Latinus - Definition and Overview

Latinus or Latinos in Greek mythology, in Hesiod's Theogony, was the son of Odysseus and Circe who ruled the Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans, with his brothers Agrius and Telegonus.

In later Roman mythology Latinus is sometimes the son of Faunus and Marica and father of Lavinia with his wife, Amata.

In Roman mythology, Latinus or Latium was a king of the Latins. He hosted Aeneas' army of exiled Trojans and let them reorganize their life in Latium. His daughter Lavinia had been promised to Turnus, king of the Rutuli, but Latinus preferred to offer her to Aeneas; Turnus consequently declared war on Aeneas (at the urging of Hera). The outcome was that Turnus was killed and his people captured. Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, founded Albalonga and was the first in a long series of kings.

See Latium

Virgil VII, 45, 52, 69, 96.