What does “Italia” really mean? In a moment such as this, without a doubt, it seems legit to say “victory,” “commitment,” “resilience,” “strength,” as inspired by the great athletes of our Olympic team. With its 40 medals – at the time of writing, but we hope they will be more when you read – Italy reached the 10th place among the Olympic nations, far from the USA, but in a good position nevertheless. On the day this article was written, Italy had won 2 golds and 1 silver thanks to the efforts of Gianmarco Tamberi in the high jump, and the immense talent of Vanessa Ferrari — second only to America’s Jade Carey, but with a performance during the final that was sheer perfection – in women’s gymnastics.
But for Italian-Americans or for all those Italians who feel a special connection with the US, Lamont Marcell Jacobs’gold in the 100 meters is, perhaps, the most welcome medal of all: the first Italian to win a gold medal in the discipline, Jacobs – who has an American father and an Italian mother – was born in El Paso, but moved to Desenzano del Garda when he was 18 months old. The product of our two cultures, we can well say his victory is Italian-American at heart.
Jacobs’ victory – just like the victories of all our athletes – is a beautiful example of what we, usually, like to associate the word “Italia” with: commitment, resilience and strength, we said, but also courage, hard work and a pinch of creativity. Let’s face it, if we are asked “what does Italia mean,” we’re likely to answer by listing these very characteristics, which have been quintessentially Italian through history and that today we see embodied in the work and effort of our Olympians and athletes in general.
Yes, in a summer such as this we could go on and on about the character of our country and its people, taking a leaf off the examples of endurance, hard work and commitment offered by our athletes. Yet, I’d like to take a more literal approach to the question of this article’s title, but not before, of course, saying two things to our sport heroes: bravissimi and “we’re proud of you.” Very, very much.
“What are you going to write about, then?” you may wonder, if “the meaning of Italia” doesn’t refer to the emotional and socio-cultural connotations of belonging to the Italian nation, nor to the wave of pride and joy our athletes have been causing this year? Well, the answer is quite simple: I’d like to write about the real meaning of “Italia,” the word. Because we all know what “Italia” represents, but have you actually ever wondered what “Italia” means? If you are interested, follow me, then, through this more or less historical deep-dive into the origins of our beloved country’s name, between legend and anecdotes, historical documents and hypotheses: there is a lot to uncover and a lot to learn.
The etymology of our country’s name has been at the heart of much discussion among linguists and historians alike, and more than one explanation about the origin and meaning of the toponym “Italia” have been considered, some more credible than others. All, however, agree on the fact we are talking about a name originating in our country’s classical tradition. The most reliable hypothesis states that the word comes from the Oscan víteliú, which meant “the land of young cattle,” via its Greek translation Italói; the Greek would use it to indicate ancient people inhabiting the area around modern-day Catanzaro, in Calabria. Their original name was Vituli and they were known to worship a calf-idol (or vitulus in Latin).
Indeed, the term Italia was initially used only to indicate the region of Calabria and, later, the South of Italy. In the 3rd century BC, after Roman victories against the Samnites and Pyrrhus, all Roman territories up to the Rubicon and Magra Rivers became known as Italia. The term became the official name of the peninsular part of the country in 42 BC, while, in the year 49 BC, when the people of Cisalpine Gaul were allowed to become Roman citizens, the peninsula’s northern-most regions became part of Italia, too. In 27 AD, Emperor Augustus extended the borders of Italia to Nice (in modern France) to the West and Istria (modern Croatia) to the East. Later, under Emperor Diocletian, who ruled from 284 AD to 305 AD, the islands of Sicily and Sardinia became administrative part of Italia, too.
While this is the most established and widely accepted theory about the origins of the name, there are others worthy to be told, at least for their colorful and legendary allure. Great names of ancient literature and philosophy like Thucydides, Aristotle and Strabo believed Italy got her name from that Italo, king of the Oenotrians, an ancient population of Calabria: according to the myth, Italo lived 16 generations before the Trojan War and was the one who converted the Oenotrians, once nomadic, to settled living in the area of today’s Calabria. Strabo, a famous classical times geographer, thought the capital of his kingdom was Pandosia Bruzia, near today’s Acri. Strabo also noted that historian Antiochus of Syracuse, in the 5th century BC, had already written about Italia, which he identified with the ancient region of Oenotria. Indeed, the name Oenotria was often used to indicate the peninsula before Italia became its most common toponym, however, the historical origin of it may be different from the slightly more legendary recounted by Strabo: Oenotria likely comes from the Greek word oinos (wine) and it was used because our South was known to the Greeks as a perfect land for the production of wine. Indeed, Oenotria means just that, “the land of wine.”
While we are talking about ancient, alternative names for Italia, we should also mention, beside Oenotria, others. Our beautiful land – or better, its southern regions – were also known to the Greeks as Hesperia, or “land of the West,” which is exactly what Italy was to them. The name had literary fortune among the Romans, who often used it to refer to Italia in their compositions. We shouldn’t forget, though, that there was another Hesperia for the Romans, the Hesperia ultima, which today we know as Spain. In this historical-toponomastic context, we shouldn’t forget Ausonia, yet another signifier for our beautiful country in antiquity. Originally, it was the name of the lands of the Ausones, ancient inhabitants of the South of Italy. During our country’s proto-history, the term referred to the coastal area comprised between the Sele River valley and the Ager Farlernus and Sinuessa (modern Mondragone, in the Campania region); in later times, when the Ausones were eventually conquered by the Romans, the echoes of their greatness remained in Greek and Latin literature, where the name Ausonia was used often to indicate the whole peninsula.
Hellanicus, ancient Greek logographer of the 5th century BC, believed that the name was created and bestowed upon the peninsula by Heracles who, while passing through Italy with a herd he had stolen from Geryon, lost one of his calves and began calling for it using the word vitulus, “calf” in the language of that part of the world.
Beside the Greek etymology theory, and the legendary King Italo theory, other ideas have been, more or less successfully, suggested throughout the years. Some linguists, for instance, maintained that the name Italia could derive from a non-attested, hypothetical form, Aithalìa, whose root aith- referred to “fire” and therefore to the presence of volcanos on the peninsula. The same root can be seen in the noun Etna, which comes from the ancient Greek Aitna.
There is still one theory I should tell you about. We all know that, at some point in history, the Greeks took to the sea and came to colonize the fertile southern regions of Italy, creating what was – and still is – known as Magna Graecia. In the 8th century, the people of Kyme were among those who traveled across the Aegean Sea to create new colonies: they are thought to have funded, among others, also the town of Cumae, in Campania. Now, around Kyme there was a village called Vitala, known locally for the beauty of its calves; when the people of Kyme-Vitala came to Italy, they called the colony they funded Vitalia, or “little Vitala.” The Latins eventually dropped the “v” and the noun “Italia”was born. This theory could be proven by the presence in the province of Naples of a small village called San Vitaliano.
The image of this ancient, legendary “Italia” is well mirrored, in more recent times, by the words of one of our most celebrated poets, Giovanni Pascoli, who wrote a heartfelt poem, in 1911, to honor the 50th anniversary of the country’s unification under the Savoias. In it, Pascoli sings about the people who first inhabited our lands, and how one tribe got its name from the calf (bove) that led them all the way to a place dominated by a fiery mountain (Mount Etna), where they settled. The calf was known, in this people’s language, as Italo, and that’s how, Pascoli concludes, our country acquired its name.
And so, what does Italia mean, in the end?
Well, it means pride, strength, art, glory and all that comes with millennia of history. But it also means “calf,” or perhaps “fire” and “land of fire.” It may come from the name of a people, or from ancient legends and for sure it hasn’t been the only name our peninsula had known throughout its long and, at times, complex history: the land of wine and the land of the West, the land of the Ausones or that of a king called Italo. So many different stories, so many different historical and linguistic sources, but, if you pay attention, all seem to have one thing in common: wealth, fertility, beauty, abundance.
Each of the civilizations who inhabited this thin strip of land jotting into the most incredible and rich of seas showed strength, ingenuity, attachment to their roots and a significant penchant for making all things beautiful: so, in this, we can really say our ancestors taught us something important about being Italian, whichever field of life, sports included, we chose as our very own.
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