Editing Erulus

{{redirect|Erylus|the beetle genus|Colydiinae}}
In [[Vergil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', '''Erulus''' is a king of [[Praeneste]]. At birth, he was given three souls (''animae'') by his mother, the goddess [[Feronia (mythology)|Feronia]], who also tripled his ability to defend himself by giving him three sets of arms.

Vergil tells his story through the [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]]n king [[Evander of Pallene|Evander]], founder of [[Pallantium]], who allies with the [[Troy|Trojan]] immigrants led by [[Aeneas]]. Evander regrets that the frailty of old age keeps him from fighting at Aeneas's side, and reminisces about the warrior deeds of his youth:

[[File:Herakles Geryon Cdm Paris 202.jpg|thumb|A Southern Italian [[amphora]] (6th-century BC) depicting the triple-warrior Geryon, after whom Vergil may have modeled '''Erulus''']]

{{cquote|If only [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] would give me back<br>The past years and the man I was, when I<br>Cut down the front rank by Praeneste wall<br>And won the fight and burned the piles of shields!<br>I had dispatched to Hell<ref>"Hell" translates [[Tartarus]].</ref> with this right hand<br>King Erulus, to whom Feronia,<br>His mother, gave three lives at birth—a thing<br>To chill the blood—three sets of arms to fight with,<br>So that he had to be brought down three times.<br>Yet this hand took his lives that day, took all,<br>And each time took his arms …<ref>Vergil, ''Aeneid'' 8.560–567, as translated by [[Robert Fitzgerald]].</ref>}}

No other literary source mentions Erulus; he may be Vergil's pure invention, based on the mythological figure [[Geryon]],<ref>P.T. Eden, ''A [[Commentary (philology)|Commentary]] on Virgil:'' Aeneid'' VII'' (Brill, 1975), p. 155 [https://books.google.com/books?id=B7cfAAAAIAAJ&dq=Erulus+Aeneid+OR+Vergil+OR+Virgil+OR+Evander&pg=PA155 online.]</ref> or given that [[Feronia (mythology)#Cult sites|his mother's cult]] is represented only sparsely in literary sources, he may belong to an archaic tradition to which no other reference survives.<ref>Nicholas Horsfall, ''Virgil,'' Aeneid'' 11: A Commentary'' (Brill, 2003), p. 445 [https://books.google.com/books?id=PsHAZ-J4fewC&dq=Erulus&pg=PA445 online.]</ref> Some scholars have seen Erulus as an influence on [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser]]'s conception of Triamond's three-fold life in ''[[The Faerie Queene]]''.<ref>Alastair Fowler, ''Spenser and the Numbers of Time'' (Routledge, 1964), p. 28, note 1 [https://books.google.com/books?id=NkgVAAAAIAAJ&dq=Erulus+Aeneid+OR+Vergil+OR+Virgil+OR+Evander&pg=PA28 online.]</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Kings in Roman mythology]]
[[Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]