Sardinian mythology

The mythology Sarde is ancient (since the Lower Paleolithic) and particularly rich (ozieri period, Nuragic period). The stable settlement of Sardinia results from population movements of the Cardial Pottery culture that occurred around 6000 BC. AD from the Italian peninsula. But it continued, over the invasions, to give the Sardinian people.

One can find two types of supposed origins of the name of the island. Indeed, the first, which is more of the order of myth, comes from the term Ichnusa (Ιχνούσσα / Ichnoússa) or Sandàlion (Σανδάλιον / Sandálion) which derives from the root Greek which means footprint. This term refers to the shape of the island, "by the gross resemblance that the ancients found between its shape and that of the imprint of a human foot".

Mais une seconde origine viendrait d’un chef berbère d’Afrique du Nord (la Libye antique, à l’ouest du Nil) appelé « Sardus, prétendu fils d’Hercule », qui établit une colonie au sud de la Sardaigne. Sardus fut vénéré, à tel point qu’« on lui érigea des statues dans l’île, avec cette inscription, Sardus Pater».