But Hellanicus of Lesbos says that when Hercules was driving the cattle of Geryon to Argos a calf escaped from the herd, while he was by now travelling through Italy, and in its flight traversed the whole coast and, swimming over the strait of sea in between, reached Sicily. Hercules constantly enquired of the inhabitants wherever he came as he pursued the calf if anyone had seen it anywhere, and when the people there, who knew little of the Greek tongue, called the calf vitulus (as it is still called) in their native language when indicating the animal, he named the whole country that the calf had crossed Vitulia, after the animal.
Llewelyn MORGAN, A Yoke Connecting Baskets: Odes 3.14, Hercules, and Italian Unity, The Classical Quarterly, 55, 2005.
