Evander
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
(Εὔανδρος).
1. A son of Hermes by an Arcadian nymph, a daughter of Ladon, who is called Themis or Nicostrata, and in Roman traditions Cannenta or Tiburtis. (Paus. 8.43.2; Plnt. Quaest. Rom. 53; Dionys. A. R. 1.31; Serv. ad Aen. 8.336.) Evander is also called a son of Echemus and Timandra. (Serv. ad Aen. 8.130.) About sixty years previous to the Trojan war, Evander is said to have led a Pelasgian colony from Pallantium in Arcadia into Italy. The cause of this emigration was, according to Dionysius, a civil feud among the people, in which the party of Evander was defeated, and therefore left their country of their own accord. Servius, on the other hand, relates that Evander had killed his father at the instigation of his mother, and that he was obliged to quit Arcadia on that account. (Serv. ad Aen. 8.51; comp. Ov. Fast. 1.480.) He landed in Italy on the banks of the Tiber, at the foot of the Palatine Hill, and was hospitably received by king Turnus. According to Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 8.562), however, Evander took possession of the country by force of arms, and slew Herilus, king of Praeneste, who had attempted to expel him. He built a town Pallantium, which was subsequently incorporated with Rome, and from which the names of Palatium and Palatinus were believed to have arisen. (Varro, de Ling. Lat. 5.53.) Evander is said to have taught his neighbours milder laws and the arts of peace and social life, and especially the art of writing, with which he himself had been made acquainted by Heracles (Plut. Quaest. Rom. 56), and music; he also introduced among them the worship of the Lycaean Pan, of Demeter, Poseidon, Heracles, and Nice. (Liv. 1.5; Dionys. A. R. 1.31, &c.; Ov. Fast. 1.471, 5.91; Paus. l.c.) Virgil (Aen. 8.51) represents Evander as still alive at the time when Aeneias arrived in Italy, and as forming an alliance with him against the Latins. (Comp. Serv. ad Aen. 8.157.) Evander had a son Pallas, and two daughters, Rome and Dyna. (Verg. A. 8.574; Serv. ad Aen. 1.277; Dionys. A. R. 1.32.) He was worshipped at Pallantium in Arcadia, as a hero, and that town was subsequently honoured by the emperor Antoninus with several privileges. Evander's statue at Pallantium stood by the side of that of his son Pallas. At Rome he had an altar at the foot of the Aventine. (Paus. 8.44.5; Dionys. l.c.)
2. A son of Priam. (Apollod. 3.12.5; Dict. Cret. 3.14.)
3. A son of the Lycian king Sarpedon, who took part in the Trojan war. (Diod.5.79.) [L.S]
(Εὔανδρος), a Phocian, was the pupil and successor of Lacydes as the head of the Academic School at Athens, about B. C. 215. Evander himself was succeeded by his pupil Hegesinus. Concerning the opinions and writings of this philosopher nothing is known. (D. L. 4.60; Cic. Ac. 2.6.) Several Pythagoreans of the name of Evander, who were natives of Croton, Metapontum, and Leontini, are mentioned by Iamblichus (Vit. Pyth. 36), and a Cretan Evander occurs in Plutarch. (Lysand. 23.) [L.S]
or, as we read in some MSS., AVIA'NUS EVANDER, lived at Rome in B. C. 50, in a part of the house of Memmius, and was on friendly terms with Cicero, from whose letters we learn that he was a sculptor. He seems to have been a freedman of M. Aemilius Avianius. (Ad Fam. 7.23, 13.2.) [L.S]
a sculptor and silver chaser, born at Athens, whence he was taken by M. Antonius to Alexandria. At the overthrow of Antony he fell into the power of Octavian, and was carried among the captives to Rome, where he executed many admirable works. Pliny mentions a statue of Diana at Rome by Timotheus, the head of which was restored by Evander. (Plin. Nat. 36.5. s. 4.10; Thiersch, Epochen, pp. 303, 304.) Some writers suppose that Horace refers to his works (Sat. 1.3. 90), but the passage seems to be rather a satirical allusion to vases prized for their antiquity--as old as king Evander. [P.S]
(Εὔανδρος, “the good man”). A figure in Latin mythology. He was said to be the son of Hermes and an Arcadian nymph (Pausan. viii. 43. 2; Quaest. Rom. 53). Sixty years before the Trojan War he led a Pelasgian colony to Latium from Pallantium in Arcadia, and founded a city, Pallantium, near the Tiber, on the hill which was afterwards named after it the Palatine. Further it was said that he taught the rude inhabitants of the country writing, music, and other arts; and introduced from Arcadia the worship of certain gods, in particular of Pan, whom the Italians called Faunus, with the festival of the Lupercalia (q.v.), which was held in his honour. Evander was worshipped at Rome among the heroes of the country (see Indigetes), and had an altar on the Aventine Hill. But the whole story is evidently an invention of Greek scholars, who derived the Lupercalia from the Arcadian Lycaea. The name Εὔανδρος is perhaps a translation of the Italian Faunus, while Carmenta, his mother, is an ancient Italian goddess; but on this, see Nettleship, Lectures and Essays, pp. 50 foll.
Pallas, the son of Evander, is in like manner a creation of the poets. In Vergil he marches, at the command of his father, to assist Aeneas, and falls in single combat with Turnus. (See Verg. Aen. viii. 575.) Evander had also two daughters, Romé and Dyna.
- leads Arcadian colony from Pallantium to Italy and founds Rome: Paus. 8.43.2
- his image at Pallantium: Paus. 8.44.5
- Apollod. 3.12.5