Summary

Franz Altheim argues that several important myths and religious traditions reached Italy through Illyrian intermediaries rather than directly from Homeric Greece. He interprets the Latin name Ulysses (Ulixes) as evidence that the story of Odysseus was transmitted by the Messapians and Illyrians. Altheim also contends that archaeological discoveries at Trebeništa, including Mycenaean-style shaft graves and gold funerary masks, preserve exceptionally ancient cultural traditions. Likewise, the Italian cults of the Dioscuri, Messapus–Poseidon, and Artemis retain archaic pre-Greek features that had largely disappeared in Greece itself. Together, these traditions illuminate an early pre-Homeric stage of Aegean religion and culture.

The Illyrian tombs of Trebeništa, like those of Mycenae, and the cults of Messapus–Poseidon, the Dioscuri, and Artemis preserve an archaic pre-Greek tradition

According to Franz Altheim, the legend of Aeneas reached Italy only after passing through several stages. Accompanied by Elymian migrants from Asia Minor, Aeneas first arrived in Sicily before moving north toward Rome, a journey still reflected in legendary figures such as Palaemon, Misenus, and Caieta along Italy’s western coast. This version of the tradition emerged during the fifth century BCE.

Altheim argues that the appearance of Odysseus in Italy predates the arrival of the Aeneas legend. Odysseus was already an early figure in Roman tradition, yet, significantly, he could not have reached Italy through the Homeric epics. Instead, the Latin form of his name, Ulysses (Ulixes), suggests that the story was transmitted through the Messapians and, more broadly, the Illyrian tribes, whose settlements lay close to the region traditionally regarded as Odysseus’ homeland.

He further maintains that Greek cultural influences reached Italy not only from the Greek colonies of southern Italy but also from the northeastern Adriatic through Illyrian intermediaries. Although he considers the subject insufficiently explored, Altheim points to the ancient connections between the Balkan Illyrians and early Greek groups, together with the archaeological discoveries at Trebeništa near Lake Ohrid, as evidence deserving closer attention.

The Italian cult of Dionysus, he suggests, may ultimately be better understood through this Illyrian connection. The same applies to the cult of the Dioscuri, the twin sons of Zeus. One of the earliest foreign cults in Italy, it spread widely and assumed a distinctive Roman form. Throughout Italy, the twin deities appear either under their individual names, as the sons of Zeus in various Italic languages, or in the Roman form Castores. They are consistently accompanied by a female divinity.

Although scholars had long recognized the southern Greek origin of this cult, particularly through Tarentum, Altheim emphasizes that highly archaic depictions of the same divine twins, likewise accompanied by a female figure, have also been discovered at Nesactium, the principal centre of the Istrian Castellieri culture.

Their ithyphallic representation, he argues, points immediately to an Illyrian origin. Thus, the Dioscuri seem to have entered Italy not only from the Dorian Greek south but also from the opposite direction, passing through the Timavus region from Illyrian territory.

Altheim devotes particular attention to Messapus (or Metabus), a heroic or divine figure in central and southern Italy associated with Poseidon. He argues that Messapus may originally have been Poseidon himself. The form of the name suggests that the figure reached Italy through Illyrian mediation rather than directly from Greek tradition.

More importantly, the myth preserves an archaic form of Poseidon. Instead of the familiar classical sea god, Poseidon appears as the primordial “husband of the earth,” mating in the form of a stallion with Mother Earth represented as a mare. Altheim sees this as evidence that an ancient version of the myth survived outside Greece long after it had disappeared within Greece itself.

For Altheim, it is particularly significant that this preservation occurred in an Illyrian environment. Linguistic evidence had already indicated very early contacts between Illyrians and Greeks, while the discoveries at Trebeništa provided archaeological support. There, the tombs of a local aristocracy dating to the sixth century BCE continued to follow the pattern of Mycenaean shaft graves.

The deceased were buried with golden funerary masks closely resembling those from Mycenae. Altheim interprets this as evidence that customs originating in the ancestral homeland of the Mycenaean migrants had survived in Illyria long after they had disappeared in Greece itself, representing the preservation of exceptionally ancient cultural traditions.

From this perspective, he argues, the early introduction of Artemis into Italy is unsurprising. Not only does she appear in her archaic form as the “Mistress of Animals,” but she is also accompanied by a male consort, a feature regarded as distinctly archaic within Greek religion. The oldest known form of her name, the Etruscan Artimite, differs markedly from standard Greek vocalization and instead points toward Asia Minor, corresponding to the Lydian Artimuś and the personal name Artimmēs.

According to Altheim, it was therefore not the refined Artemis of the Homeric poems who first reached the West, but a much older pre-Greek goddess. She had not yet become the virgin huntress and protector of untouched nature. In the earliest artistic representations she appears instead as a formidable and demonic power—merciless, destructive, and closely resembling the Mother Goddess of Asia Minor, who likewise ruled over and tamed wild animals.

Altheim concludes that this evidence points back to a pre-Homeric stage of religion, when Greek concepts of divinity had not yet assumed their later classical form. In his view, the archaeological, linguistic, and religious evidence suggests that Illyrian regions preserved remarkably ancient traditions that illuminate an early phase of Aegean religious and cultural history.

Source

Altheim, Franz. A History of Roman Religion. Translated by Harold Mattingly. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1938.