Ustica and the Doctor's Rock
Giorgio Minguzzi - CC2.0
The Scoglio del Medico, one of the most beautiful dive sites in the Mediterranean, owes its name to Homer.
The Doctor Rock, which emerged about 500 meters from the coast of the island of Ustica, owes its name to a dialectal adaptation of the original "Scoglio Omerico". When the inhabitants reported the name of the rock to the first reporters who arrived on the island, they exchanged "Umericu", a dialect word for "Homeric", with "U medicu" or "the doctor". Since then the rock has become the "Scoglio del Medico".
The name "Scoglio Omerico" was linked to the fact that the island of Ustica has been identified as the island of the sirens described by Homer. According to mythology, for sailors, the rocks of Ustica were very dangerous precisely because they were populated by a group of sirens who attracted them with their hypnotic song.
