Eva Colombo, Donne d’acqua e d’inchiostro, capitolo settimo: La capra d’acqua
 
Eva Colombo, Water’s and ink’s women, seventh chapter: Water’s goat
Gurù, Gisella and Concia are not only “water’s women” but also “goat – women”: Gurù is expressly defined a “weregoat”         
( something similar to werewolf ), Concia is considered a goat thanks to her goatish face and her “wild” sexual availability. Gisella’s goatish side is less evident but it could be easily discovered recalling the episode of the cistern’s date: one moonlight night Berto is waiting water’s woman Gisella in the place chosen by her for their first date: the cistern, exactly. But the girl, watched over by her brother, misses the date. Instead of her at the cistern arrives a goat that belongs to Gisella, as the goat could suppling its owner. Traditionally, goat has a symbolical link with water: the zodiacal sign of Capricorn ( originally called Goat – Fish ) is symbolized by a goat with a fishtail because the sun, that with the winter solstice starts again its course, as a goat scales highest mountains and as a fish descends to deepest abysses. A symbol that joins peak and abyss, then. Guru, Gisella and Concia being “water’s goats” are at the same time bestial and divine creatures.
One stormy night in a ghost – town, while a ghostlike moon appeared and disappeared among running clouds, Gurù ( protagonist of La pietra lunare [ The moon stone ] novel written by Tommaso Landolfi, 1937 ) discloses her deepest nature in front of Giovancarlo astonished eyes. When she starts her metamorphosis getting out of her clothes, Giovancarlo unintentionally compares her to Venus who gets out of the foam perceiving that Gurù shares something with the goddess: actually, she shares with Venus the unifying and creative power of Eros. Gurù grabs and envelops a goat to rise form the tangle with goat’s legs: from this bestial and divine creature blows a holy terror that dismays Giovancarlo. But instinct reassures him: that creature is still Gurù, his lover Gurù with woman’s body, goat’s legs and the divine power to fuse in a loving embrace various aspects of living nature, living nature that joins as a waterfall the top and the bottom generating creatures at the same time bestial and divine: human.
Country girl Gisella ( character of Paesi tuoi [ Your villages ] novel written by Cesare Pavese, 1941 ) is often compared to beasts by her relatives and her lover Berto: to them she is a snake, a cow, a cat, a rabbit…But her brother Talino defines her also “moon’s sister” as if the devilish Talino could perceive not only the bestial side of Gisella but also her divine side: the mortal wound inflicted on Gisella by Talino’s pitchfork makes visible to the naked eye this divine side. Gisella is dying on her bed: under her candles burn, over her the moon shines from a wide open window, her female relatives pray kneeling around her wearing the black veil they usually wear at Mass. Berto feels giddy: Gisella seems a holy icon haloed by the moon, illuminated by votive candles while veiled women pray her rather than for her.
Servant Concia ( character of Il carcere [ The prison ] novel written by Cesare Pavese, 1949 ) is, according to Stefano, “beautiful as a goat. Something between a statue and a goat”. In the summer Concia pierces torrid air with her bold step insinuating herself into Stefano’s dreams as a panic daemon who wanders alone in the burning silence; during cold months she seems vanished. Shortly before Christmas Stefano sees again Concia in the only grocer’s shop of the town: she appears on the threshold bold and erect as a shoot. It is a day of tepid sun, a winter day strewn with spring’s clues: Concia’s reappearance announces the end of the winter. That girl who is “something between a statue and a goat” patronizes the miraculous resurrection of nature, Pan’s herma placed on the threshold traced out by our reason to make us believe that what is natural is here and what is supernatural there.