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etimo che probabilmente deriva
questa volta dal latino asper (roccia
dura), modificato nel corso dei secoli
da misteriose contorsioni fonetiche
e anagrammatiche, in Capri, così
come credeva anche Norman Douglas.
Altri, con minore fantasia ma
più assonanza, affermano che a Capri
vi è stato un re che si chiamava
Capreus.
Di certo a questi zooetimi avremmo
preferito quello più poetico di Omero
che denominò Capri “isola delle
Sirene” in cui essendovi un prato,
detto Antemusso, l’isola venne an-
che detta Antemussa dal poeta
Apollonio nella bella descrizione del
viaggio dei suoi argonauti nel Cratere
partenopeo.
Comunque, per la gran parte dei filologi
contemporanei e moderni Capri
è “l’isola delle capre”. Ma di
quale capra? Ovviamente della capra
selvatica, capra aegagrus della
cui pelle era coperto lo scudo di
Giove Egioco.
Forse sarebbe stato preferibile che a
rappresentare l’isola fosse stato un
robusto muflone o un elegante stambeco,
se non iberico almeno alpi-
CORBIS - CONTRASTO
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WHY CAPRI?
by CIRO SANDOMENICO
Fascinating facts, fantasies
and fables about the origin
of the island’s name
Associating this enchanting blue island
with a bovine artiodactyl like the goat is
perhaps not acceptable for those who
love Capri, drawn and mesmerized by its
natural beauty, its colours, the sensual shape
of its coastline, the many echoes of its
fascinating history, and so much more.
That this marvellous island should have taken
its name from the “bony and wiry” goat or
capra, an animal with “unbridled, voracious
sensuality and ancestral, insatiable hunger”–
to borrow some expressions from historian
Giuseppe Galasso – is too much at odds with
the concepts of beauty, refinement and
elegance that Capri evokes.
Some people may remark that many other
islands and headlands also draw their names
from similar zoological etymology. Caprara,
Capraia, Caprera are just some of the names
linked to the word Capri. But delving into the
mysterious, obscure depths of etymological
and phonetic research, even islands that at first
seem to have more attractive and gentle
names may have some surprises in store. For
example, the Isola del Giglio (Island of the Lily)
which, if you look closer, is also associated
with goats. In antiquity, its name was Igilum,
deriving from the Greek Aigílion or Aigilia,
whose root aig- means “goat”, at least
according to the etymological routes suggested
by Domenico Silvestri in the erudite volume
Capri antica, published by La Conchiglia.
But one great authority on Capri maintains
that the name means “island of sharp stones”
and, to be quite honest, we prefer this version,
though the writer fails to provide any further
explanation for this, which probably derives
from the Latin asper (hard rock), corrupted
over the centuries by mysterious phonetic and
ungrammatical misuses until it became
“Capri”, as Norman Douglas also believed.
Others, who are less imaginative and are
swayed by assonance, consider that Capri
comes from the fact that it was once home to
a king called Capreus.
Certainly, rather than these zoological
associations, we would have preferred the
more poetic version of Homer, for whom Capri
was the island of the Sirens. Due to one of the
meadows there, known as Antemusso, the
island was also dubbed Antemussa by the
poet Apollonius, in his fine description of the
voyage of his Argonauts into the
Parthenopean crater.
However, for most modern and contemporary
philologists, the name Capri is linked to
the goat. But which goat? Obviously the
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