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InRoman mythology,Pallas (/ˈpæləs/;Ancient Greek: Πάλλας) was the son or grandson of KingEvander.
InVirgil'sAeneid, Evander allows his son Pallas to fight against theRutuli withAeneas, who takes him and treats him like his own sonAscanius.[1] In battle, Pallas proves he is a warrior, killing many Rutulians.[2] Pallas is often compared to the Rutulian Lausus, son ofMezentius, who also dies young in battle.[3] Tragically, however, Pallas is eventually killed byTurnus,[4] who takes his sword-belt, which is decorated with the scene of thefifty slaughtered bridegrooms, as a spoil.[5] Throughout the rest of Book X, Aeneas is filled with rage (furor) at the death of the youth, and he rushes through the Latin lines and mercilessly kills his way to Turnus. Turnus, however, is lured away by Juno so that he might be spared, and Aeneas killsLausus, instead, which moves Aeneas to pity.[6]
Pallas' body is carried on his shield back to Evander, who grieves at his loss.[7] However, Pallas' story does not stop there – at the end of Book XII, as Turnus is finally defeated and begs for his life, Aeneas almost spares him, but catches sight of Pallas' baldric, Turnus' fateful spoils.[8] This drives Aeneas into another murderous rage, and the epic ends as he kills Turnus in revenge for Pallas' death. There is an obvious similarity between the latter killing andAchilles killingHector in revenge for the death ofPatroclus in theIliad.
A variant of the myth byDionysius of Halicarnassus says that Pallas was the son ofHercules by Lavinia, daughter of Evander, rather than the son of the latter,[9] although, according toSilius Italicus, Evander's grandson born to Hercules was calledFabius.[10]