The
Sicels were one of the three main tribes who, before the arrival of
Greek colonistsColonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city, not from a territory-at-large. Bonds between a colony and its metropolis remained close, and took specific forms...
, inhabited
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
, according to the traditional ethnic division of
ThucydidesThucydides was a Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C...
(vi:2). The Sicels have given
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
the name it has held since antiquity, but they rapidly fused into the culture of
Magna GraeciaMagna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that was extensively colonized by Greek settlers, especially the Achaean collonies of Tatentium, Crotone and Sybaris but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neopolis to the north...
.
History
The earliest literary mentions of Sicels is in the
OdysseyThe Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon. Indeed it is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of...
. Homer also mentions Sicania, but makes no distinctions: "they were a faraway place and a faraway people and apparently they were one and the same" for Homer, Robin Lane Fox notes. There are four incidental mentions of Sicels or Sicania, as a source for a devoted household slave or a likely place to sell a slave.
Modern linguistic studies have determined that the Sicels spoke an
Indo-European languageThe Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia...
and occupied eastern Sicily as well as southern Italy whereas the
SicaniThe Sicani or Sicanians were one of three ancient people of Sicily present at the time of Phoenician and Greek colonization.-History:...
(Greek:
Sikanoi) and
ElymiThe Elymians were an ancient people who inhabited the western part of Sicily during the Bronze Age and Classical antiquity.-Origins:...
(Greek
Elymoi) inhabited central and western Sicily. It is likely that the two latter peoples spoke non-Indo-European languages, although this is not quite certain, particularly with regard to the
Elymian languageThe Elymian language is the extinct language of the ancient Elymian people of western Sicily. It is not known whether Elymian was an Indo-European tongue...
, which some would consider related to Ligurian or to
AnatolianThe Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages, which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.-Origins:...
. The common assumption is that the Sicels were the more recent arrivals; they introduced the use of iron into
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
Sicily and brought the domesticated horse. Their arrival on the island has been tentatively in the first half of the first millennium BCE The Sicel
necropolis of PantalicaThe Necropolis of Pantalica is a large necropolis in Sicily with over 5000 tombs dating from the 13th to the 7th centuries BC. Pantalica is situated in the valleys of the rivers Anapo and Calcinara, between the towns of Ferla and Sortino in south-eastern Sicily...
, near Syracuse is the best known, but a Sicel necropolis has also been found at
NotoNoto is a city in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily . Its located 32 km southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains and gives its name to the surrounding valley, Val di Noto...
; their elite tombs
"a forno" or "oven-shaped" take the form of beehives.
Thucydides and other classical writers were aware of the traditions according to which the Sicels had once lived in Central Italy, east and even north of Rome. Thence they were dislodged by Umbrian and
SabineThe Sabines were an Italic tribe that lived in the central Appennines of ancient Italy, inhabiting also Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome...
tribes, and finally crossed into Sicily. Their social organization appears to have been tribal, their economy, agricultural. According to
Diodorus SiculusDiodorus Siculus , was a Greek historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doing than is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca historica...
, after a series of conflicts with the Sicani, the
river SalsoThe River Salso , also known as the Imera Meridionale , is a river of Sicily. It rises in the Madonie Mountains and, traversing the provinces of Enna and Caltanissetta, flows into the Mediterranean at the western end of the Gulf of Gela at the seaport of Licata, in the Province of...
was declared the boundary between their respective territories.
The chief Sicel towns were: Agyrium (
AgiraAgira is a town in the province of Enna, Sicily . It is located in the mid-valley of the River Salso, 35 km from Enna...
); Centuripa or Centuripae (Centorbi, but now once again called
CenturipeCenturipe is a town in the province of Enna . The city is located 61 km from Enna, in the hill country between the Rivers Dittaìno and Salso....
);
HennaHenna or Hina is a flowering plant, the sole species in the genus Lawsonia in the family Lythraceae. The word "henna" comes from the Arabic name for the plant, pronounced /ħinnaːʔ/ or colloquially /ħinna/....
(later Castrogiovanni, which is a corruption of
Castrum Hennae through the Arabic
Qasr-janni, but since the 1920s once again called
EnnaEnna is a city located in the center of Sicily in the province of Enna, towering above the surrounding countryside...
); and three sites named Hybla:
Hybla MajorHybla Major or Hybla Maior or Hybla Magna – the "Greater Hybla" – was a used to identify the most important of the ancient cities named Hybla in Sicily.-Controversy:...
, called Geleatis or Gereatis, on the river Symaethus; Hybla Minor, on the east coast north of Syracuse (possibly pre-dating the Dorian colony of
Hyblaean MegaraMegara Hyblaea – perhaps identical with Hybla Major – is the name of an ancient Greek colony in Sicily, situated near Augusta on the east coast, 20 km north-northwest of Syracuse, Italy, on the deep bay formed by the Xiphonian promontory...
); and
Hybla HeraeaHybla Heraea or Hybla Hera was an ancient city of Sicily; its site is at the modern località of Ibla, in the comune of Ragusa...
in the south of Sicily.
With the coming of Greek colonists— both
ChalcidiansChalcis or Chalkida, Halkida, Halkis or Chalkis , the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, is situated on the strait of the Evripos at its narrowest point...
, who maintained good relations with the Sicels, and Dorians, who did not— and the growing influence of Greek civilization, the Sicels were forced out of most of the advantageous port sites and withdrew by degrees into the hinterland. Sixty kilometres (forty miles) from the coast of the
Ionian SeaThe Ionian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, and by southwestern Albania, including Saranda and Himara, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante,...
, Sicels and Greeks exceptionally lived side by side in
MorgantinaMorgantina is an archaeological site in east central Sicily, southern Italy. It is sixty kilometres from the coast of the Ionian Sea, in the province of Enna. The closest modern town is Aidone, two kilometres southwest of the site...
to the extent that historians argue whether it was a Greek
polisA polis -- plural: poleis --is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens...
or a Sicel city. Greek goods, especially pottery, moved along natural routes, and eventually Hellenistic influences can be observed in regularised Sicel town planning. However, in the middle of the fifth century BCE a Sicel leader,
DucetiusDucetius was a Hellenized leader of the Sicels and founder of a united Sicilian state and numerous cities. It is thought he may have been born around the town of Mineo. His story is told through the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the first century BCE, who drew on the work of Timaeus...
, was able to create an organised Sicel state as a unitary domain in opposition to Greek Syracusa, including several cities in the central and south of the island. After a few years of independence, his army was defeated by the Greeks in 450 BCE, and he died ten years later. Without his charisma, the movement collapsed and the increasingly Hellenized culture of the Sicels lost its distinctive character. But in the winter of 426/5 Thucydides noted the presence among the allies of Athens in the
siege of SyracuseThere have been several sieges of the city of Syracuse in Sicily:* Siege of Syracuse by the Athenians during the Sicilian Expedition* Siege of Syracuse by the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War...
of Sicels who had "previously been allies of Syracuse, but had been harshly governed by the Syracusans and had now revolted" (Thucydides 3.103.1)
Aside from Thucydides, the Greek literary sources on Sicels and other pre-Hellenic peoples of Sicily are to be found in fragmentary scattered quotes from the lost material of
Hellanicus of LesbosHellanicus of Lesbos was an ancient Greek logographer who flourished during the latter half of the 5th century BC...
and
Antiochus of SyracuseAntiochus of Syracuse was a Greek historian, who flourished around 420 BC. Little is known of his life, but his works, of which only fragments remain, enjoyed a high reputation because of their accuracy...
.
Language
Of the
Sicel languageSicel was an ancient language spoken by the Sicels , one of the three indigenous tribes of Sicily; the Elymians and the Sicani were the other two...
the little that is known is derived from glosses of ancient writers and from a very few inscriptions, not all of which are demonstrably Siculan. It is thought that the Sicels did not employ writing until they were influenced by the Greek colonists. The first inscription, of ninety-nine Greek letters, was found on a spouted jug found in 1824 at
CenturipeCenturipe is a town in the province of Enna . The city is located 61 km from Enna, in the hill country between the Rivers Dittaìno and Salso....
; it uses a Greek alphabet of the fifth or sixth century BCE. Four Sicel inscriptions have been found in recent decades. An important inscription has been found at Centuripe.
Mythology
Their characteristic cult of the
PaliciThe Palici , or Palaci, were a pair of indigenous Sicilian chthonic deities in Roman mythology, and to a lesser extent in Greek mythology. They are mentioned in Ovid V, 406, and in Virgil IX, 585...
is influenced by Greek myth in the version that has survived, in which the local nymph Talia bore to
AdranusAdranus or Adranos was a fire god worshipped by the Sicels, the original inhabitants of the island of Sicily. His worship occurred all over the island, but particularly in the town of Adranus, modern Adrano, near Mount Etna. Adranus himself was said to have lived under Mount Etna before being...
, the volcanic god whom the Greeks identified with
HephaestusHephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Like other mythic smiths but unlike most other gods, Hephaestus was lame, which gave him a grotesque appearance in Greek...
, twin sons, who were "twice-born (
palin "again";
ikein "to come"), born first of their nymph mother, and then of the earth, because of the "jealousy" of
HeraIn the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her...
, who urged Mother Earth,
GaiaGaia Gaia Gaia ( or ; "land" or "earth", from the Ancient Greek Γαῖα; also Gæa or Gea (Koine and Modern Greek Γῆ) is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth....
, to swallow up the nymph. Then the soil parted, giving birth to the twins, who were venerated in Sicily as patrons of navigation and of agriculture. In the most archaic level of
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, a
titanIn Greek mythology, the Titans , were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age...
, Tityos, grew so large that he split his mother's womb and had to be carried to term by Gaia herself. He came to the attention of later Greek mythographers only when he attempted to waylay
LetoIn Greek mythology, Lētṓ is a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe: Kos claimed her birthplace. In the Olympian scheme of things, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides...
near Delphi. If such a
mythemeIn the study of mythology, a mytheme is the essential kernel of a myth—an irreducible, unchanging element, one that is always found shared with other, related mythemes and reassembled in various ways—"bundled" was Claude Lévi-Strauss's image—or linked in more complicated...
is set into action as
ritualA ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers, or dictated purely by logic, chance, necessity, etc..A ritual may be...
, it is usual to see a pair of sacrificial children laid in the earth to encourage the green growth.
In the temple to Adranus, father of the
PaliciThe Palici , or Palaci, were a pair of indigenous Sicilian chthonic deities in Roman mythology, and to a lesser extent in Greek mythology. They are mentioned in Ovid V, 406, and in Virgil IX, 585...
, the Sicels kept an eternal fire. A god Hybla (or goddess Hyblaea), after whom three towns were named, had a sanctuary at
Hybla GereatisHybla Gereatis , is the name of an ancient city of Sicily, located on the southern slope of Mount Etna, not far from the river Symaethus, in the modern comune of Paternò...
. The connection of
DemeterDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of grain and fertility, the pure...
and
KoreIn Greek mythology, Persephone was the embodiment of the Earth's fertility at the same time that she was the Queen of the Underworld, the korē , and the parthenogenic daughter of Demeter and, in later Classical myths, a daughter of Demeter and Zeus...
with
HennaEnna is a city located in the center of Sicily in the province of Enna, towering above the surrounding countryside...
(the rape of Proserpine) and of the nymph
ArethusaFor other uses, see ArethusaArethusa means "the waterer". She was a nymph and daughter of Nereus , and later became a fountain on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse, Sicily....
with
SyracuseSyracuse is a historic city in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is famous for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture and association to Archimedes, playing an important role in ancient times as one of the top powers of the Mediterranean world;...
is due to Greek influence.
Sources
- Thucydides
Thucydides was a Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C...
, vi.2 and vi.4.6
- Price, Glanville Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe s.v. "Sicel (Siculan)"
Further reading
- L. Bernabò Brea, 1966. Sicily Before the Greeks (revised edition; originally published in Italian, 1966)
External links