According to an alternative myth, the name Italia derives from King Italo, who ruled over the Siculans, a population living in Aspromonte. This also shows that at the time Italy was confined within the borders of the polis. This myth is not only documented by literary sources, but also by drachmas minted in Reggio featuring a calf. The answer was vitulus, which iswhy the hero named the coast of Reggio Calabria Vitalìa, namely the‘Land of the Calf’. After a journey that took him across the entire island, Heracles, back to the Strait, asked the inhabitants of Zancle – modern-day Messina – how Siculans, who inhabited today’s southern Calabria and eastern Sicily, would call a calf. However, since a calf had swum across the Strait, followed by the rest of the herd, he had to chase them in Sicily. Returning from his Iberian feat with the oxen of Geryon, Heracles had stopped in Rhegion, newly founded by Jocastaeus, son of Aeolus. Interestingly, the name Italia/Italìa/Vitalìa, which originally applied to the shores of the Strait of Messina and was linked to the myth of Heracles, began to refer to a much wider area. The Map of Magna Graecia at the End of the 5 th Century B.C.Īt the end of the 5 th century BC, the geographic concept of Magna Grecia referring to the southernmost regions of the peninsula would overlap with that of Italy. Compared with non-productive farming in mainland Greece, the Italic colonies were renowned for the wealth of their produce and self-indulgent lifestyle, marked by greater enjoyment of worldly pleasure. Only in this period was the antithesis between Greeks and Barbarians overcome, and a real cultural fusion achieved between the various Italic peoples and the Greek cities in southern Italy. Strictly speaking, it should apply to the period of the so-called Empire of Sybaris and Empire of Croton, between 530 and the mid 5 th century BC, when various cities of the Greek West fell under the rule of the Pythagorean Party. Family Tour of Calabria’s most beautiful sitesįrom a chronological point of view, Magna Grecia is quite an ephemeral concept.Tour for Young People: a journey through Art, Colours and Flavours.Tour for Students: Reggio, Scilla and Gerace.Family Tour: Monuments, Churches and Art.
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