Locating Aitnaian Identity in Pindar’s Pythian 1

Abstract

Chapter 3 proposes that in Pythian 1 Pindar uses two myths to map out and reinforce a sense of civic identity for the newly founded city of Aitna. Building upon other work that shows that Typho’s prison celebrates Hieron’s recent military and political victories, the chapter argues that this myth creates a significant place for Aitna within a Panhellenic mythical context. According to Hesiod, Typho is the final foe Zeus faces before becoming uncontested king of the Olympians (Theog. 821–80). Typho’s placement under Aitna thus transforms the landscape into an important site for stability of the cosmic order and elevates the new city to a place of Panhellenic significance. Second, it demonstrates that the myth of the Dorian migration supplies a myth of continuity for the new citizens of Aitna. While these citizens originate from different cities—half from Syracuse, half from the Peloponnese, according to Diodorus—the myth of the Dorian migration offers a shared narrative that unites them as an ethnic group. Taken together these two myths offer Aitna both a sense of place within a wider Greek narrative and a celebration of their ethnic heritage through their performances in Aitna, in Sicily more broadly, and throughout the Greek world.