Oltre le Colonne d’Ercole. Il desiderio come motore delle scoperte geografiche

The entire history of Europe is based on a myth that is only initially geographical: the broadening of horizons. To resume Carl Schmitt, the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age would correspond to that between the ‘thalactic age’ and the ‘oceanic’ one, the result of the Colombian discovery/conquest and the consequent circumnaviga- tion of the globe. Starting from the myth of the Pillars of Hercules, the author compares two iconic figures to be placed at the basis of this representation: Ulysses and Christopher Columbus, showing how a geo- graphical myth, founded on the desire to go beyond the border, has gradually transformed into a cultural prism.