Marcello Faletra on Nature's Revolt: From Homer to Le Corbusier

In an article published on Artribune Magazine #73, essayist and artist Marcello Faletra explores the historical and mythological roots of humanity's relationship with nature, arguing that contemporary environmental crises—tsunamis, earthquakes, biblical floods, global warming—are nature's revolt against the devastating myth of development. Faletra traces Western conceptions of nature from Homer's 'rosy-fingered Dawn' and the wild goddess Artemis (Roman Diana) to the hunter Actaeon, who was torn apart by his own dogs after seeing her naked. He invokes Heraclitus's epigram 'Nature loves to hide' and Pan, the half-goat, half-man figure whose death was proclaimed by Plutarch and later used by Eusebius as a symbol of paganism and evil. Faletra contrasts Odysseus, who cunningly dominates nature, with Robinson Crusoe, who isolates it under glass—a myth he links to Bill Gates's desire to own the world. He criticizes modern architecture, singling out Le Corbusier as a 'cryptofascist' whose use of concrete devastates landscapes, and compares the cult of nature's beauty to a wound like the jaws of a Leviathan that vengefully swallows indifference, as in Emilia-Romagna. The article reflects on the loss of Echo and Pan's seductive flute, arguing that today we lack the ability to be enchanted by nature.