Mysterious Sicilians: Trojan Refugees, Odyssey Women, Ligurian Colonizers, Rome’s Founders – “Curiouser and Curiouser" Published on iItaly.org (http://www.iitaly.org) Mysterious Sicilians: Trojan Refugees, Odyssey Women, Ligurian Colonizers, Rome’s Founders – “Curiouser and Curiouser" Tom Verso (June 18, 2013) Southern-Italian Americans are an ‘a-historical people’. Near seventeen million Americans of southern Italian descent have become a ‘history-less people’ forced to define themselves culturally in terms of ‘food’, because the history of the Italian people south of Rome, unlike many other Page 1 of 16 Mysterious Sicilians: Trojan Refugees, Odyssey Women, Ligurian Colonizers, Rome’s Founders – “Curiouser and Curiouser" Published on iItaly.org (http://www.iitaly.org) ethnic/nation groups in America, is virtually non-existent in the American education system. University Italian Studies programs, for example, are limited to Renaissance studies and Italian American Studies programs are limited to post-Ellis Island largely nostalgic hiSTORYs with heavy emphasis on Italian American fiction and literature. The Elymian Sicilians are a quintessential example of the lost history of southern-Italian Americana. The Elymians are a fascinating and thought provoking people with significant implications for Italian and European history, and especially meaningful to millions of Sicilian-Americans. As this blog has documented in some detail, highly qualified classical scholars have brought forth significant bodies of evidence showing that Elymians (not Greeks) were the people described in the Odyssey, they were colonizers of Liguria and they may very well have been the founders of Rome (please see list of six links at end of this article). Savor the delicious irony: the “Sicilian-SCANDINAVIAN Archaeological Project” does archeological research in western Sicily (http://www.sciencecentral.com/site/441769). One wonders how may Sicilian descendants live in Scandinavia? In short, you would never know it by looking at Italian Studies curriculums in American universities but, believe it or not, there is much more to Sicilian culture than ‘pizza-crust-thick’ and ‘Hollywood-mafia-shtick’. Preface Any study of ancient Sicilian history must from the onset include the seminal and incredible scholarly work of the great classical scholar Edward A. Freeman: The History of Sicily – From The Earliest Times (1891). The following is drawn in large part from Professor Freeman’s book. However, it seems to me, Freeman by limiting his evidence base solely to ancient documentary evidence (as would be expected from a nineteenth century Critical Method historian), and not taking into consideration some archeological and geographic evidence, limited the range of possible inferences about the Elymain Sicilians. Significant evidence in the form of similar geographic characteristics of: - Troy (where the ancients universally agree the Elymians came from), - Elymian cities in Sicily, - Ligurian and Roman settlements circa 1000 – 750 BC when contextualized along with ancient source documentary evidence provides a more comprehensive (albeit still very speculative) picture of the Sicilians Freeman rightfully characterized as “Mysterious.” This is not to say or imply that I presume to improve on the work of a great classical scholar. Rather, to point out some interesting facts and correlations that one might want to take into consideration when delving into the history of La Mysteriosa Sicilia Introduction Before the Greek and Phoenician colonizers arrive in Sicily circa 750 B.C., there were three district groups of people who came before them. Freeman writes: “Every ancient writer who undertakes to give a view of Sicilian history begins by a list of the nations which were already dwelling in the island when the Phoenician and Greek settlement began.” (p. 99) Those pre-Phoenician/Greek “nations” were the Sicels, Sicani and Elymians. [Note: It is not uncommon to read characterizations of these three people as “indigenous” (or words to that effect) at the time the Greeks and Phoenicians arrived. However, they were not in any sense “native” in the sense of “Native Americans” when the European colonist arrived. The Sicels, Sicani and Elymians were themselves colonist who came from other places not long before (perhaps a few centuries) the Greeks and Phoenicians.] Much more is know about the Sicels and Sicani than Elymians. There are remnants of the Sicels and Sicani Latin language and volumes of Greek documents describing their society. However, the Elymian language is lost and there is much less recorded about them in Greek documents. Freeman: “The little that we know of Sikans and Sikels is strictly traditional; that is it comes from a source trustworthy in is own nature, though not a little liable to be corrupted. The origin of the Elymians comes within the range of legend, and that kind of legend which always savours of deliberate invention. (p. 195) However, what little is known about the Elymians is intellectually provocative and stimulating for historians with a detective’s bent. Due to the lack of documentary evidence, the study of Elymians must draw heavily on material evidence. Historical geography is an important tool in the Page 2 of 16 Mysterious Sicilians: Trojan Refugees, Odyssey Women, Ligurian Colonizers, Rome’s Founders – “Curiouser and Curiouser" Published on iItaly.org (http://www.iitaly.org) historiography of Elymian history. (see map below) Elymian Sicilian Homeland Elymian Cities (brown circles on map) There are two locations of ancient Elymian cities that are not disputable: Eryx (modern Erice; mountain top adjacent to modern Trapani) Segesta (same modern name) The city of Entella (left bank of the modern Belice River about 25 miles from the mouth of the Belice) is disputed to be either Elymian or Sicani. The significance of the ethnicity of Entella will be discussed below in terms of inferences about Sicilian colonists in Liguria. Regions (solid blue line OR dotted red line on map) Accordingly, because of there is no agreement about the status of Entella, the general territorial region under Elymian control (indicted on the map respectively with solid blue line or dash red line) will vary depending on the status of Entella being either Elymian or Sicani (see 'textbox' notes on map). Neighbors ('textbox' notes on map) Page 3 of 16 Mysterious Sicilians: Trojan Refugees, Odyssey Women, Ligurian Colonizers, Rome’s Founders – “Curiouser and Curiouser" Published on iItaly.org (http://www.iitaly.org) It is significant that in either case (blue line or red), various other national groups surround the Elymian territory: Phoenicians to the North (Palermo) and Southwest (Mozia) Greeks to the South (Selinunte) Sicani town to the North (Hyccare/Carini) and territory to the West The significance of this surrounding territorial configuration will be discussed below in terms of inferences about Elymian colonists in Liguria and possibly the founding of Rome. Entella (Elymian: “to be or not to be”) Freeman categorically and emphatically rejects Entella as an Elymian location. He writes: “Entella: The hill fortress by the eastern branch of the Hypsas or Belice [river], which is to this day know in a marked way as the Rock of Entella stands apart from both the known Elymian settlements [Eryx & Segesta], in a land thoroughly Sikan. Its territory may well have bordered on that of Segesta, but that is all. A hill-town without a haven [seaport], even a haven as distant as that of Segesta, it bears the stamp of the most primitive occupations.” (p. 122) Freeman presents an incredibly comprehensive ancient source document analysis substantiating his argument that Entella was Sican and not Elymian. However, in a noteworthy demonstration of objective scholarship, he also indicates that there are both ancients and modern commentators who differ with his conclusion. He writes: “What was the number of the Elymian settlements? Thucydides mentions Segesta and Eryx only…But it is quite clear that some of the later [ancient] writers looked on Entella as an Elymian foundation, and some modern scholars have adopted the same view…Holm and Busolt accept Entella as Elymian.” (p. 552) As noted above, Freeman’s argument is based solely (so far as I understand him) on a meticulous analysis of ancient source documents. However, it seems to me that he fails to at least consider the fact of Ligurian settlements with identical place names as those in Elymian Sicily and the inferences that fact may have for conclusions about Entella being Elymian or not. He writes: “When Holm finds the names Eryx, Entella, Segesta itself, repeated in Liguria…I do not draw from it any inferences…I look on the names rather as traces of the general pre-Aryan occupation…” (p. 554) Sicilians in Liguria – Common Place Names Three outstanding classical scholars, the German Adolph Holm in 1870, the Italian in Ettore Pais in 1908, and the English Toynbee in 1932, noted the presence of three Sicilian place names in Liguria: Eryx [modern Lerici], Segesta [modern Sestri Levante] and Entella [near modern Chiavari Entella river]. Moreover, unlike Freeman who ignored them as insignificant similarities, they considered what the common names might imply about Elymian history. Most significantly, to my mind, Toynbee posits that a linguistic characteristic of the word 'Eryx' clearly implies that colonizing Elymians from Sicily created the Ligurian settlements. He writes: “The probability that the group of names in Liguria was derived from the group in Sicily is indicated by the fact that in Liguria, as in Sicily, the mountain-name appears in the Graecized form ‘Eryx’ and not in a Ligurian equivalent ... ‘verruca’ (‘peak’), which we should expect to find surviving here if the name had originated in Liguria and had been carried thence to Sicily.” (A Study of History v.8 p.705 emp.+) In short, the Elymian language in Sicily showed the influence of the Greek language as the Greeks and Elymains interacted with each other. Accordingly, there is no other probable way to explain a mountain in Liguria with a ‘Elymian-Greek’ name Eryx.