Editing Italus (section)

{{Short description|Mythical eponym of Italy}}
{{Expand Italian|topic=cult|Italo (mitologia)|date=September 2016}}
'''Italus''' or '''Italos''' (from {{Langx|grc|Ἰταλός}}) was a legendary king of the [[Oenotrians]], ancient people of [[Italic people|Italic]] origin who inhabited the region now called [[Calabria]], in southern [[Italy]]. In his ''Fabularum Liber'' (or ''Fabulae''), [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]] recorded the myth that Italus was a son of [[Penelope]] and [[Telegonus (son of Odysseus)|Telegonus]] (a son of [[Odysseus]]).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title= Telegonus|encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite|year= 2014|publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica|location= Chicago}}</ref>

According to [[Aristotle]] ([[Politics (Aristotle) |''Politics'']])<ref>Aristotle, ''Politics'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D7%3Asection%3D1329b#note-link2 7.1329b], on Perseus</ref> and [[Thucydides]] (''[[History of the Peloponnesian War]]''),<ref>Thucydides, ''The Peloponnesian War'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Thuc.+6.2.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200 6.2.4], on Perseus</ref> Italus was the [[eponym]] of Italy (''[[Italia (Roman province) |Italia]]''). Aristotle, writing in the 4th century BCE, relates that, according to tradition, Italus converted the Oenotrians from a [[pastoral]] society to an [[agricultural]] one and gave them various ordinances, being the first to institute their system of common meals.

Writing centuries later, the [[Ancient Greece |Greek]] historian [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] ({{circa}} 60 BCE – after 7 BCE) in his ''Rhomaike Archaiologia'' (''Antiquitates romanae'', "Roman Antiquities"), cites [[Antiochus of Syracuse]] ({{fl}} 420 BCE) for the information that Italus was an Oenotrian by birth and relates the tradition that Italia was named after him, as well as another account that derives the name "Italia" from a word for calf,<ref>Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ''Roman Antiquities'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html 1.35], on LacusCurtius</ref> an etymology also given by [[Timaeus (historian) |Timaeus]], [[Marcus Terentius Varro| Varro]],<ref>
''Rerum Rusticarum'', 2.5
</ref>
and [[Sextus Pompeius Festus| Festus]].