By Antonella Carfora
In this paper I shall briefly introduce an oikist tradition that grew around the foundation of Syracuse in the middle of the eighth century BCE. Through this we shall try to understand the origin and the circulation of the myth and whether we can find elements based on a historical record. We shall show the myth as it has been handed down from literary sources. The version, as it has reached us, is taken from late sources, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus and from a scholium of Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica in a uniform way, except for some variants. We shall try to find the nucleus of this tradition based probably on a previous myth settled in Boeotia. Finally we will try, if it is possible, to recognise in it an archaic tradition.
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(H/T History of the Ancient World)