Legend has it that the city of Trapani was founded shortly after the fall of Troy by the Elymians (about 1260 BC)
Aeneas, in fact, after leaving burning Troy, with his dying father on his shoulder, heads towards what will be the future city of Rome, but during the voyage , he is forced to land in the area north of Trapani (the current Pizzolungo) to bury his father.
As recounted in the Aeneid, Acestes , the warrior king who ruled the territory elcomed Aeneas and helped him during his flight to Rome. Even today, on the road between Trapani and San Vito lo Capo , you can see a stele commemorating Anchises and his alleged burial site.
One year on from the landing, Aeneas returned to Erice to celebrate the anniversary of the death of his father, and organize games in his honour. During the landing, the legend tells us, some Trojans, tired of this constant wandering, asked and were allowed to stay in those places to establish their own city. Elimo, who, according to some sources was the illegitimate son of Aeneas and according to others, was his brother, became the founder of the Elymians, founders of several cities in the area.
Another legend says that instead Trapani, whose shape resembles a syckle was born precisely from the syckle of the goddess Ceres. This legend is part of the very popular myth of the rape of Persephone, which is narrated both in ancient writings, and in modern sculptures. It tells how a god Hades, fell in love with the daughter of Ceres (goddess of the harvest and crops), kidnapped her and took her to his kingdom, in the afterlife, through the Etna volcano which at the time was believed to be one of the entrances to Hades.
The mother Ceres, in her dramatic search for her daughter Persephone, wandered over the skies of Sicily on her winged chariot, and just near the future Trapani , dropped a sickle that came to rest on the sea where now the modern Trapani stands.
Through the intercession of Zeus, Hades, gave Persephone back to her mother, but only for a period of six months after which , Persephone would have to return to her husband for another six months, thus giving rise, according to the myth , to the alternation of the seasons: 6 months of heat, sun and rebirth followed by 6 months of dark, cold and death.
Finally, another legend has it that Trapani was born also from a sickle that fell into the sea, but this time at the hands of Cronus. The legend starts from Uranus, one of the earliest deities who existed in Greek mythology, the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, and the great-grandfather of the most famous gods (Apollo, Minerva, Diana, Hephaestus etc.)
La Mutilazione di Urano da parte di Crono (G. Vasari)
Uranus, for fear of being ousted by his children, as they were born, imprisoned them in Tartarus, a dark and hidden non-place, from where it was impossible to escape. Among these children, even the Titan Cronus was imprisoned in this place, but his mother Gaea, concerned about the treatment of her children, conspired against her husband Uranus, freeing Cronus secretly and giving him a sickle to use to face his father. And so it was that his father Cronus attacked by surprise castrating him and and throwing the scythe into the sea, which settled in Trapani (Drepanum , from the Latin " sickle")
The form of sickle of the city of Trapani is clearly visible as you go up in the cable car to Erice, as shown in the video below.
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