PENELOPE, THE BRAVE CLEVER PATIENT GREEK HEROINE

March, 8, International Women's Day

International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on the 8th of March every year around the world. It is a focal point in the movement for women's rights.

Commemoration of International Women's Day today ranges from being a public holiday in some countries to being largely ignored elsewhere. In some places, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day that celebrates womanhood.

The earliest Women's Day observance, called National Woman's Day, was held on February 28, 1909, in New York City, organized by the Socialist Party of America at the suggestion of activist Theresa Malkiel.

There have been claims that the day was commemorating a protest by women garment workers in New York on March 8, 1857, but researchers Kandel and Picq have described this as a myth created to detach International Women's Day from its Soviet history in order to give it a more international origin.

The Stones are celebrating the IWD in Ithaca, where they are spending some days. The Grandma wants to support this day claiming for the defence of Civil and Human Rights, basically respect and equality.

To commemorate this important day, The Stones have visited Penelope, one of the bravest and most popular Greek heroines in universal Literature, who fighted against all the adversities with her husband Ulysses and  her son Telemachus.

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In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope, in Greek Πηνελόπεια or Πηνελόπηis the wife of Odysseus, who is known for her fidelity to Odysseus while he was absent, despite having many suitors. Her name has therefore been traditionally associated with marital fidelity.

The origin of her name is believed by Robert S. P. Beekes to be Pre-Greek and related to pēnelops (πηνέλοψ) or pēnelōps (πηνέλωψ), glossed by Hesychius as some kind of bird, today arbitrarily identified with the Eurasian wigeon, to which Linnaeus gave the binomial Anas penelope, where -elōps (-έλωψ) is a common Pre-Greek suffix for predatory animals; however, the semantic relation between the proper name and the gloss is not clear. In folk etymology, Pēnelopē (Πηνελόπη) is usually understood to combine the Greek word pēnē (πήνη), weft, and ōps (ὤψ), face, which is considered the most appropriate for a cunning weaver whose motivation is hard to decipher.

Penelope is the wife of the main character, the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology), and daughter of Icarius of Sparta and his wife Periboea. She only has one son by Odysseus, Telemachus, who was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War. She waits twenty years for the final return of her husband, during which she devises various strategies to delay marrying one of the 108 suitors, led by Antinous and including Agelaus, Amphinomus, Ctessippus, Demoptolemus, Elatus, Euryades, Eurymachus and Peisandros.

On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised tricks to delay her suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho, one of twelve unfaithful slave women, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors. 

The Stones visit Ithaca guided by Penelope

Because of her efforts to put off remarriage, Penelope is often seen as a symbol of connubial fidelity. But because Athena wants her to show herself to the wooers, that she might set their hearts a-flutter and win greater honor from her husband and her son than heretofore, Penelope does eventually appear before the suitors.

She is ambivalent, variously asking Artemis to kill her and, apparently, considering marrying one of the suitors. When the disguised Odysseus returns, she announces in her long interview with the disguised hero that whoever can string Odysseus's rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads may have her hand. For the plot of the Odyssey, of course, her decision is the turning point, the move that makes possible the long-predicted triumph of the returning hero.

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There is debate as to whether Penelope is aware that Odysseus is behind the disguise. Penelope and the suitors know that Odysseus, were he in fact present, would easily surpass all in any test of masculine skill, so she may have intentionally started the contest as an opportunity for him to reveal his identity. On the other hand, because Odysseus seems to be the only person, perhaps excepting Telemachus, who can actually use the bow, she could just be further delaying her marriage to one of the suitors.

When the contest of the bow begins, none of the suitors are able to string the bow, but Odysseus does, and wins the contest. Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors -beginning with Antinous whom he finds drinking from Odysseus' cup- with help from Telemachus, Athena and two slaves, Eumaeus the swineherd and Philoetius the cowherd.

Odysseus has now revealed himself in all his glory, with a little makeover by Athena; yet Penelope cannot believe that her husband has really returned -she fears that it is perhaps some god in disguise, as in the story of Alcmene- and tests him by ordering her slave Eurycleia to move the bed in their bridal-chamber.

Odysseus protests that this cannot be done since he made the bed himself and knows that one of its legs is a living olive tree. Penelope finally accepts that he truly is her husband, a moment that highlights their homophrosýnē (ὁμοφροσύνη, like-mindedness).

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Homer implies, that from then on, Odysseus would live a long and happy life together with Penelope and Telemachus, wisely ruling his kingdom and enjoying wide respect and much success.

Penelope is recognizable in Greek and Roman works, from Attic vase-paintings -the Penelope Painter is recognized by his representations of her- to Roman sculpture copying or improvising upon classical Greek models, by her seated pose, by her reflective gesture of leaning her cheek on her hand, and by her protectively crossed knees, reflecting her long chastity in Odysseus' absence, an unusual pose in any other figure.

Latin references to Penelope revolved around the sexual loyalty to her absent husband. It suited the marital aspect of Roman society representing the tranquility of the worthy family. She is mentioned by various classical authors including Plautus, Propertius, Horace, Ovid, Martial and Statius. The use of Penelope in Latin texts provided a basis for her ongoing use in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as a representation of the chaste wife. This was reinforced by her being named by Saint Jerome among pagan women famed for their chastity.

More information: The Telegraph

How I wish chaste Artemis would give me a death so soft,

and now, so I would not go on in my heart grieving all my life,

and longing for love of a husband excellent in every virtue.

Penelope, The Odyssey

THE STONES TRAVEL TO ITHACA ISLAND, ULYSSES'S HOME

Brauny Stone has suggested to travel to Ithaca

Today, The Stones have decided to travel to Ithaca, the Greek island located in the Ionian Sea, well-known by being the hometown of Ulysses.

After some discussions with Brauny, the family has chosen this wonderful place to spend some days. They want to relax and discover the amazing history of this island, one of the most mystic of the Mediterranean Sea. Because it is their first travel together, The Grandma has decided to prepare the budget and the activities planning to avoid they have too much work and they have enough time to prepare their suitcases and be ready to take their plane tomorrow afternoon. She has also gone to El Prat International Airport to prepare her private jet.

Before talking about this travel, The Stones have been talking about some aspects of English Grammar. They have studied the order of adjectives, the a/an article and the Saxon genitive. They have received great news when they have met Juan Stone, a new member of this great family.

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More information: Order of Adjectives I & II

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Ithaca, Ithaki or Ithaka, in Greek Ιθάκη, Ithakē, is a Greek island located in the Ionian Sea, off the northeast coast of Kefalonia and to the west of continental Greece.

Ithaca's main island has an area of 96 square kilometres and had a population in 2011 of 3,231. It is the second-smallest of seven main Ionian Islands, after Paxi. Ithaca is a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. The capital is Vathy or Vathi.

Modern Ithaca is generally identified with Homer's Ithaca, the home of Odysseus, whose delayed return to the island is the plot of the classical Greek tale the Odyssey.

More information: Ithaca

Although the name Ithaca has remained unchanged since ancient times, written documents of different periods also refer to the island by other names, such as:

-Val di Compare (Valley of the Bestman), Piccola (Small) Cephallonia, Anticephallonia (Middle Ages until the beginning of the Venetian period)

-Ithaki nisos (Greek for island), Thrakoniso, Thakou, Thiakou (Byzantine period)

-Thiaki (Byzantine and before the Venetian period)

-Teaki (Venetian period)

-Fiaki (Ottoman period)

The island has been inhabited since the 2nd millennium BC. It may have been the capital of Cephalonia during the Mycenaean period and the capital-state of the small kingdom ruled by Odysseus. 

The Grandma checks her private plane

The Romans occupied the island in the 2nd century BC, and later it became part of the Byzantine Empire. The Normans ruled Ithaca in the 13th century, and after a short Turkish rule it fell into Venetian hands, Ionian Islands under Venetian rule.

Ithaca was subsequently occupied by France under the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio. It was liberated by a joint Russo-Turkish force commanded by admirals Fyodor Ushakov and Kadir Bey in 1798 and subsequently became a part of the Septinsular Republic, which was originally established as a protectorate of the Russian Empire and Ottoman Empire. It became a French possession again in 1807, until it was taken over by the United Kingdom in 1809.

Under the 1815 Treaty of Paris, Ithaca became a state of the United States of the Ionian Islands, a protectorate of the British Empire. In 1830 the local community requested to join with the rest of the newly restored nation-state of Greece. Under the 1864 Treaty of London, Ithaca, along with the remaining six Ionian islands, was ceded to Greece as a gesture of diplomatic friendship to Greece's new Anglophile king, George I. The United Kingdom kept its privileged use of the harbour at Corfu.

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The origins of the first people to inhabit the island, which occurred during the last years of the Neolithic period (4000–3000 BC), are not clear. The traces of buildings, walls and a road from this time period prove that life existed and continued to do so during the Early Hellenic era (3000–2000 BC). In the years (2000–1500 BC) some of the population migrated to part of the island. The buildings and walls that were excavated showed the lifestyle of this period had remained primitive.

During the Mycenaean period (1600–1100 BC), Ithaca rose to the highest level of its ancient history. Mostly based on the Odyssey and oral traditions, it is believed that the island became the capital of the Ionian Kingdom-State, which included the surrounding lands, and was referred to as one of the most powerful states of that time. The Ithacans were characterized as great navigators and explorers with daring expeditions reaching further than the Mediterranean Sea.

The epic poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, shed some light on Bronze-Age Ithaca. Those poems are generally thought to have been composed sometime in the 9th or 8th centuries BC, but may have made use of older mythological and poetic traditions; their depiction of the hero Odysseus and his rule over Ithaca and the surrounding islands and mainland preserves some memories of the political geography, customs, and society of the time.

Ithaca, Ionian Sea, Greece

After the end of the Mycenaean period Ithaca's influence diminished, and it came under the jurisdiction of the nearest large island.

During the ancient Hellenic prime (800–180 BC), independent organized life continued in the northern and southern part of the island. In the southern part, in the area of Aetos, the town Alalcomenae was founded. From this period, many objects of important historical value have been found during excavations. Among these objects are coins imprinted with the name Ithaca and the image of Odysseus which suggest that the island was self-governed.

According to the different periods, conquerors and circumstances, the population of the island kept changing. Although there is no definite numerical information until the Venetian period, it is believed that from the Mycenaean to the Byzantine period, the number of inhabitants was several thousand, who lived mainly in the northern part of Ithaca. During the Middle Ages, the population decreased due to the continuous invasions of pirates, forcing the people to establish settlements and live in the mountains.

In 1479, Ottoman forces reached the islands and many of the people fled from the island out of fear of the new Turkish settlers. Those that remained hid in the mountains to avoid the pirates who controlled the channel between Cephalonia and Ithaca and the bays of the island.

In the following five years, the Turks, Toques and Venetians laid claim to the islands diplomatically. Possession of the islands was finally taken by the Ottoman Empire from 1484 to 1499. During this period, the Venetians had strengthened into a major power with an organized fleet. The Venetians pursued their interest in the Ionian Islands, and in 1499 a war between the Venetians and the Turks began. The allied fleets of the Venetians and the Spanish besieged Ithaca, and the other islands.

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The fleets prevailed, and from 1500 onwards the Venetians controlled the islands. According to a treaty of 1503, Ithaca, Cephalonia and Zakynthos would be ruled by the Venetians, and Lefkada by the Ottoman Empire. By then Ithaca was almost uninhabited, and the Venetians had to grant incentives to settlers from neighbouring islands and the mainland to repopulate it. During the next centuries, the island remained under Venetian control.

A few years after the French Revolution, the Ionian area came under the rule of the First French Republic (1797–1798), and the island became the honorary capital of the French département of Ithaque, comprising Cephalonia, Lefkada, and part of the mainland, the prefecture was at Argostoli on Kefalonia.

The population welcomed the French, who took care in the control of the administrative and judicial systems, but later the heavy taxation they demanded caused a feeling of indignation among the people. During this short historical period, the new ideas of system and social structure greatly influenced the inhabitants of the island.

At the end of 1798, the French were succeeded by Russia and Turkey (1798–1807), which were allies at that time. Corfu became the capital of the Ionian States, and the form of government was democratic, with a fourteen-member senate in which Ithaca had one representative.

The Ithacan fleet flourished when it was allowed to carry cargo up to the ports of the Black Sea.

Ithaca, Ionian Sea, Greece

In 1807, according to the Tilsit Treaty with Turkey, the Ionian Islands once again came under the French rule (1807–1809 AD). The French quickly began preparing to face the British fleet, which had become very powerful, by building a fort in Vathy.

In 1809 Great Britain mounted a blockade on the Ionian Islands as part of the war against Napoleon, and in September of that year they hoisted the British flag above the castle of Zakynthos. Cephalonia and Ithaca soon surrendered, and the British installed provisional governments. The treaty of Paris in 1815 recognised the United States of the Ionian Islands and decreed that it become a British protectorate. Colonel Charles Philippe de Bosset became provisional governor between 1810 and 1814.

A few years later resistance groups started to form. Although their energy in the early years was directed to supporting the Greeks in the revolution against the Turks, it soon started to turn towards the British. By 1848 the resistance movement was gaining strength and there were skirmishes with the British Army in Argostoli and Lixouri which led to some relaxation in the laws and to freedom of the press.

Union with Greece was now a declared aim, and by 1850 a growing restlessness resulted in even more skirmishes. Ithaca along with the other islands were transferred to Greece in 1864 as a gesture of goodwill when the British-backed Prince William of Denmark became King George the First of the Hellenes.

During the British protectorate period prominent citizens of Ithaki participated in the secret Philiki Etairia which was instrumental in organizing the Greek Revolution of 1821 against Turkish rule, and Greek fighters found refuge there. In addition, the participation of Ithacans during the siege of Messolongi and the naval battles against Ottoman ships at the Black Sea and the Danube was significant.

Ithaca was annexed to Greek Kingdom with the rest of the Ionian islands in 1864.

More information: Discover Greece

Ithaca lies east of the northeast coast of Cephalonia, from which it is separated by the Strait of Ithaca. The regional unit covers an area of 117.812 square kilometresand has approximately 100 kilometres of coastline. The main island stretches in the north-south direction, in length of 23 km and maximum width of 6 km. It consists of two parts, of about equal size, connected by the narrow isthmus of Aetos (Eagle), just 600 metres wide. The two parts enclose the bay of Molos, whose southern branch is the harbor of Vathy, the capital and largest settlement of the island. The second largest village is Stavros in the northern part.

Lazaretto Islet or Island of The Saviour guards the harbor. The church of The Saviour and the remains of an old gaol are located on the islet.

The capes in the island include Exogi, the westernmost, Melissa to the north, Mavronos, Agios Ilias, Schinous, Sarakiniko and Agios Ioannis, to the east, and Agiou Andreou, to the south. Bays include Afales Bay to the northwest, Frikes and Kioni Bays to the northeast, Molos Gulf to the east, and Ormos Gulf and Sarakiniko Bay to the southeast. The tallest mountain is Nirito in the northern part (806 m), followed by Merovigli (669 m) in the south.

Its largest towns are Vathy (pop. 1,920 in 2011), Perachori (343), Stavros (366), Platreithias (201), and Kioni (182). Ithaca is the only populated island in this island group.

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As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.

Konstantinos Kavafis

FIONNGHUALA MANON FLANAGAN: IRISH PERSONALITY

Fionnghuala Manon "Fionnula" Flanagan

Fionnghuala Manon "Fionnula" Flanagan (1941) is an Irish actress and political activist. Flanagan was born and raised in Dublin, the daughter of Rosanna, née McGuirk, and Terence Niall Flanagan. Her father was an Irish Army officer and Communist who had fought in the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War against Franco. Although her parents were not Irish speakers, they wanted Fionnula and her four siblings to learn the Irish language, thus she grew up speaking English and Irish fluently. She was educated in Switzerland and England. She trained extensively at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and travelled throughout Europe before settling in Los Angeles, California in early 1968.

Flanagan came to prominence in Ireland in 1965 as a result of her role as Máire in the Telefís Éireann production of the Irish language play An Triail, for which she received the Jacob's Award in Dublin for her outstanding performance. With her portrayal of Gerty McDowell in the 1967 film version of Ulysses, Flanagan established herself as one of the foremost interpreters of James Joyce. She made her Broadway debut in 1968 in Brian Friel's Lovers, then appeared in The Incomparable Max (1971) and such Joycean theatrical projects as Ulysses in Nighttown, as Molly Bloom, and James Joyce's Women (1977). It was subsequently filmed in 1983, with Flanagan both producing and playing all six main female roles (Joyce's wife, Nora Barnacle, as well as fictional characters Molly Bloom and Gerty McDowell).

More information: Irish America

A familiar presence in American television, Flanagan has appeared in several made-for-TV movies and she made guest appearances in three of the Star Trek spin-offs.

She appeared in such films as The Others opposite Nicole Kidman and with Helen Mirren in Some Mother's Son, written and directed by Terry George, as the militantly supportive mother of a Provisional Irish Republican Army hunger striker in 1981. Subsequently, she spoke at a memorial hosted by Sinn Féin at the Citywest Building in Dublin for Irish republicans and their kin who were killed during the latest installment of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Flanagan and her husband, since 1972, Dr. Garrett O'Connor, an Irish nationalist from Dublin, are known to host parties at their Hollywood Hills home for people in the Irish community. In July 2009, she joined Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams for a series of lectures across the USA supporting Irish unity. In October 2011, she announced her support for Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness in his unsuccessful bid in Ireland's 2011 presidential election.

I'm Irish and always will be, but America has taught me so much. 

Maybe it's here in the U.S. that we find a healing, for in the broader melting pot we get to look at some of these self-destructive attributes that we bring to bear upon our own quarrels and begin to solve them 

in ways other than just splitting apart. 

Fionnula Flanagan

JAMES JOYCE: FROM DUBLINERS TO ULYSSES

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882-1941) was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential and important authors of the 20th century.

Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominent among these the stream of consciousness technique he utilised. Other well-known works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, occasional journalism and his published letters.

Joyce was born in 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin, about half a mile from his mother's birthplace in Terenure, into a middle-class family on the way down. A brilliant student, he briefly attended the Christian Brothers-run O'Connell School before excelling at the Jesuit Schools Clongowes and Belvedere, despite the chaotic family life imposed by his father's alcoholism and unpredictable finances. He went on to attend University College Dublin.

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In 1904, in his early twenties, Joyce emigrated permanently to continental Europe with his partner, and later wife, Nora Barnacle. They lived in Trieste, Paris and Zurich. Though most of his adult life was spent abroad, Joyce's fictional universe centres on Dublin, and is populated largely by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there. 

Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. Shortly after the publication of Ulysses, he elucidated this preoccupation somewhat, saying, For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal.

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The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts. James Joyce
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 The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts. 

 James Joyce

SAINT LUCY: TRADITION FROM BARCELONA TO NAPLES

Fira de Santa Llúcia in Barcelona, 1953

Today is December 13, Saint Lucy and you must visit two incredible Mediterranean cities. 

Tina Picotes is in Barcelona, in the Gothic zone, next to the new Cathedral of Barcelona. In this beautiful place, every year you can find hundreds of little stands with Christmas details in La Fira de Santa Llúcia. Tina recommends two: The Tió and The Caganer.

More information: Fira de Santa Llúcia Official Site

The Tió, Christmas Log, is a big piece of cut wood. It is a character in Catalan mythology relating to a Christmas tradition widespread in Catalonia and some regions of Aragon. A similar tradition exists in other places, such as the Cachafuòc or Soc de Nadal in Occitania. In Aragon it is also called Tizón de Nadal or Toza.

The form of the Tió de Nadal found in many Aragonese and Catalan homes during the holiday season is a hollow log about thirty centimetres long. Recently, the Tió has come to stand up on two or four stick legs with a broad smiling face painted on its higher end, enhanced by a little red sock hat. a miniature of the traditional barretina, and often a three-dimensional nose. Those accessories have been added only in recent times, altering the more traditional and rough natural appearance of a dead piece of wood.

More information: Fira de Santa Llúcia de Barcelona

Beginning with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in December 8, one gives the tió a little bit to eat every night and usually covers him with a blanket so that he will not be cold. The story goes that in the days preceding Christmas, children must take good care of the log, keeping it warm and feeding it, so that it will poop presents on Christmas Day. 

Tina Picotes with some Tiós

On Christmas Day or, in some households, on Christmas Eve, one puts the Tió partly into the fireplace and orders it to defecate. The fire part of this tradition is no longer as widespread as it once was, since many modern homes do not have a fireplace. To make it defecate, one beats the tió with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadal.

The tradition says that before beating the tió all the kids have to leave the room and go to another place of the house to pray, asking for the tió to deliver a lot of presents. This makes the perfect excuse for the relatives to do the trick and put the presents under the blanket while the kids are praying.

More information: Caga Tió in Viladecans, El Baix Llobregat (Barcelona)

The tió does not drop larger objects, as those are considered to be brought by the Three Wise Men. It does leave candies, nuts and torrons. Depending on the region of Catalonia, it may also give out dried figs. What comes out of the Tió is a communal rather than individual gift, shared by everyone there.

The tió is often popularly called Caga tió, Shitting log. This derives from the many songs of Tió de Nadal that begin with this phrase, which was originally, in the context of the songs, an imperative Shit, log!. The use of this expression as a name is not believed to be part of the ancient tradition.

Caga tió, caga torró, avellanes i mató. 

Si no cagues bé et daré un cop de bastó. 

Caga tió!

Shit, log, shit nougats, hazelnuts and mató cheese. 

If you don't shit well, I'll hit you with a stick.

Shit, log!

The Caganer is a figurine depicted in the act of defecation appearing in nativity scenes in Catalonia and neighbouring areas with Catalan culture such as Andorra, Valencia, and Northern. It is most popular and widespread in these areas, but can also be found in Murcia, Portugal, and Naples.

Queen Elizabeth II in a Caganer figure

The name El Caganer literally means the crapper or the shitter. Traditionally, the figurine is depicted as a peasant, wearing the traditional Catalan red cap (the barretina) and with his trousers down, showing a bare backside, and defecating.

Catalonia and Naples were independent kingdoms and they were together during some years. The influence of Catalan traditions in Naples is strong. 

The Caganer is also a typical figure in Naples where there is one of the most beautiful suburbs that you can visit around the world: Santa Lucia. In front of the Mediterranean sea, Castel de l'Ovo emerges like an incredible fortress witness of the shared past.  

More information: Commune di Napoli

Claire Fontaine is in Santa Lucia, an historical rione of Naples. The area rises around the street of the same name and takes that name from the parish sanctuary of Santa Lucia a mare, of which the presence is attested since the 9th century, on the river of the sea, in spite of legend that would have it founded by a granddaughter of Constantine I. 

Santa Lucia in Naples, 1865

The territory of the ward coincides with that of the Parish and extends along via Santa Lucia and Orsini and their cross streets, the Islet of Megaride with the Borgo Marinari, the Castel dell'Ovo, and via Chiatamone, all features of the Partenope promenade. 

Santa Lucia has been identified with the history of Naples ever since the Greeks from Cumae landed here to found the small market harbour of Falero, which later gave rise, between the beach, the islet of Megaride and the Pizzofalcone hill, to the polis Partenope, from the siren who tried to enchant Ulysses; later that town would be known as Palepoli.
 

More information: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

In the preimperial Roman age, general Lucullus moved to the area and built his magnificent villa, known as Oppidum Lucullianum, to which the last Roman emperor Romulus Augustus exiled to live out his days. In the imperial age the area became famous for its proximity to the platamoniae caves, where magic rituals were held and in which Petronius set parts of his Satyricon. In the 7th century Saint Patricia from Constantinople, directed towards the Holy Land, was shipwrecked here and, according to legend, founded the sanctuary and decided to settle in Naples. 

Claire Fontaine and Castel de l'Ovo in Napoli

Already in 1845, the sea level rose considerably, making it necessary to bury the original sanctuary and build a new one on top of it; after the annexion of the Kingdom of Naples to Italy (1861) Santa Lucia underwent a complete transformation, including the enlarging and straightening of the Partenope promenade. It involved reclaining large tracts of land from the sea and the creation of new streets, all of which has served the area well in this age of modern tourism. 

Santa Lucia has been like subject of some traditional Neapolitan songs, among which is the most famous, Santa Lucia and Santa Lucia Luntana, a musical symbol of Neapolitans leaving home to emigrate to America.

Partono 'e bastimente pe' terre assaje luntane...
Cantano a buordo: so' Napulitane!
Cantano pe' tramente 'o golfo gia scumpare,
e 'a luna, 'a miez'o mare, nu poco 'e Napule

The ships are leaving for far away lands.
The Neapolitans sing on board.
They sing while in the sunset the bay disappears
and the moon, above the sea lets them see
a glimpse of Naples.

E.A.Mario