who spend their energies, love and passion for the triumph of civilization, culture, Beauty.

Venice, 14 September 2014

Parietaria - by Selina Zampedri

Limoniums - by Selina Zampedri

Salicornia Dreamin' - by Stefano Soffiato

Sea anemons - by Selina Zampedri

A sea star peeping out ... - by Selina Zampedri

Sea anemon - by Selina Zampedri 

d

,

Sepula - by Selina Zampedri

Sabión - by Selina Zampedri

The shallow waters of the Venetian lagoon in the pics by Selina Zampedri, Sabión's "mamy"

Venice - South Lagoon

#Venice #LagoonCalling #DURIIBANCHI #Venezia
#NoContorta

Selina Zampedri takes wonderful pics during her trips on a kayak through the Venetian lagoon: she enjoys exploring salt marshes, islands and shallow waters.
Sea anemones with green or turquoise winding tentacles. Ascidias whose "eyes" seem to be painted in dazzling colours. Sabellas spallanzanii protuding from the mud with their long tentacles as orange as the sun. Small sea stars peeping out in between green, red and brown algaes.
Rhizostomae swimming through prairies of zosteras, an aquatic plant species that is an important member of the ecosystem because it helps to physically form the habitat and it plays a crucial role for many other species.

Sabión

From Selina's compact waterproof camera we got the pic of a green tough crab, who was immediately named Sabión. He became the mascot of the subscribers of international petition Stop the plan to dredge the maxi-canal Contorta, before it's too late!  which was launched on change.org by Gruppo25Aprile: more than 26,000 people from all over the world subscribed it in less than three weeks, while during the last week Selina and many other volunteers have been collecting subscriptions by several hundreds people at fixed points in Mestre and in Venice, waiting for the Regatta.

I am learning a lot about the hidden underwater habitat from the pictures that Selina Zampedri generously posts in the Facebook group she created with Stefano Barzizza, I luoghi meno noti di Venezia e della sua laguna. In two years the group members became more than 12,000: many of them post images, stories by old people, what they learn in Venice day by day, what they search in libraries or in the web. What holds the group together is the love for Venice, for the lagoon and for its people. "On the FB group wall one can read expressions of the soul of Venetian people, too often restrained by intensive tourism": quoting from the introduction to the first photo exhibition "Collettiva Venezia Viva" opening on September 11 at Festival delle Arti Giudecca - Sacca Fisola.