Latinus

Latinus was an important figure in both Greek and Roman mythology. He is connected to the great heroes of the Trojan War, especially Odysseus and Aeneas. People have told stories about Latinus in different ways, so he appears differently in Greek tales compared to Roman ones. This makes it clear that he is not the same character in both sets of stories.

Greek mythology

In ancient stories, Latinus was described in different ways. Some tales say he was the son of Odysseus and Circe, ruling with his brothers over a group of people called the Tyrrhenians. Other stories tell of him being a brother to Graecus, who was the child of Zeus and a woman named Pandora. There are also myths where Latinus is the child of Circe and Telemachus, who was Odysseus’s son, or even the child of Odysseus and another woman named Calypso. These different stories show that Latinus had many roles in the old myths.

Roman mythology

In later Roman mythology, especially in Virgil's Aeneid, Latinus, or Lavinius, was a king of the Latins. He is sometimes said to be the son of Faunus and Marica, and the father of Lavinia with his wife, Amata. Some stories say he was actually a son of Heracles.

Latinus welcomed Aeneas and his army of exiled Trojans, giving them a place to rebuild their lives in Old Latium. There was a disagreement about who Lavinia should marry. While his wife Amata wanted her to marry Turnus, the king of the Rutuli, Latinus and the gods said she should marry Aeneas. This led to a war, and Turnus was killed early in the fighting. Later, Aeneas's son Ascanius founded Alba Longa. Ascanius was the first of many kings who led to Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.

English mythology

The English once told stories about how their island, Britain, was first settled. These stories included a hero named Eneas and a person named Latinus. At the time, the island was thought to be a place of giant beings.

Some people, like Johannes Rastell, thought these stories were not true. They wondered why famous writers like Julius Caesar did not write about these kings and heroes when they described the lands they visited. They also questioned other strange parts of the story, like giants living on the island or unusual events involving many people happening all at once. Rastell could not find real proof that these stories were true.