Latinus

Latinus was an important person in both Greek and Roman mythology. He is linked to big heroes from the Trojan War, like Odysseus and Aeneas. People tell stories about Latinus in many ways, so he looks different in Greek stories than in Roman ones. This shows he is not the same character in both groups of tales.

Greek mythology

In ancient stories, Latinus was shown in many ways. Some tales say he was the son of Odysseus and Circe, ruling with his brothers a group of people called the Tyrrhenians. Other stories say he was the brother of Graecus, 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 parts 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 told stories about how their island, Britain, was first settled. These stories had a hero named Eneas and a person named Latinus. At the time, people thought the island was home to giants.

Some people, like Johannes Rastell, did not believe these stories. He wondered why famous writers like Julius Caesar did not mention these kings and heroes when they wrote about the lands they visited. He also questioned other unusual parts of the story, like giants living on the island. Rastell could not find real proof that these stories were true.