My research is a holistic examination of the emergence and articulation of civic identity in southern and central Italy from the eighth to first centuries BCE. Most of these cities, both those founded by Greek migrants but also native Italic settlements, trace their origins to Greek heroes and divinities, such as Hercules or Aphrodite, in stories preserved in literary texts and the material record. These types of myths can serve to create political and economic bonds through a practice known as kinship diplomacy, where networks of alliance develop alongside mythological identities in Italy. I examine how these stories reflect the values of these settlements and have their own agency, influencing other means by which identity is created, such as religion, architecture, and social structures. By decentering Roman and Athenian narratives and incorporating the perspectives of non-Roman and non-Greek Italians, I offer an alternative narrative of the traditional development of urbanism and identity on the Italian peninsula.