Evander
|
|
In Roman mythology, Evander (or Euandros) was a deific culture hero who brought the Greek pantheon, laws and alphabet to Rome sixty years before the Trojan War. He killed Herulus.
Evander, in Roman mythology, was born to Hermes and Carmenta and his wisdom was beyond that of all Arcadians. Previous to the Trojan War, he led an Arcadian colony to a city he founded in Italy near the Tiber river, which he named Pallantium. Vergil states that he named the city in honor of his son, Pallas, although Pausanias says that Evander's birth city was Pallantium, thus he named the new city after the one in Arcadia. As the story goes, Hercules was returning from Gades with Geryon's cattle when Evander entertained him, and was the first to raise an altar to this hero. Later, however, it was destroyed by the blazing fire of 64 AD. Since he met Anchises before the Trojan War, Evander aids Aeneas in his battle against the Rutulians and the Turnus and plays a major role in Book XII of the Aeneid. He introduced the Greek alphabet and the worship of Greek deities into Rome. He was deified after his death and had an altar constructed in his name on the Aventine Hill.