Latinus

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For the 4th-century warrior, see Latinus (Alemanni).
Latinus from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Latinus (

Latin: Latinus; Ancient Greek: Λατῖνος, Latînos, or Λατεῖνος, Lateînos) was a figure both in Greek and Roman mythology. He is often associated with the heroes of the Trojan War, namely Odysseus and Aeneas. Although his appearance in the Aeneid is irreconcilable with his appearance in Greek mythology, the two pictures are not so different that he cannot be seen as one character.[citation needed
]

Greek mythology

In Hesiod's Theogony,[1] Latinus was the son of Odysseus and Circe who ruled the Tyrrhenians with his brothers Agrius and Telegonus. According to the Byzantine author John the Lydian, Hesiod, in the Catalogue of Women, considered Latinus to be the brother of Graecus, who is described as the son of Zeus by Pandora, the daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha.[2] He was also depicted as the son of Odysseus and Calypso.[3]

Roman mythology

Aeneas at the Court of Latinus by Ferdinand Bol; Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

In later

Remus, the founders of Rome
.

English mythology

The

step-family of an ancestor, though even in the time of the Renaissance, a non-English audience as well at least one English writer found details of the stories less than convincing.[6]

The island known later as

Alba 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 this

writings of Julius Caesar when that Roman military supreme commander had personally surveyed the lands there he had conquered for Rome by 48 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 from

the Devil in union with 32 daughters of a king Dioclisian 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 by

logical deduction from intuitive psychological insights, for example the greatly diminished chance of 32 daughters married to 32 kings on a single day, and all cooperating to kill those 32 husbands in a single night ; or in combination with analysis of logistical realities, such as the suggested voyage of all 32 murderous widows
to 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

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Lines 1011–1016.
  2. ^ Hesiod, Catalogue of Women fr. 2 Most, pp. 42–5 [= fr. 5 Merkelbach-West, pp. 5–6 = John the Lydian, De Mensibus 1.13].
  3. ^ Apollodorus, E.7.24.
  4. ISBN 978-0-415-18636-0
    .
  5. ^ "About the Brut Chronicle and Manuscript 255". quod.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 20 Jan 2022.
  6. ^ Rastell, Johannes (1529). The pastyme of people. in chepesyde at the sygne of the mearemayd next to pollys gate.
  7. ^ The St Albans Chronicle. 1400.

References

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Legendary titles
New creation
king of the Aborigines

1217–1180 BC 		Succeeded by
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