Corcira fra Corinto e l'Occidente: rapporti e sincronismi di colonizzazione

The island of Corcyra is characterized, since Antiquity, by its central position in the routes connecting Greece to Italy. This centrality is reflected in some traditions, both historical and mythical, which combine in various ways the foundation not only to συγγενής Syracuse, but also to Croton and Lokroi. The reference is, in particular, to the well-known passage of Strabo (6, 2, 4), in which the foundation of the colony is connected to one of the stages of the navigation of Archias towards the site of future Syracuse, and to two traditions, preserved respectively in a fragment of mythographer Conon and in two scholia to Theocritus, in which the eponymous heroes Lokros and Croton are presented both as brothers of Alcinous, landed on the shores of Italy after being forced to move away from the land of Phaeacians. In this paper we focus upon the value of synchronisms proposed by the tradition as well as on the issues, both historical and historiographical, connected. It is at once suggested the possibility of a reading from a ‘Corcyraean’ perspective of the complex information provided by ancient sources in order to identify, as far as possible, the traditions of reference and possible links with segments of island’s history.