{"id":1404,"date":"2026-06-23T09:23:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/?page_id=1404"},"modified":"2026-08-19T08:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:40:26","slug":"santisidoro-isidoro-di-siviglia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/santisidoro-isidoro-di-siviglia\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Isidore (Isidore of Seville)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p class=\"translation-block\">Isidore of Seville (Cartagena, ca. 560 \u2013 Seville, 4 April 636) was a theologian, writer and Roman archbishop, as\nwell as one of the most important figures of medieval culture; a Doctor of the Church, he is venerated as a saint\nby the Catholic Church. Born into an ancient Roman family, he succeeded his brother Leander as Archbishop of\nSeville (600 A.D.), the most authoritative ecclesiastical figure in Spain at the time.<br>\nHe played a fundamental role in the political and religious affairs of Visigothic Spain, contributing to the conversion\nof the Visigoths from Arianism to Christianity, and convened and presided over important councils,\nsuch as those of Seville (619 and 625) and above all the Fourth Council of Toledo (633), which unified the Spanish\nliturgy and defined important Trinitarian and Christological formulas against the Priscillianists.<br>\nOn an academic level, he is considered one of the greatest exponents of medieval culture and played a crucial\nrole in preserving the knowledge of antiquity from being lost, thanks to his extraordinary work as a compiler.<br>\nDrawing upon classical, late Roman and Christian authors and sources, he gathered and organized the knowledge\nof his age in his most famous work, the Etymologiae sive Origines, published in 639 in twenty books.<br>\nThe work is a true encyclopedia of knowledge, in which different disciplines\u2014from grammar to law, from medicine\nto history and theology\u2014are explained beginning with the etymological origin of words, according to the\nidea that understanding words allows a deeper understanding of reality.<br>\nThe Etymologiae, widely copied by scribes, were second only to the Bible in circulation throughout the Middle\nAges.They constituted a fundamental educational tool, contributing decisively to the preservation and transmission\nof Roman culture and profoundly influencing European culture for more than a thousand years, eventually\nbecoming a model for dictionaries and encyclopedias of the Early Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In\nBook XIII of the Etymologiae, entitled De mundo et partibus (On the World and Its Parts), Isidore presents a\ntrue manual of physical geography and cosmography, offering a synthesis of ancient knowledge about the world,\nthe heavens, the lands and the seas. In particular, in the sections De aestu maris and De fretis (On Tides\nand Straits), dedicated to the periodic movement of waters and the configuration of the narrowest and most\ndangerous sea passages, the author elevates Scylla as the symbolic place of the dangers of straits, seas and the\nforce of waters. Its recognizability allows Isidore to isolate a paradigmatic case, making the risks of maritime\npassages concrete and recognizable, while blending natural explanations and mythical tradition within the\nframework of world geography.<\/p>\n<p class=\"translation-block\"><i>\u201cTides are proper to the Ocean; a strait, however, is situated between two seas. The term aestus, that is, tide,\nrefers to the movement of the sea\u2019s ebb and flow, that is, its instability, from which also comes the name aestuarium\ngiven to places where the sea alternately enters and withdraws. The fretum, that is, the strait, is so called\nbecause within it the sea always fervet, that is, rages as if boiling. A strait, indeed, is a narrow arm of the sea\nand, as it were, fervens, that is, boiling, its name deriving precisely from the turbulence of the waves: such is,\nfor example, the Strait of C\u00e1diz or that of Sicily. According to Varro, straits were called freta as though to say\nfervida, that is, fervent and endowed with movement characteristic of boiling.<br>\nThe origin of the name Regio given to the Strait of Sicily, according to Sallust, is the following. In ancient times\nSicily would have been joined to Italy, forming with it a single landmass. Its central part would have been covered\nby water because it was very low, or it would have broken apart because it was very narrow, whence the\nname Pryiov, which in Greek means violently separated, broken. It is, in fact, a very narrow stretch of sea, only\nthree miles wide, separating Sicily from Italy, sadly famous for the fabulous monsters represented on either\nside by Scylla and Charybdis. The inhabitants of those places call Scylla a cliff overlooking the sea which, when\nseen from afar, resembles the famous creature. They imagined it as a monster with a human body surrounded\nby canine heads also because the waves, breaking against it, seem to emit barking sounds. Charybdis was so\nnamed because it swallows ships into invisible whirlpools: it is, indeed, a turbulent point of the sea from whose\ndepths emerge the wreckage of shipwrecks. Three times a day it raises the waves and three times it swallows\nthem; for it receives the waters only to release them violently, and releases them violently only to receive them\nagain.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"translation-block\">In this passage, Isidore distinguishes between two marine phenomena: tides and straits.<br>\nThe tide, or aestus, is described as the cyclical movement of the sea\u2019s ebb and flow; the strait, or fretum, is instead\ncharacterized by a continuous and turbulent movement of the waters, which boil and surge, a definition\netymologically connected to the term fervens.<br>\nIsidore cites Varro to support the idea that the name freta means \u201cboiling places,\u201d emphasizing the intrinsic\nmovement of the waters.<br>\nParticular attention is devoted to the Strait of Sicily, for which Isidore also invokes Sallust: this strait is associated\nwith the mythological figures of Scylla and Charybdis, which embody the dangers of navigation.<br>\nIt is, however, Scylla that captures attention: recalling the image of a monster with a human body and canine\nheads, her rock, the waves surrounding it and the incessant noise of the waters combine to make her the heart\nof the strait, the emblem of the sea\u2019s violence and the difficulty of navigation.<br>\nFrom an analytical point of view, the mention of Scylla serves several functions.<br>\nFirst, it constitutes a concrete example of the phenomenon of straits, summarizing the typical characteristics\nof such places: narrowness, violent currents and dangers to navigation.\nSecondly, Scylla is elevated as the emblematic place of all dangerous straits, allowing Isidore to generalize the\nphenomenon he observed in the Strait of Sicily to all analogous passages.<br>\nFinally, the reference to myth makes it possible to combine natural observation, classical tradition and linguistic\nexplanation, demonstrating Isidore\u2019s encyclopedic method, which integrates literary sources and concrete\ndata.<br>\nIn summary, the passage does not merely describe tides and straits, but uses Scylla as the focal point of the\nargument, serving both to illustrate physical phenomena and to provide a symbolic understanding of treacherous\nmaritime places.<br>\nScylla therefore represents, in an exemplary manner, the universal model of straits characterized by turbulence\nand danger.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-2\"><p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Giuseppe Ribuffo<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-2 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div ><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-custom fusion-button-default button-1 fusion-button-default-span\" style=\"--button_accent_color:#78ba00;--button_border_color:#2038b2;--button_accent_hover_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_border_hover_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_top_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_bottom_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_top_color_hover:var(--awb-color4);--button_gradient_bottom_color_hover:var(--awb-color4);--button_text_transform:none;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/il-muro-antico-di-scilla\/\"><i class=\"fa-angle-double-right fas awb-button__icon awb-button__icon--default button-icon-left\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><span class=\"fusion-button-text awb-button__text awb-button__text--default\">Next page: 95. The ancient wall of Scilla<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1917,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1404","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sant&#039;Isidoro (Isidoro di Siviglia) - Discover Scilla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/santisidoro-isidoro-di-siviglia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sant&#039;Isidoro (Isidoro di Siviglia) - 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