Amata
Amata (also called Palanto), in Roman mythology, was the wife of King Latinus of the Latins. She and Latinus had a daughter, Lavinia, and no sons. When the hero Aeneas sued for Lavinia's hand in marriage, Amata opposed him because she had already promised Lavinia to Aeneas' nemesis Turnus. At the same time she was instigated by Alecto, who acted according to the request of Juno. Hiding her daughter in the woods and arousing the womenfolk of the Latins, she managed to stir up the war between the Latins (now allied with Turnus) and Aeneas' Trojans (allied with the Etruscans and King Evander's people). This story fills the greater part of the seventh book of Virgil's Aeneid. When Amata was informed that Turnus had fallen in battle, she hanged herself.[1][2][3]
[edit] References
- ^ Virgil, Aeneid, XII.593-613.
- ^ Dionys. i. 64
- ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Amata". In William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 137. http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0146.html.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).
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