The Oenotrians (Οἴνωτρες, meaning "tribe led by
Oenotrus
In Greek mythology, Oenotrus ( Ancient Greek: Οἴνωτρος) was the youngest of fifty sons of Lycaon from Arcadia. Together with his brother Peucetius (Greek: Πευκέτιος), he migrated to the Italian Peninsula, dissatisfied because ...
" or "people from the land of vines - Οἰνωτρία") were an ancient
Italic people who inhabited a territory in
Southern Italy from
Paestum to southern
Calabria. By the sixth century BC, the Oenotrians had been absorbed into other
Italic tribes.
According to
Pausanias,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus and
Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...
, Oenotria was named after Oenotrus, the youngest of the fifty sons of
Lycaon who migrated there from
Arcadia in
Peloponnese,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
.
According to
Antoninus Liberalis and
Hellanicus, their arrival triggered the migration of the
Elymians to
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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. The settlement of the
Greeks with the first stable colonies, such as
Metapontum, founded on a native one (Metabon), pushed the Oenotrians inland. From these positions a "wear and tear war" was started off with the Greek colonies, which they plundered more than once. From the 5th century BC onwards, they disappeared under the pressure of an
Oscan
Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian.
Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including t ...
people, the
Lucanians. Virgil mentions them as the settlers of
Hesperia whose descendants now call their land Italy. They are generally depicted as belonging to the
Pelasgians
The name Pelasgians ( grc, Πελασγοί, ''Pelasgoí'', singular: Πελασγός, ''Pelasgós'') was used by classical Greek writers to refer either to the predecessors of the Greeks, or to all the inhabitants of Greece before the emergenc ...
.
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
mentions that "...opposite to Velia are Poiitia and Isacia, both known by one name, that of Oenotrides, a proof that Italy was formerly possessed by the Oenotrians".
A likely derivation of the
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and us ...
Oenotrian would be the
Greek οἶνος (''oinos''), "wine", as the Oenotrians inhabited a territory rich in
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyard ...
s, with Oenotria (or Enotria) being extended to refer to the entirety of
Southern Italy.
Hesychius mentions the word οἴνωτρον (''oinōtron''), a kind of a vine stake.
Language & Origins
According to a traditionalist view, the Oenotrians represent the southern branch of a very old and different ethno-linguistic layer from the proto-Latin one, which would have occupied the
Tyrrhenian sea area from
Liguria
Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...
to
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
(''
Ligurian/
Sicanian
The Sicani ( Ancient Greek Σῐκᾱνοί ''Sikānoí'') or Sicanians were one of three ancient peoples of Sicily present at the time of Phoenician and Greek colonization. The Sicani dwelt east of the Elymians and west of the Sicels, having, a ...
'' layer).
Previously it was thought that the Oenotrians might have spoken a pre-
Indo European language. In 1991 inscriptions dating from the 6th or 5th century BC were discovered in the ancient Oenotrian settlement of
Tortora, Calabria, revealing that the Oenotrians spoke an Italic language.
See also
*
King Italus
*
Ancient people of Italy
Notes
{{reflist
Ancient peoples of Italy
Greek tribes
Pelasgians