Tra Elimi, Punici e Greci: le origini di Drepanon

Abstract

The early history of the ancient Drepanon (or Drepana) is not clear at all even today. The mythological tales, which mention that locality as an important stop and destination of Aeneas’ voyage, do not associate the origins of Drepanon with any ethnos, or Greek heroes and founders. This depends on the fact that the peninsula where Drepanon was founded in 260/59 BC (when the Carthaginian Hamilcar moved the population from Eryx to the coast) was not a proper city developing an urban network, but a trade area (emporion) which has left no archaeological traces. Even if the city developed as an urban centre only later, this does not mean, however, that the place was not particularly important. On the contrary, the harbour of Drepanon played a weighty role, due to the close relationship with the Elymian/Sicanian centre of Eryx. This latter was famous for its sanctuary of Aphrodites, which was a destination for pilgrims coming from all over the Mediterranean area. The relationship between Drepanon and Eryx formed a sort of ‘functional complementariness’ between the two centres. The trade centre of Drepanon was probably the core of important commercial exchanges of multiethnic and intercultural relevance; here the Phoenicians did business with the Elymians of Eryx and perhaps with other people from Greece too.