Elimi e Sicani: confini identitari tra mito e politica

The ancient mythical tradition tracing the origins of the Elymians to groups of Trojans arrived in Sicily with Aeneas – known to Hellanicus and Thucydides – seems to be opposed by a further mythographic strand, on Heracles’ enterprises in Sicily. It can be found in Diodorus, who emphasises the value of the Sicanian ethnos, seen as the main protagonist of the settlement in western Sicily. This has generated a kind of distorted image: Elymians and Sicanians have been seen as closely related; sometimes there was even a complete overlapping between the two populations. In truth, the two hypotheses about the settlement of western Sicily are to be understood in relation to the peculiar aims of these forementioned strands: while, according to the political propaganda developed in Greece, the Elymians’ Trojan origin fostered the fifth-century alliance between Athens and Egesta, Sicilian historians rejected this reading, exalting instead the role played by Sicanians.