Evander
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224520394
2008-07-09T06:04:30Z
Jonathan Cardy
4071608
disambig Atlas
In [[Roman mythology]], '''Euander''' (''Evander'', from [[Greek language|Greek]] '''''Εύανδρος''''' - Euandros, "good man" or "strong man") <ref> Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'' at Perseus [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2316312]</ref><ref> A Greek spelling ''Euandros'' was affected by poets to emphasize the etymology of the name, "good man."</ref> was a [[deification|deific]] [[culture hero]] from [[Arcadia]], Greece, who brought the [[Twelve Olympians|Greek pantheon]], laws and [[alphabet]] to [[Italy]], where he founded the city of [[Pallantium]] on the future site of [[Rome]], sixty years before the [[Trojan War]]. He instituted the [[Lupercalia]].
The oldest tradition of its founding ascribes to Evander the erection of the [[Great Altar of Hercules]] in the [[Forum Boarium]]. In Virgil's ''[[Aeneid]]'', VIII, where Aeneas and his crew first come upon them, Evander and his people are engaged in venerating Hercules for having dispatched the giant [[Cacus]]. Virgil's listeners recognized the very same [[Great Altar of Hercules]] in the Forum Boarium of their own day, one detail among the passages that Virgil has saturated with references linking a heroic past with the [[Caesar Augustus|Age of Augustus]]. As Virgil's backstory goes, [[Hercules]] had been returning from [[Gades]] with [[Geryon]]'s cattle when Evander entertained him and was the first to raise an altar to this hero. The archaic altar was destroyed in the [[Great Fire of Rome]], AD [[64]].
Evander was born to [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] and [[Carmenta]], and his wisdom was beyond that of all [[Arcadian]]s. According to [[Virgil]] <ref>'''[[Aeneid]]'', viii</ref>, previous to the [[Trojan War]], he gathered a group of natives to a city he founded in [[Italy]] near the [[Tiber]] river, which he named [[Pallantium]]. Virgil states that he named the city in honor of his son, [[Pallas (son of Evander)|Pallas]], although [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] says that Evander's birth city was Pallantium, thus he named the new city after the one in Arcadia.
Since he met [[Anchises]] before the Trojan War, Evander aids [[Aeneas]]<ref> They share descent through their common ancestor [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]]</ref> in his battle against the [[Rutuli]] under the [[autochthonous]] leader [[Turnus]] and plays a major role in ''Aeneid'' Book XII.
Evander was deified after his death and had an altar constructed in his name on the [[Aventine Hill]].
Pallas apparently died childless, leaving the natives under Turnus to ravage his kingdom.
==Notes==
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[[Category:Roman gods]]
[[Category:Inventors of writing systems]]
[[Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]
[[ca:Evandre]]
[[el:Εύανδρος]]
[[de:Euander]]
[[fr:Évandre]]
[[it:Evandro (mitologia)]]
[[nl:Euander]]
[[pl:Ewander]]
[[pt:Evandro]]
[[ru:Эвандр (мифология)]]
[[sr:Евандер]]
[[sv:Evander]]