DOI: 10.53084/22209050_2024_30_43

A.V. Mosolkin
Making a legend about the Trojan women who burned their ships

Abstract: In antiquity, the etiological myth of the Trojan women burning the ships on which they sailed after the destruction of Troy was well known. The places where this happened get their name either by the name of the Trojan woman (for example, Rome from the Trojan woman Roma), or by the fact of the burning (for example, the Phlegra peninsula from the verb φλέγω). Researchers have repeatedly made attempts to understand when the myth was f irst created and for what place name. The article suggests that two key “inventions” played a role in the “making” of the myth. 1. Initially, place names are named after the burning of ships. The first part of the article analyzes in detail the “making” of the etiological story about the Phlegra peninsula and the city of Skione. 2. Hellanicus was probably the first to introduce a Trojan woman as an eponymous hero in the story of the founding of Rome, and the destruction of ships thus loses its etiological meaning.

Keywords: myths, foundation myths, Troy, Trojan women, Phlegra, Rome, citation

To cite this article: Mosolkin A.V. Making a legend about the Trojan women who burned their ships. Aristeas XXX (2024): 43–84.

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Author:
Alexey V. Mosolkin