Mezentius
King of Caere · Etruscan King · Despiser of the Gods
Mezentius in Roman tradition
He tied a subject to a corpse and left him to die. Mezentius was a tyrant and king of the Tyrrhenians. He killed those who resisted him and drove a multitude into flight. He had no supernatural form or parentage, and was the father of Lausus.
Mezentius belongs to the myths of the war in Italy. After being expelled from his own country for his cruelty, he aided Turnus against Aeneas and the Trojans, who sought to establish a new home in Italy. In one account, he fought Aeneas in single combat, and each killed the other. In another, Ascanius defeated him and he later joined the Trojans. In the account of his battle with Aeneas, his spear glanced from Aeneas's shield and struck Anthor, a Greek who had followed Evander into Italy.
The quick answers
Who is Mezentius?
Mezentius is a Roman being.Source
Source
- Bullfinch Mythology - The Age of Fable
- Classical Mythology a to Z
What family links are recorded for Mezentius?
1 child.
Mezentius’s family, at a glance
Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.
The names Mezentius answers to
Contemptor Divum
Despiser of the gods
SourceBullfinch Mythology - The Age of Fable
King of Caere
Ruler of Caere, also called Agylla
SourceBullfinch Mythology - The Age of Fable
Tyrant of Etruria
Harsh Etruscan ruler
SourceClassical Mythology a to Z
Mezentius, and where the myths place it
Appears in
The myths across MythSource where Mezentius features, each on that figure’s page.
- The Aborigines Unite with the Trojans · on Aborigines
- The Aborigines War with the Rutuli · on Aborigines
- Aemilia and Mars · on Aemilia
- Lavinia Gives Birth to Silvius · on Lavinia
- Lavinia Marries Aeneas · on Lavinia
- Lavinia Rules After Aeneas’s Death · on Lavinia
1 work catalogued
This is the candidate catalogue for Mezentius: candidate reworks first, then references, then names used as atmosphere. Nothing here has been checked against a source yet. Only reviewed myth-to-work links are promoted in Overview.
Showing 1 of 1 works.
Film1
- The AvengerRework
These are catalogue candidates, not proof that every work retells this figure. Reviewed myth-to-work links appear in Overview.
What this page is built from
About this page
Written and maintained by MythSource. Last reviewed not yet recorded. How a page gets built.
3 sources are cited on this page, primary texts and corpus scholarship, listed below.
Cite this page
MythSource. (n.d.). Mezentius. https://www.mythsource.com/figures/mezentius
"Mezentius." MythSource, n.d., www.mythsource.com/figures/mezentius.
"Mezentius." MythSource. n.d. https://www.mythsource.com/figures/mezentius.
The mythology summaries and identity fields on this page are grounded in the primary texts and scholarship above. The appearance table records candidates separately; only reviewed joins are presented as modern reworks in Overview.
The film
The Underdrawing video on Mezentius embeds here once it publishes.