After a long pause due to more or less pagan holidays, we resume the narrative of the myths that speak of the arrival of the first inhabitants of Sardinia.
We had stopped in the middle of a consignment of Tespiadi , the sons of Heracles, and from there again. The arrival of
Tespiadi poses certain problems: Who were the members of the expedition? What were the relations with the natives? As it became the island on their arrival? Let's start
composition of the new shipment of colonization. As we said
, from love of the great labors Hercules were born 50 children from 50 daughters of king of Thespis Thespis . Good: 40 of these children were sent from father to Sardinia to form a colony. An oracle would have ordered the hero Heracles and was glad to obey.
In their guide was the most faithful cousin Iolaus , the favorite nephew of Heracles.
In fact, drains (comments) to Dionysus give us a version that sees even Hercules himself to lead the expedition. The hero would be able to unify into a single people, children and Sardis, and then would send reinforcements from Greece. This second wave included the
Cadmeans (ie inhabitants of the Theban citadel of the city), and the Etoli Locresi . In short, with Heracles would leave the cream of the nations of Central Greece. The usual
Pausanias, the author of our tour guides, the Athenians also adds to the migrants. On the contrary: for him the expedition left its Act.
it went how it went, every nation had united to this wave of immigration, it was a set of composite people. However, once you are in Sardinia, the various facets of P disappear under the general heading of Iole. And since
this name for mythographers is linked to the name of Iolaus, we will follow the mainstream of the tradition that sees Iolaus just as the guide of the expedition, and not the more famous uncle. According to Diodorus the
Tespiadi were led by Iolaus for various reasons: Tespiadi were very young (even though they left when they had already reached manhood), and this command was a kind of reward Iolaus , who had participated in almost all businesses of Hercules
The expedition arrived in Sardinia, apparently without much difficulty. But, as
told, the island was not an empty land: various waves of migration had preceded the tespiadi . What were the relations between Heraclidae \\ Tespiadi and the previous inhabitants?
According to the version seen before, due to the drains Dionysus, Heracles peacefully Sardis and the newcomers.
The trend that indicates that a leader of the expedition was Iolaus, instead it divides into two branches: the first talks about a merger with the natives that appears peaceful, consistent with what he says the scholiast of Dionysus , but the second one deals with war.
The first branch of the tradition is followed by Strabo : the greek geographer tells us that generically Tespiadi "lived together with the Barbarians who then occupied the island" (remember that for Strabo these former inhabitants were Tirreni). So even Solino: the author of the third century AD Iolaus obtained "with enticements that divided the minds of the people we come to harmony" and then proceeded to the founding of the city. But the Sicilians
Diodorus sees it differently: first Iolaus arrived with "a large army of Greeks and Barbarians," and then explains that the colonization occurred only after Iolaus "won Indigenous in battle "in another passage that reiterates Iolaus " conquered the island. " The appearance is not belligerent
negligible: the foundation the colony was, for the ancient, an act of of a land claim. We have already seen d and migrants "return" to the lands of their ancestors, claiming possession.
Dionysus recalls that, in the wake of his expeditions to the West during some of his legendary labors (especially those in search of the Hesperides Pomi and oxen of Geryon ), Heracles considered that it should be considered the Lord of all the 'West. Sending children must have seemed a sort of "division of the paternal heritage" in advance.
The arrival of these children of Greek Heracles was so peaceful or not? Remaining in the context of pure myth, without going into complicated (and debated) scientific interpretations of scholars, the answer can not be definitive.
But we can remember that Diodorus Siculus, as well as an author be oldest Stabon Solino and was, in fact, a native of Sicily. In addition to physical proximity to Sardinia (which hypothetically to the vrebbe could allow an investigation of possible personal "territory"), had access to writings dating back to the Carthaginian, who then had different versions from the most pro-Roman grecizzanti and later. But anyway has played the arrival of the shipment, all mythographers agree with the "after": The island was conquered by Iolaus, reorganized, and reached a development never seen before.
disappeared (almost all) the previous names of peoples: the new people that was formed from the union between the Greek settlers and earlier inhabitants took the name of yawl (or rather: Iolaei ) from Iolaus. Or Iolesi , says Solino. Or Iliensi , similar name, but also due to a different etymology, equally fascinating , of \u200b\u200bwhich more later. For now
this is enough: the colony was stable, the population was melting. Iolaus wanted to turn Sardinia, her leap "forward." And this brings us to the third of the questions we asked at the beginning of this post.
But the answer the next time we'll see.
Some small notes ...
If Tespiadi were only 50 and 40 of them went to Sardinia, which happened to the other 10? Apollodorus tells us that seven remained with Hercules to Calydon, and three were sent back to Thebes, the birthplace (in one version) of the glorious father.
The numbers do not match in Diodorus Sicilian: he says that only two were returned to Thebes, and that the other parties with Iolaus. but one more or one less, the substance does not change that much ...
