Been reading about the italics before Rome came about , did a little character sheet side by side thing to get down some ideas
I based the Sicani on Polyphemus, in myths the cyclops are said to be in Sicily so he is blind because some Greek came and poked his eye out and since he was a Shepard I made the other two people that inhabited Sicily be sheep (Elymians and Sicels), Elymians are said to have come from some trojans fleeing after the Trojan war, and Sicels are either indigenous or come from somewhere else
The Iapygians came with the Trans-Adriatic migrations from the Balkans (Illyrians)
I made most of South Italy cows or bulls (Oscans and Umbri) based on the fact that the name "Italy" means "inhabitants of the land of calfs"
The Picenes are tricky to pin point ,but they probably are an off shoot of the Sabines , still the north picenes language is a language isolate for some reason?? I need to get it better still, but he is a woodpeckers because of if being a foundation animal for them
I based the Latins on mostly Albalonga , that was the city leading the latin league , she is a white sow based on the foundation myth :
The etruscans are divided into three since it is said they once ruled over all the peninsula and influenced it a lot , based them on the Etruscan Shrew because I found it funny, small creatures mhuahaha
And the Ligurians have a Celtic/Gaulish influence, so he is of course a deer, because I'll make most celts deers
Here's a little graphic to show more or less what I am going for in terms of family tree stuff , I'm basing it on cultures , history and myths :D
(There is a theory that the Sicani originated on the Iberian Peninsula and were pushed away by the Ligurians , that would be pretty neat for me so I can connect it to the myth of Polyphemus and the nymph Galatea creating Celtus, Galas, and Illyrius , but it is all myths , the bronze/iron ages are very very complicated , but it’s fun to connect things )
