Zeus and Hera sit in a desert to better understand love. Zeus becomes jealous and suspicious of Hera, angering Poseidon. Athena advises Zeus to undergo transformation. Zeus reflects on how grapes can transform and enters a cave, where Dionysus tells him to find the essence of things. Zeus emerges transformed, understanding that the essence of love is trust, deserving trust, and looking beyond horizons to those who will be there in the dark. He shares a poem with Hera about finding solace in the infinite vastness of thought.

1. WHAT IS LOVE?
A story(board) by Marco Bertagni

4. Zeus and Hera, decided to
sit in a desert to have a
beCer understanding of
what is love and to try
giving a sense, from the
right distance, to what
happens between reality
and imaginaIon…

5. Zeus, with arrogance, is
shouIng from the Peak of
the Olymp: “Hera where are
you?”. He wants to have
control of everything. He
thinks she’s possibly
meeIng another god. He’s is
very suscepIble

6. Zeus, with the goal of
discovering where and with
whom Hera is, comes down
from Olymp and meets a very
nice godness, Aphrodite. She
looks at him with passion and
admiraIon…

7. -----
Suddenly there is an earthquake and
from the sea Poseidon shouts to Zeus
“Aphrodite has risen from the sea and I
am the king of the sea: go back to the
Olymp and think about your business
and about Hera…”

8. From a peak, nearby a huge olive
tree Athena was watching the scene
and she invites Zeus and Poseidon to
calm down, because in you don’t
control rage or arrogance only
distrucIon can derive. Even a blind
can see it. Try to undergo into a
transformaIon….

9. Zeus, reflecIng on Athena’s words, walks through a very
long vineyard and thinks about how grape is open to
changement: it can become must, wine, a disIllate…he start
wishing to face changement just like a grape and thinking
about this gets into a huge and dark cave….

10. Dyonisus lay in the boCom of the
cave and, as usual he’s completely
drunk! “Watch out the false
changements Zeus, these are only
black shadows covering the
aletheia, the TRUTH! Go to essence
of things…”. Dyonisus shows Zeus a
huge alambic in the cave…

11. Zeus jumps into this huge alambic with the idea of
ge[ng to his own essence and to the essence of
love. He faces dark waters but he feels he will see
the light of truth and the light of the sun again
soon… He swims underwater…”

12. Once out of the karsIc river Zeus
meets Hera!
She became a sirene to recover him
at the exit of the karsIc river. She
has a infinity shaped bra. A^er
thinking that that shape is a liCle bit
optymisIc applied to Hera, Zeus
understands that the essence of love
is trusIng people, is deserving trust
of people we love, is looking beyond
the horizon. These people will be
waiIng for you when you are in the
dark and you will do the same for
them.
Loving is just allowing yourself to
follow your river of emoIons and
flounder in the sea of freedom
He reads to Hera a poem…

13. The infinity
(Giacomo Leopardi)
This solitary hill has always been dear to me
And this hedge, which prevents me from seeing most of
The endless horizon.
But when I sit and gaze, I imagine, in my thoughts,
Endless spaces beyond the hedge,
An all encompassing silence and a deeply profound quiet,
To the point that my heart is quite overwhelmed.
And when I hear the wind rustling through the trees
I compare its voice to the infinite silence.
And eternity occurs to me, and all the ages past,
And the present Ime, and its sound.
Amidst this immensity my thought drowns:
And to flounder in this sea is sweet to me.

14. L'infinito
(Giacomo Leopardi)
Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle,
e questa siepe, che da tanta parte
dell'ulImo orizzonte il guardo esclude.
Ma sedendo e mirando, interminaI
spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani
silenzi, e profondissima quïete
io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco
il cor non si spaura. E come il vento
odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello
infinito silenzio a questa voce
vo comparando: e mi sovvien l'eterno,
e le morte stagioni, e la presente
e viva, e il suon di lei. Così tra questa
immensità s'annega il pensier mio:
e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare.