Himera. Detailed history

Himera stood on the northern coast of Sicily between Panormus (Palermo) in the west and Cephaloedium (Cefalu) in the east. The upper town or acropolis was well defended and stood on the rim of hills at the mouth of the Himeras River (the modern Grande in Sicily). The lower town was beside the river’s estuary and the harbor. Founded in 648 by emigrants from Zancle and exiles from Syracuse, it had a Doric dialect and Chalcidic organization.

This area was a rich and productive territory that allowed access to the interior via the river, and to the west with Carthage and the Elymians. Together with Selinus in the south, Himera provided access to the west and the Phoenician colonies there. Although Thucydides stated that Himera was the only Greek city on the north coast of Sicily, he probably meant that it was the only one that was independent, since Mylae was already there, but it was a part of Zancle. The city produced coinage featuring a badge of the cock, derived from hemera, a pun of the name Himera.

Himera was the first Greek city east of the Carthaginian-controlled portion of western Sicily. The tyrant Theron from Agrigento ousted Terillus from Himera, who then asked Carthage for help in retaking his city, leading to the Carthaginian invasion of 480. Although the Carthaginian general Hamilcar indicated that gaining control of Himera was his objective, the size of his army and planning clearly showed that he intended to take the whole island.

Since Himera was close to the Carthaginian Panormus, it would have been a natural objective to safeguard the rear, and with civil discord already existing, the city was a tempting target. Hamilcar and the Carthaginians were defeated in the great Battle of Himera in 480, viewed by the Sicilians as equal to the Battle of Salamis, supposedly occurring on the same day in the east. The victor, Gelon of Syracuse, who arrived with a large army and excellent cavalry, destroyed the Carthaginian army, killing the general Hamilcar and forcing the rest to surrender. The battle saved the western Greeks from domination by Carthage.

Theron settled many colonists from other parts of Sicily in Himera, which now became a Doric city. After the death of Theron and his son’s ouster, the city permitted exiles to return and no longer had civil dissension. In 415, Himera promised to help the Spartans and Syracuse against the Athenians in their ill-fated expedition. The city refused to allow the Athenians under Nicias to land and supported the Spartan general Gylippus, who arrived at the city to march across the island in relief of Syracuse.

The period of peace and prosperity from 470 to 409 ended when the Carthaginians launched another great expedition to Sicily. Carthage planned to help its neighbor and ally Segesta, to the west of Panormus, against Selinus in the south. The Carthaginian general Hannibal Mago destroyed Selinus and then marched against Himera, which was caught off guard and poorly defended. After a desperate defense, the city was stormed and taken, suffering great losses. Hannibal executed 3,000 prisoners in memory of his grandfather Hamilcar, who had been defeated seventy years earlier. Hannibal then destroyed the city completely. After the peace treaty, the refugees returned and established a new city, Thermae, some eight miles away.

Notable achievements of Himeran citizens and residents included the sixth- century poet Stesichorus (whose name means “choirmaster”), who was born in Tisias and excelled in the choral song with the lyre and other musical instruments. He established the heroic narrative tradition using this system. Born in Zancle in the late seventh century, Stesichorus moved to Himera and except for his travels resided there. He died in Himera in the mid-sixth century at an old age.

Although only fragments of Stesichorus’s works survive, he was renowned throughout the Greek world, and as a western Greek, he allowed Sicilian cultural achievements to be on par with the Greek mainland. He wrote on a large variety of Greek mythology and was praised for his plots, nobility of the heroes, and elevating the heroes as true models of society. His works continued the epics of the Iliad and Odyssey, known as the Epic Cycles. He wrote the Sack of Troy, with an account of the wooden horse built by Epeus and the return of other heroes from the Trojan War.

In his work Helen, he wrote of her willing abduction to Troy, but in a later work, Palinode, he indicated that Helen did not go to Troy at all, and that Homer invented this story (in a second Palinode, he blamed Hesiod). His work Oresteia, probably written to curry support from Sparta, attributed the death of Agamemnon to Sparta. He wrote about the problems of tragic love in the Europa, describing Eriphlye, the unfaithful wife of Amphiaraus, who was killed by their son, Alcamaeon.

He wrote about the Argonauts and the Black Sea, with its important trade connection in the Funeral Games of Pelias. He also warned Himera against calling in the tyrant Phalaris for help against nearby native cities including Vessa. His work Geryoneis, was about the tenth labor of Heracles in northwestern Sicily, perhaps as a warning about a future Greek and Carthaginian conflict. Himera provided an important cultural city to the Greeks in Sicily and was a valuable outpost against Carthage.