Aeoliae Insulae (Vulcaniae, Hephaestiades, Lipareae, Planctai (?))(ME)
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Aeoliae Insulae (Vulcaniae, Hephaestiades, Lipareae, Planctai (?))(ME)>: Classical name for the volcanic Lipari Islands off the NE coast of Sicily. The name derives from that of Aeolus, the mythical god of the winds, who was said to reside there (supposedly on either Strongyle or Lipara). Because one of the islands (Hiera) was supposed to have been the site of the workshop of the fire-god Hephaestus (Vulcan), the chain was also sometimes called the Hephaestiades or Vulcaniae. Occasionally they were also called the Liparenses, after Lipara the largest of the islands. The islands of the chain are actually peaks of a volcanic mountain range connecting Vesuvius in Campania with Etna on Sicily. These isles were Lipara (mod. Lipari), Hiera (Vulcano), Strongyle (Stromboli), Phoenicusa (Felicudi/Filicudi), Ericusa (Alicudi), Euonymus (Panaria), Didyme (Salina), Hicesia (Lisca Bianca), Basilidia (Basilizzo), and Osteodes (Ustica).
Archaeologists have found evidence of settlements on a number of the islands- Filicudi: Classical Greek and Roman tombs; Salina: Roman walls, Greek and Latin inscriptions; Basilizzo: Roman house, including a hypogeum, wall paintings and mosaics; Stromboli: millstones and Roman tombs. By far the principal settlement was that on the island of Lipara.
Lipara was founded in 580 BC by Knidian Greeks led by Pentathlos.