History and etymology of Carini

Thanks to the studies by V. Giustolisi, it is now established the identification of Carini with the ancient Hyccara, mentioned by Thucydides (460  –  395 BC), the '"Itinerarium Antonini" and  on which also Al Idrisi (1099-1166) spoke.

Hykkara  was certainly a Sikan town in the end of the fifth century (the domain of the Sikans extended to the district of Akragas (= Agrigento) to the south-east, while the north-west  comprised the region of the Elimi, pushing in the northern part to the district of Hyccara and presumably to that of Panhormos [Palermo]), when it was destroyed by the Athenians and delivered by them to Segesta.

In fact, Thucydides (VI, 62, 3-4)  spoke about the Sikan city of Hykkara with regard to its conquest by the Athenians. Thucydides said that in the early fifth century BC the Athenians conqured Hyccara and they enslaved all the inhabitants that were later sold in part to their allies in Segesta.

The occupation of Hyccara also entailed a massacre of inhabitants of the city; among the survivors there was a woman known throughout the ancient world, that is  a very beautiful young courtesan named Lais [etymologically, "the daughter of the people”]. According to tradition, she was taken to Corinth, becoming the lover of famous philosophers like Aristippus (435-366 BC), Demosthenes (384-322 BC) and Diogenes the Cynic (404-323 BC). “[…] Every year Aristippus was staying with her two months in Aegina, on the feast of Poseidon, and this was blamed by his servant, who told him: 'You give her all this money and she gives for free to the cynic Diogenes’. Aristippus said, 'I do gifts In Lais because I can enjoy her and not because she does not do it with others.’ And Diogenes once said: 'Aristippus, you live with a common prostitute.

You  have to convert to the cynical life , as I do, or you have to quit. " Aristippus said, ' Do you think it is absurd to live in a house where others have lived?'. 'Certainly not', Diogenes said. 'And sailing with a ship in which others have already done this?' 'This is not even wrong'. Aristippus then concluded: "Therefore, it is not wrong to live with a woman whom others have enjoyed […]."

Apart from drolleries, about Lais, Luciano Canfora pointed out that while "Ninfodoro of Syracuse (4th-3th century BC), in his book" The Wonders of Sicily ",  argued that Lais was born in Hyccara, | 589th | a guard post in Sicily, in the comedy "The Macedonians" also called "Pausanias", Strattide said that she was born in Corinth "(See L. Canfora," I deipnosofisti: libri XII-XV ", Salerno, 2001, p. 1503). In fact, according to studies by L. Canfora, then it seems that some problems have cropped up on the identification of the famous Lais of "Hyccara", that is "the legendary courtesan who in the imagination of the Ancients  embodied the ideal of beauty and seduction (...) In fact, love with the two philosophers generally referred to Lais ... should be referred to another Lais lived since the mid-fourth century BC "(See L. Canfora, pp. 1501 note 2 and 1502-1503). According to tradition, Lais "was killed by some women in Thessaly, for envy and jealousy, in fact, they hit her with a few wooden stools in the temple of Aphrodite" (Canfora, p. 1504).

According to Thucydides, therefore, "Hyccara", was an ancient city of the Sikans, whose site was identified near “Monte d’Oro” of Montelepre, which was then allegedly moved in Late Roman, Byzantine and Arab times in the so-called "Contrada San Nicola" , downstream of the contemporary Carini (See “Pontificia commissione di archeologia sacra”, “Scavi e restauri nelle catacombe siciliane”, 2003, Vol. 3, p. 18). The discovery of a polychrome mosaic  in the area of Carini, perhaps a villa or a paleo-Christian church, and the discovery of a catacomb in Villagrazia, has suggested a continuity of life of ancient Hyccara, a settlement which is now considered one of the most important north-west of Sicily.

In  Byzantine times Carini was an important Diocese,  the  sources cite Bishop Giovanni in 649 and  in 747 "Costantios episcopos Karinensis" [Constantius, Bishop of Carini], who participated in the Council of Nicaea (See “Archivio storico siciliano”, 1994, p. 42). Since 2000, the territory of Carini has been thoroughly studied, and excavations have confirmed the hypothesis of Giustolisi; with regard to the "importance" of the ancient city, Giustolisi stressed that "in the particular case of Hyccara then, the 'fairly relevance' of the town is confirmed by  Pope Gregory the Great (...)  who mentioned  some bishops and dioceses subject to Hyccara-Carini "(See“Atti della Accademia di scienze, lettere e arti di Palermo”, 1984, p. 167). This corroborates my assumptions about the location of the town of Hykkara in Roman , classical and perhaps prehistoric times, ... and of “Villa Grazia” of Carini, which can measure the importance in the late-Roman and Byzantine world of these places (Giustolisi).

Despite the presence of the Byzantines, the archaeological finds throughout the territory, with the ruins of various Christian  and Catholic churches, testify  the vitality of Roman Catholicism in the city and its surroundings. This is particularly evident in the Villa at Villagrazia of Carini: "The stratigraphic investigation, including a number of paintings  brought to light in recent years, and the few objects so far recovered show the intensive frequentation of this place, which we have divided into four main periods. At this moment we believe that the period of greatest attendance at the cemetery took place between the fourth and sixth centuries.

The presence of graves until the Islamic conquest confirms  the mention of the "ecclesia carinensis" [Church of Carini] quoted  in a letter of  Pope Gregory the Great [540-604 AD] of 595, implying  the presence of a Christian community, organized in a 'rural diocese' ( See R. M. Bonacasa Carra, “La catacomba di Villagrazia” in “Mare Internum”, 1, 2009, pp. 159 ff.).

With regard to the etymology, Timaeus (5th century BC)  said that the name derived from the fish known as 'ykes' (See“Economia e storia”,  Giuffrè, 1981, p. 19). The question on the etymology of Hykkara is rather complex, but by the second half of the sixteenth century, abundant historical and learned literature  not only was willing to confirm the location of Hyccara with Carini (archaeological data have recognized  Hykkara of Thucydides in the ruins of “Carbolangeli - Baglio Carini”), but also to agree with the  etymology proposed by Timaeus, for whom, as we said, Hykkara derives from the name of some fishs of the place. Against the hypothesis that Hyccara derived from Icarus, Bochart  spoke in the seventeenth century: [Hyccara] non dicitur ab Icaro, de quo fabulae, sed a Paenicio 'Icar', id est (…) 'piscosa', 'Hyccara' Siciliae unde dicta” [Hyccara is not  named from Icarus, as it is said in legends, but it derives from the Phoenician 'Icar', that is fishful, for which it was called ‘Hyccara’] (See Samuelis Bocharti “Opera omnia”, 1707, p. 378 Column I)].

Bochart, in his “Geographia Sacra”, with a miscroscopic study, wrote: 'Barbarikòn Korìon', Hyccara' 'barbaricum oppidum' (...) Timaeus nominis originem ex Graeca lingua arcessens 'Hyccara' dici vult 'eo quod qui primi mortalium in eum locum venerunt, pisces repererint 'Hyccae' nomen (...) Proinde puto (…) ex Punica lingua petere qua 'Hek-caura' (…), id est 'piscosus'”  [Hyccara was a fortified city of barbarian peoples (...) Timaeus derived its name from the Greek 'Hyccara', since the first men who came there, they found many fish called 'Hyccae'. I also believe that the name derives from the Punic word  'Hek-Caura' (...) that is fishful]. More recently, C.D. Yong explained: “Timaeus, in the thirteenth book of his Histories, speaking of the town in Sicily, (I mean the town of Hyccara,) says that this town derived its name from the circumstance of the first man who arrived at the place finding abundance of the fish called hyces, and those too in a breeding condition; and they, taking this for an omen, called the place Hyccarus. But Zenodotus (3th  century BC) says that the Cyrenseans call the hyces the erythrinus.

But Hermippus of Smyrna (third-century BC), in his essay on Hipponax (6th century BC), when he speaks of the hyces, means the iulis; and says that it is very hard to catch; on which account Philetas says— Nor was the hyces the last fish who fled.” ( Vedi “The Deipnosophists: or, Banquet of the learned, of Athenaeus”, literally translated by C.D. Yonge, with appendix of poetical fragments ..., London, 1854, p. 515).

In Arab times "Carini (Qarinas) was mentioned in the tenth century by 'Al Muqaddasi (10th century AD) that qualified it as ‘mudun’ (= city) [10th century] (See M. Amari, Biblioteca Arabo-Sicula, Milan-Rome, 1880, V . II, p. 670). Carini is also recalled between the coastal towns by the geographers Yaqut (1179-1229) and Ibn-Jubar (9th century AD). Excavations in the area of Carini spotted "the oldest form, related to the domain of Islamic domination of the island. The finding of Islamic ceramics dating back to the second half of the tenth and first half of the eleventh century is certainly  an  important new for the archeology of Sicily (...) and there is no doubt that Carini in Late Roman and Byzantine times survived, albeit maintaining a reduced urban texture, as is appears in the description of the palaces, markets and bathrooms that animate the colorful narrative of Idrisi” (See “Pontificia commissione di archeologia sacra”, “Scavi e restauri nelle catacombe siciliane”, 2003, Vol. 3, pp. 28 sgg. ).

In  Norman times the castle and village of Carini arose, in the opinion of T. Fazello, on the ruins of the ancient city of Hyccara. In the twelfth century it was a fief  of the Bonello’s Family; the castle (built around 1130 on a previous Byzantine ‘frourion’ [fortified outpost]) of Carini was confiscated by King William I (1131-1166) and assigned to the “Camera Reginale”, that is the dowry of the Queen. In 1272 it still belonged to the State, and it was mentioned in the 'Statutum Castrorum Siciliae” [Statute of the castles of Sicily], drawn up by the Angevin Curia  in 1272, (See “Archivio storico siciliano”, 1981. pp. 66 ff.). For this type of castles was estimated only the so-called 'consergio' (a term of French origin, with which were given the keepers of the prisons of the castle: “Consierge < from Latin 'Consergium' <'Conservus', a house keeper (Cotgrave), described by Larousse as 'officier de la maison du roi qui avait haute et moyenne justice' [ Vedi W. de Gruyter, “French and Italian lexical influences in German-speaking Switzerland (1550-1650)”, 1989, p. 56).

Later, the castle belonged to Palmerio Abbate, who also owned the castle of Favignana. Then it was bought by the Chiaramonte (but it is doubtful [see below]), and it belonged to the La Grua, who lived in it from time to time, as was the custom of the nobility usually reside in Palermo. In 1397 the castle belonged to Ubertino La Grua.

The La Grua were Pisan merchants who ennobled themselves in the fourteenth century;  in the first decades of the fifteenth century they reached the peak of their economic power, thanks to the production of sugar in the “trappeto” of Carini. They then went into a severe financial crisis in the late fifteenth century, and they were forced to sell many feuds (Misilmeri in 1486 and Vicari in 1500), keeping only Carini (See F. Maurici, "Illi de Domo et Familia Abbatellis ... ', 1985, p.19 and note 63). Around the middle of the sixteenth century, the family of the La Grua was at the centre of an obscure crime, of which took over the popular literature with the poem entitled "La Barunissa di Carini", which became very famous. The popular tradition told a particular version of the facts, because the material was very rough and the local lords were involved, for which  the storyteller spread "a cover story about the fact that happened, to which was given the highest credit":"The news story referred  by the poem took place in 1563 and it is constituted by the killing of the Baroness Laura, wife of Baron La Grua, and her lover, the Chevalier Louis Vernagallo, killing carried out by the father of the Baroness, Don Cesare Lanza.

But the first storyteller could not tell what happened with hot features and real names, because the reasons of morality and honor required that the truth was concealed at least for a time". For this was divulged a version of the facts for which "the main character was Catherine, daughter of Baron of Carini,  killed by her father because she was guilty of a clandestine love (...) A document found in the state court of Palermo (...) describes the Court appearance  of Don Cesare Lanza [because of] the legal proceedings against him by the Viceroy of Sicily "(See G.B. Bronzini, “La Baronessa di Carini...” in "Lares", 1992, pp. 516 ff ..)

Carini was the feud of The La Grua until the mid-nineteenth century, and the last Lord was Prince  Antonio La Grua; although not a person of great personality, he held positions of great prestige. He was one of the subjects of the caricaturist Horace Vernet (1789-1863); G. Gorgone-C. Cannelli  described him like this: "The grotesque portrait of the Prince of Carini by Horace Vernet  (…) is definitely related to the years between 1830 and 1835 (...) The Talamanca-La Grua, first principles and then Barons since 1622, were among the most illustrious families of the Kingdom of Sicily. Antonio La Grua was active in his  diplomatic career, never forgetting his passion for artistic creation (…) The Prince of Carini discreetly painted, but did not have any credit as a diplomat'.

Because he did not have a significant privilege, he had a low standard of living, so that Lord Acton (1834-1904)  called him "the ideal representative of a penniless fortune-hunter": "Surely more appreciated was his wife, a daughter of the Napoleonic General Kellermann (...) In 1852, and for some years he was minister plenipotentiary in London and then in Berlin. He refused to go to Dresden (...) and he retired from public life by choosing Paris as his residence "(See G. Gorgone-C. Cannelli, “Antonio La Grua, Principe di Carini” in “I protagonisti del salotto delle 'caricature', in “Il salotto delle caricature. Acquerelli di Filippo Caetani”, 1999, pp. 76-77).

About  Antonio La Grua as a painter, we add that we have a single work,  "a refined urban view, dated 1826, done in Rome." Among the "economic notes," we read: "Recently (1997) a large urban view was knocked down for about 100 million (Lit)" (See M. Agnellini, “Ottocento italiano: pittori e scultori : opere e mercato 1998-1999”, Istituto geografico de Agostini, 1998, p. 145). In the age of the “Risorgimento”, Carini was involved in the revolutionary movements, and the chronicles speak of a city sacked and almost destroyed by the troops of the Bourbons (See for example P. Mattigara, "History of the Risorgimento of Italy ...", 1864, Vol . II, p. 199).

In the second half of the twentieth century Carini was an area of considerable industrialization, which have stood since the fifteenth century with the production of sugar, and today the area of Carini "counts industries belonging to different sectors, such as construction, chemicals, food, mechanical, plastics, ceramics and wood "(See L. Scrofani, Palermo: direttrici di espansione e decentramento funzionale”, in “ Le città del Mezzogiorno”, a cura di R. Sommella, Angeli, 2008, p. 314) . To all this we must add that the area of Carini has  goods and services  and tourist facilities to meet the different needs.