L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS 2 8 4 A D t o 3 0 5 A D , t h e i s l a n d s o f S i c i l y a n d Sardinia became adminis- trative part of Italia, too. While this is the most e s t a b l i s h e d a n d w i d e l y accepted theory about the origins of the name, there are others worthy to be told, at least for their colorful and legendary allure. Great names of ancient literature a n d p h i l o s o p h y l i k e Thucydides, Aristotle and Strabo believed Italy got her name from that Italo, king o f t h e O e n o t r i a n s , a n a n c i e n t p o p u l a t i o n o f Calabria: according to the myth, Italo lived 16 genera- tions before the Trojan War and was the one who con- verted the Oenotrians, once nomadic, to settled living in the area of today's Calabria. Strabo, a famous classical times geographer, thought the capital of his kingdom was Pandosia Bruzia, near today's Acri. Strabo also n o t e d t h a t h i s t o r i a n Antiochus of Syracuse, in the 5 th century BC, had already written about Italia, which he identified with the ancient region of Oenotria. I n d e e d , t h e n a m e Oenotria was often used to indicate the peninsula b e f o r e I t a l i a b e c a m e i t s m o s t c o m m o n t o p o n y m , however, the historical ori- gin of it may be different from the slightly more leg- endary recounted by Strabo: Oenotria likely comes from the Greek word oinos (wine) and it was used because our S o u t h w a s k n o w n t o t h e Greeks as a perfect land for t h e p r o d u c t i o n o f w i n e . Indeed, Oenotria means just that, "the land of wine." W h i l e w e a r e t a l k i n g about ancient, alternative names for Italia, we should a l s o m e n t i o n , b e s i d e Oenotria, others. Our beau- tiful land – or better, its southern regions – were also known to the Greeks as Hesperia, or "land of the West," which is exactly what Italy was to them. The name had literary fortune among the Romans, who often used it to refer to Italia in their compositions. We shouldn't forget, though, that there was another Hesperia for the Romans, the Hesperia u l t i m a , w h i c h t o d a y w e know as Spain. In this his- torical-toponomastic con- text, we shouldn't forget Ausonia, yet another sig- n i f i e r f o r o u r b e a u t i f u l c o u n t r y i n a n t i q u i t y . Originally, it was the name of the lands of the Ausones, ancient inhabitants of the South of Italy. During our country's proto-history, the term referred to the coastal area comprised between the Sele River valley and the A g e r F a r l e r n u s a n d S i n u e s s a ( m o d e r n M o n d r a g o n e , i n t h e Campania region); in later times, when the Ausones were eventually conquered by the Romans, the echoes of their greatness remained in Greek and Latin litera- t u r e , w h e r e t h e n a m e Ausonia was used often to indicate the whole peninsu- la. H e l l a n i c u s , a n c i e n t Greek logographer of the 5 th century BC, believed that the name was created a n d b e s t o w e d u p o n t h e p e n i n s u l a b y H e r a c l e s who, while passing through Italy with a herd he had stolen from Geryon, lost one of his calves and began call- ing for it using the word vit- ulus, "calf" in the language of that part of the world. Beside the Greek etymol- o g y t h e o r y , a n d t h e l e g - endary King Italo theory, other ideas have been, more or less successfully, suggest- ed throughout the years. Some linguists, for instance, maintained that the name Italia could derive from a non-attested, hypothetical form, Aithalìa, whose root aith- referred to "fire" and therefore to the presence of volcanos on the peninsula. The same root can be seen in the noun Etna, which c o m e s f r o m t h e a n c i e n t Greek Aitna. There is still one theory I should tell you about. We all know that, at some point in history, the Greeks took to the sea and came to colonize the fertile southern regions of Italy, creating what was – a n d s t i l l i s – k n o w n a s Magna Graecia. In the 8 th century, the people of Kyme were among those who trav- eled across the Aegean Sea to create new colonies: they are thought to have funded, among others, also the town o f C u m a e , i n C a m p a n i a . Now, around Kyme there was a village called Vitala, known locally for the beauty of its calves; when the peo- ple of Kyme-Vitala came to Italy, they called the colony they funded Vitalia, or "lit- tle Vitala." The Latins even- tually dropped the "v" and the noun "Italia" was born. This theory could be proven b y t h e p r e s e n c e i n t h e p r o v i n c e o f N a p l e s o f a s m a l l v i l l a g e c a l l e d S a n Vitaliano. The image of this ancient, legendary "Italia" is well mirrored, in more recent times, by the words of one o f o u r m o s t c e l e b r a t e d poets, Giovanni Pascoli, who wrote a heartfelt poem, in 1911, to honor the 50 th anniversary of the country's u n i f i c a t i o n u n d e r t h e Savoias. In it, Pascoli sings about the people who first inhabited our lands, and how one tribe got its name from the calf (bove) that led them all the way to a place dominated by a fiery moun- tain (Mount Etna), where they settled. The calf was known, in this people's lan- guage, as Italo, and that's how, Pascoli concludes, our country acquired its name. And so, what does Italia mean, in the end? W e l l , i t m e a n s p r i d e , strength, art, glory and all that comes with millennia of history. But it also means "calf," or perhaps "fire" and "land of fire." It may come from the name of a people, or from ancient legends and for sure it hasn't been the only name our peninsula had known throughout its long and, at times, complex history: the land of wine and the land of the West, the land of the Ausones or that of a king called Italo. So many different stories, so many different historical and linguistic sources, but, if you pay attention, all seem to have one thing in common: wealth, fertility, beauty, abundance. Each of the civilizations w h o i n h a b i t e d t h i s t h i n strip of land jotting into the most incredible and rich of seas showed strength, inge- nuity, attachment to their roots and a significant pen- chant for making all things beautiful: so, in this, we can r e a l l y s a y o u r a n c e s t o r s taught us something impor- tant about being Italian, w h i c h e v e r f i e l d o f l i f e , sports included, we chose as our very own. Continued from page 4 The Tempio della Condordia in the Valley of the Temples in the Agrigento province of Sicily (Photo: Sergiomonti/Dreamstime) Each of the civilizations who inhabited this thin strip of land showed strength, ingenuity, attachment to their roots and a significant penchant for making all things beautiful: in this, our ancestors certainly taught us something important about being Italian

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