Sicels

The Sicels (/ˈsɪkəlz, ˈsɪsəlz/ SIK-əlz, SISS-əlz; Latin: Sicelī or Siculī) were an Indo-European tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily, their namesake, during the Iron Age.

[2] Thucydides[3] 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.

is that the Sicels were more recent arrivals, had introduced the use of iron into Bronze Age Sicily and brought the domesticated horse.

However, there is some evidence that the ethnonym may predate the Iron Age, based on the name Shekelesh given to one of the Sea Peoples in the Great Karnak Inscription[6] in the 5th year of Merneptah's reign (c. 1207 BC).

The name Shekelesh is also cited in a wall relief at Medinet Habu (Ramses III mortuary temple), with picture and writings describing the second invasion within a 30 years' period by the "sea peoples" in the 8th year of Ramses III's reign (1177 BC or 1186 BC, historians differ between these two dates).

Greek goods, especially pottery, moved along natural routes, and eventually Hellenistic influences can be observed in regularised Sicel town planning.

[20] Membership in the Italic branch, perhaps even close to Latino-Faliscan, cannot be ruled out: Varro states that Sicel was strictly allied to Latin as many words sounded almost identical and had the same meaning, such as oncia, lytra, moeton (Lat.

In the most archaic level of Greek mythology, a titan, Tityos, grew so large that he split his mother's womb and had to be carried to term by Gaia herself.

If such a mytheme is set into action as ritual, it is usual to see a pair of sacrificial children laid in the earth to encourage the green growth.

The connection of Demeter and Kore with Henna (the rape of Proserpine) and of the nymph Arethusa with Syracuse is due to Greek influence.