On Saturday, the 22nd of May, to celebrate the reopening of Villa Falconieri, the film “Katabasis - Descensus ad inferos”, produced by the Vivarium novum Academy, directed by Davide Rinaldi, and adapted to the screen by Gerardo Gúzman Ramírez and Paola Sarcina, will be presented to the public for the first time. The film depicts some episodes of the descent to underworld of Odysseus, Aeneas and Dante, based on the original verses of Homer, Virgil and Dante.

The screening will take place outdoors from 8.30 p.m. The participation is free - the seats must be reserved by writing to convegni@vivariumnovum.net.

Descending below the earth: there lies a dreadful, terrible world; but there also resides an arcane, secret knowledge – a mystery which, when revealed, leads to the understanding of "the ultimate goal of life and the principle given by Zeus". In the belly of the tellus mater, of mother earth, there is the horrid, the terrible; but there is also the principle of light and a rich treasure, Pluto or Dis. There the souls, who see all that was, all that is and all that will be, can pronounce, once invoked, oracular judgements on our existence. There one can find the origin of the river, which flows from the lake of Mnemosyne, of Memory.

Odysseus, Aeneas, Dante and many others must hence descend to the eternal place, where each laments his second death, in order to fulfill their mission, to reconquer their kingdom invaded by usurpers, to give rise to the people and the city that will lead the world, to transcend into the dimension that has, as boundaries, only Love and Light. They need to lure the souls with warm, life-giving blood, or to overcome the obstacles of entry by means of a golden branch or the intervention of blessed women and celestial messengers: they also need the guidance of wisdom and virtue. Because

Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: The gates of hell are open night and day; But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labour lies. To few great Jupiter imparts this grace, And those of shining worth and heavenly race.

And most, descending into Hades, entering into the city of sorrow, going into eternal pain, must irrevocably forsake all hope. But the hero overcomes death, and ascends anew through the meadows and the sacred woods of Persephone to the shores of light...

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