Latinus

For the 4th-century warrior, seeLatinus (Alemanni).

Latinus fromGuillaume Rouillé'sPromptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Latinus(Latin:Latinus;Ancient Greek:Λατῖνος,Latînos,orΛατεῖνος,Lateînos) was a figure both inGreekandRoman mythology.He is often associated with the heroes of theTrojan War,namelyOdysseusandAeneas.Although his appearance in theAeneidis irreconcilable with his appearance inGreek mythology,the two pictures are not so different that he cannot be seen as one character.

Greek mythology

InHesiod'sTheogony,Latinus was the son ofOdysseusandCircewho ruled theTyrrhenianswith his brothers Agrius andTelegonus.According to the Byzantine authorJohn the Lydian,Hesiod,in theCatalogue of Women,considered Latinus to be the brother ofGraecus,who is described as the son ofZeusbyPandora,the daughter ofDeucalionandPyrrha.In hisFabularum Liber(orFabulae),Gaius Julius Hyginusrecorded the myth that Latinus was a son ofCirceandTelemachus(a son ofOdysseus) That relation possibly dated to the lost epicTelegonyofEugammon of Cyrene.He was also depicted as the son ofOdysseusandCalypso.

Roman mythology

Aeneas at the Court of LatinusbyFerdinand Bol;RijksmuseumAmsterdam

In laterRoman mythology(notablyVirgil'sAeneid), Latinus, or Lavinius, was a king of theLatins.He is sometimes described as the son ofFaunusandMarica,and father ofLaviniawith his wife,Amata.He hosted Aeneas's army of exiledTrojansand offered them the chance to reorganize their life inOld Latium.His wife Amata wished his daughter Lavinia to be betrothed toTurnus,king of theRutuli,but Latinus and the gods insisted that he give her instead toAeneas;consequently, Turnus declared war on Aeneas and was killed two weeks into the conflict.Ascanius,the son of Aeneas, later foundedAlba Longaand was the first in a long series of kings leading toRomulusandRemus,the founders ofRome.

English mythology

TheEnglishonce widely claimed as history,an original peopling of theisle— at the time a land only of fantasticalgiants— by descendants of the above-mentioned Eneas, perhaps via Latinus, and at least with Latinus asstep-familyof anancestor,though even in the time of theRenaissance,a non-Englishaudienceas well at least one Englishwriterfound details of the stories less than convincing.

The island known later asBritain,was also previously known asAlba,similarity of name supporting connection to the city ofAlba in Italy,said to have been built by Alcanius, son of Eneas, and third ruler of the Latins after Latinus, being either his grandson or step-grandson.

Even if one ignored obviously far-fetched elements of thisfoundation mythof Britain,Johannes Rastellwriting in1529questioned, along these lines: Supposing the original Brits were descendants of a line of Latin kings — Brute the son of Silvius, son of Alcanius, son of Eneas who came to theItalian peninsulafrom Troy — then why should such a fact have escaped record in thewritingsofJulius Caesarwhen that Romanmilitary supreme commanderhad personallysurveyedthe lands there he had conquered for Rome by48 BC?And indeed, why should the son Brutus have escaped from Latin histories altogether, given they did deal with Silvius and Alcanius, and 'all theyr childera & what became of them & how they endyd that succeeded them as kyngis'?

Other details he found were able to be discounted without resort to factual records, or with only very few facts needed other than everyday experience. Were the early inhabitants of Britain giants, descended fromthe Devilin union with 32 daughters of a kingDioclisian of Syria?To Rastell, if the devil had power to sow such seeds at the earlier time, then why not in his own time? Where were the giants today?

Other fanciful elements he reduced bylogical deductionfrom intuitivepsychological insights,for example the greatly diminished chance of 32 daughtersmarriedto 32 kings on a single day, and all cooperating tokillthose 32 husbands in a single night; or in combination with analysis oflogisticalrealities, such as the suggestedvoyageof all 32 murderouswidowsto Britain without dispersion or diversion, over three thousand miles.

Our renaissance writer Rastell was further able to discount the likelihood of any factuality to that ancient tale, due to his failure to discover after diligent research, any authentic record of its origin or explanation as to why such record should be absent.

Further reading

• One surviving version of theBrut chronicleis a late Middle Ages manuscript, known as theSt Albans Chronicle.

See also

• Latium
• Latin kings of Alba Longa
• Aborigines (mythology)

References

• Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology",Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
• Hesiod,Catalogue of Women,inHesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments,edited and translated byGlenn W. Most,Loeb Classical LibraryNo. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press,2007, 2018.ISBN978-0-674-99721-9.Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Livy,Ab urbe condita,1:1-2
• Merkelbach, R., andM. L. West,Fragmenta Hesiodea,Clarendon PressOxford, 1967.ISBN978-0-19-814171-6.
• Virgil,Aeneid,VII, 45, 52, 69, 96.
• Publius Vergilius Maro,Aeneid.Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Vergilius Maro,Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics.J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900.Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.