Misenus
InGreekandRomanmythology,Misenus(Μισηνός) was a name attributed to two individuals.
- Misenus was a friend ofOdysseus.
- Misenus was a character inVirgil's epic poem theAeneid.He was a brother-in-arms ofHectorand, after Hector's death,Aeneas' trumpeter. In Book VI, it is revealed that he had challenged the gods to a musical contest on the conch shell, and for his impudence was drowned byTriton.Aeneas was told by theCumaean Sibylat that time that Misenus's body had to be buried before he could enter the Underworld.[1]The passage detailing the funeral rites, performed by the Trojan priestCorynaeus,gives an insight into Roman burial customs and the importance the Romans placed on respect for the dead. It is regarded as the passage of theAeneidmost imitative of theAnnalesofEnnius.Cape Misenum,nearCumae,is supposedly named for Misenus, as noted in Virgil'sAeneid.His being calledAeolidesarose from the legendary connection between the Aeolian and Campanian Cumae.[2]
References[edit]
- ^AeneidVI
- ^Schmitz, Leonhard (1867),"Misenus",in Smith, William (ed.),Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,vol. 2, p. 1093