Editing Evander of Pallantium

{{Other uses|Evander (mythology)}}{{Short description|Culture hero of Greek and Roman myth}}
[[File:Euander-Pallene.jpg|thumb|Evander from ''[[Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum|Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum]]'']]

In [[Roman mythology]], '''Evander''' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''{{linktext|Εὔανδρος}}'' meaning "good man" or "strong man": an etymology used by poets to emphasize the hero's virtue)<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2316312 Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary''] at the [[Perseus Digital Library]] via the [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ Perseus Hopper], version 4.</ref> was a [[culture hero]] from [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]], Greece, who was said to have brought the [[Twelve Olympians|pantheon]], [[Ancient Greek law|laws]], and [[Greek alphabet|alphabet]] of Greece to [[ancient Italy]], where he founded the city of [[Pallantium]] on the future site of [[Palatine Hill]], [[Rome]], sixty years before the [[Trojan War]]. He instituted the festival of the [[Lupercalia]]. Evander was deified after his death and an altar was constructed to him on the [[Aventine Hill]].

In addition, [[Strabo]] mentions a story that Rome was an Arcadian colony founded by Evander.<ref name ="Strabo">[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-grc1:5.3.3 Strabo, Geography, 5.3.3]</ref>

==Genealogy==
[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] writes that Evander was the son of [[Hermes]] and a local nymph of the [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadians]], called Themis. He also mentions that the writers of the early history of Rome called her, in their native language, [[Carmenta]].<ref>{{Cite web |author-link=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |title=Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, Books I-XX, book 1, chapter 31, section 1 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.perseus-grc1:1.31.1 |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> Strabo writes that the Romans honour the mother of Evander, regarding her as one of the nymphs, and have renamed her Carmenta (a derivation of the [[Latin]] word for song).<ref name ="Strabo"/>
Evander's wisdom was beyond that of all [[Regions of ancient Greece#Arcadia|Arcadian]]s. His son [[Pallas (son of Evander)|Pallas]] apparently died childless; however, the ''[[gens]]'' [[Fabia gens|Fabia]] claimed descent from Evander through his grandson [[Fabius]], son of [[Hercules]] by a daughter of Evander.<ref>Silius Italicus, "Quintus Fabius Maximus", 6. 634.</ref>

Dionysius of Halicarnassus also mentions that some writers, including [[Polybius of Megalopolis]] say that Lavinia was the daughter of Evander and had a son with [[Heracles]] who was named Pallas.<ref>{{Cite web |author-link=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |title=Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, Books I-XX, book 1, chapter 32, section 1 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.perseus-grc1:1.32.1 |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

==In the ''Aeneid''==
Evander plays a major role in Virgil's ''Aeneid'' Books VIII-XII. Previous to the [[Trojan War]], Evander gathered a group of native Latins to a city he founded in Italy near the [[Tiber]] river, which he named Pallantium.<ref>''[[Aeneid]]'', viii</ref> Virgil states that he named the city in honour of his Arcadian ancestor, Pallas, although [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [[Livy]]<ref>''Ab Urbe Condita'', 1.5.1</ref> and [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]]<ref>''Roman Antiquities'', i. 31</ref> say that originally Evander's birth city was Pallantium in Arcadia, after which he named the new city. The reasons for Evander's fleeing his homeland are unclear; Ovid states that Evander had angered the gods and had been sent into exile by way of a trial{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}; Dionysius describes a civil unrest in Arcadia which led to Evander and his people being forced to leave; the commentator Servius, however, recounts that Evander's mother persuaded him to murder his father, [[Hermes]], leading to the pair being banished from Arcadia, although other commentators have it that Evander killed his mother. Evander settled in [[Pallantium]] where it is said he killed the three-souled [[Erulus]], the king of Italy, three times in one day, prior to becoming the most powerful King of Italy. 

The oldest tradition of its founding ascribes to Evander the erection of the [[Great Altar of Hercules]] in the [[Forum Boarium]]. In ''[[Aeneid]]'', VIII, where [[Aeneas]] and his crew first come upon Evander and his people, they were venerating [[Hercules]] for dispatching the giant [[Cacus]]. Virgil's listeners would have related this scene to the same Great Altar of Hercules in the Forum Boarium of their own day, one detail among many in the Aeneid that Virgil used to link the heroic past of myth with the [[Caesar Augustus|Age of Augustus]]. Also according to Virgil, Hercules was returning from [[Cádiz|Gades]] with [[Geryon]]'s cattle when Evander entertained him. Evander then became the first to raise an altar to Hercules' heroism. This archaic altar was destroyed in the [[Great Fire of Rome]], AD 64.

Because of their traditional ties, Evander aids [[Aeneas]] in his war against [[Turnus]] and the [[Rutuli]]: the Arcadian had known the father of Aeneas, [[Anchises]], before the Trojan War, and shares a common ancestry through [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]] with Aeneas's family.  In the Aeneid, it is said that Evander took possession of the country Italy by force, murdering king Herilus, the king of [[Praeneste]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Evander}}
*[https://sites.google.com/view/pwretranslations/all-articles/6-ephoros-fornaces/euandros-1 Escher, ''Euandros 1'' in Paulys Realencyclopaedie der classischen Altertumswissenschaften, trans. into English]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Roman gods]]
[[Category:Creators of writing systems]]
[[Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Mythological Arcadians]]
[[Category:Arcadian mythology]]
[[Category:Deified men]]
[[Category:Kings in Roman mythology]]
[[Category:Children of Hermes]]
[[Category:Greek mythological heroes]]
[[Category:Lupercalia]]