Evander

Evander (Gr. Εὔανδρος, “good man”), in Roman legend, son of Mercury and Carmenta, or of Echemus, king of Arcadia. According to the story, Evander left the Arcadian town of Pallantion about sixty years before the Trojan War and founded Pallanteum or Palatium on the hill afterwards called the Palatine. This is only one of the many Greek legends adopted by the Romans for the purpose of connecting places in Italy with others of like-sounding name in Greece. To Evander was attributed the introduction of Greek rites and customs into his new country; of writing, music and other arts; of the worship of Pan (called Faunus by the Italians) and the festival of Lupercalia. In Virgil he receives Aeneas hospitably, and assists him against Turnus. Probably Evander was identical with the god Faunus (the “favourer”), and the tale of his Arcadian origin was due to the desire to establish connexion with Greece; the name of his reputed mother (or wife) Carmenta is genuinely Italian.

See Livy i. 6. 7; Ovid, Fasti, i. 471, v. 99; Dion. Halic. i. 31-33; Virgil, Aeneid, viii. 335.

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