What's the Etymology of Italy? Did Hercules Found Italy?
Hercules (Heracles) is one of the early Greek heroes to land on the Italic peninsula, according to Greco-Roman mythology. While it is a stretch to say that Hercules founded Italy, there is a connection between Hercules, cattle, and the founding/name of Italy.
Hercules had driven the cattle of Geryon down from the Pillars of Hercules around the coastline into Italy. Along the route he encountered groups of enemies whom he defeated, and then in Italy, he had more adventures (Like the one with Cacus [see People in the Life of Hercules]), including one told by Dionysius of Halicarnassus thought to go back to the 5th century B.C. In Dionysius' story, Hercules was driving the cattle to Argos when a calf escaped him in Italy, so Hercules had to retrieve it. He tracked it down along the coast of Italy and across the strait into Sicily where, by means of a pigeon language, the natives came to understand what Hercules' Greek meant and referred to "calf" in their own language as "vitulus". For this reason the area of Italy and Sicily over which Hercules had tracked the calf was called "vitulia".
Source: The Cattle of the Sun, by Jeremy McInereney; Princeton: 2010.
