InRoman mythology,Evander (fromGreekΕὔανδρος meaning "good man" or "strong man": an etymology used by poets to emphasize the hero's virtue)[1] was aculture hero fromArcadia, Greece, who was said to have brought thepantheon,laws, andalphabet of Greece toancient Italy, where he founded the city ofPallantium on the future site ofPalatine Hill,Rome, sixty years before theTrojan War. He instituted the festival of theLupercalia. Evander was deified after his death and an altar was constructed to him on theAventine Hill.
In addition,Strabo mentions a story that Rome was an Arcadian colony founded by Evander.[2]
Dionysius of Halicarnassus writes that Evander was the son ofHermes and a local nymph of theArcadians, called Themis. He also mentions that the writers of the early history of Rome called her, in their native language,Carmenta.[3] Strabo writes that the Romans honour the mother of Evander, regarding her as one of the nymphs, and have renamed her Carmenta (a derivation of theLatin word for song).[2]Evander's wisdom was beyond that of allArcadians. His sonPallas apparently died childless; however, thegensFabia claimed descent from Evander through his grandsonFabius, son ofHercules by a daughter of Evander.[4]
Dionysius of Halicarnassus also mentions that some writers, includingPolybius of Megalopolis say that Lavinia was the daughter of Evander and had a son withHeracles who was named Pallas.[5]
Evander plays a major role in Virgil'sAeneid Books VIII-XII. Previous to theTrojan War, Evander gathered a group of native Latins to a city he founded in Italy near theTiber river, which he named Pallantium.[6] Virgil states that he named the city in honour of his Arcadian ancestor, Pallas, althoughPausanias,Livy[7] andDionysius of Halicarnassus[8] say that originally Evander's birth city was Pallantium in Arcadia, after which he named the new city. The reasons for Evander's fleeing his homeland are unclear; Ovid states that Evander had angered the gods and had been sent into exile by way of a trial[citation needed]; Dionysius describes a civil unrest in Arcadia which led to Evander and his people being forced to leave; the commentator Servius, however, recounts that Evander's mother persuaded him to murder his father,Hermes, leading to the pair being banished from Arcadia, although other commentators have it that Evander killed his mother. Evander settled inPallantium where it is said he killed the three-souledErulus, the king of Italy, three times in one day, prior to becoming the most powerful King of Italy.
The oldest tradition of its founding ascribes to Evander the erection of theGreat Altar of Hercules in theForum Boarium. InAeneid, VIII, whereAeneas and his crew first come upon Evander and his people, they were veneratingHercules for dispatching the giantCacus. Virgil's listeners would have related this scene to the same Great Altar of Hercules in the Forum Boarium of their own day, one detail among many in the Aeneid that Virgil used to link the heroic past of myth with theAge of Augustus. Also according to Virgil, Hercules was returning fromGades withGeryon's cattle when Evander entertained him. Evander then became the first to raise an altar to Hercules' heroism. This archaic altar was destroyed in theGreat Fire of Rome, AD 64.
Because of their traditional ties, Evander aidsAeneas in his war againstTurnus and theRutuli: the Arcadian had known the father of Aeneas,Anchises, before the Trojan War, and shares a common ancestry throughAtlas with Aeneas's family. In the Aeneid, it is said that Evander took possession of the country Italy by force, murdering king Herilus, the king ofPraeneste.
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