Pallas (son of Evander)

In Roman mythology, Pallas was the son of King Evander. In Virgil's "Aeneid" Book VIII [Virgil, "Aeneid" VIII.514ff] , Evander allows Pallas to fight against the Rutuli with Aeneas, who takes him and treats him like his own son Ascanius.In battle, Pallas proves he is a warrior, killing many Rutulians, [Virgul, "Aeneid" X.365-425] and compared to the Rutulian Lausus, son of Mezentius. [Virgil, "Aeneid" X.426-438] Tragically however, Pallas is eventually killed by Turnus, [Virgil, "Aeneid" X.453-489] who takes his sword-belt as a spoil [Virgil, "Aeneid" X.496] . Throughout the rest of Book X, Aeneas is filled with rage ("furor") at the death of the youth, and he rushes through the Latin lines and mercilessly kills his way to Turnus. Turnus, however, is lured away by Juno so that he might be spared, and Aeneas kills Lausus, instead, which he instantly regrets. [Virgil, "Aeneid" X.815-830] A battle ensues between Mezentius and Aeneas, and Aeneas kills Mezentius. [Virgil, "Aeneid" X.896-908]

Pallas' body is sent back to Evander, who grieves at his loss. [Virgil, "Aeneid" XI.139ff] However, Pallas' story does not stop there - at the end of Book XII, as Turnus is finally defeated and begs for his life, Aeneas almost forgives him, but catches sight of Pallas' baldric, Turnus' fateful spoils. [Virgil, "Aeneid" XII.940-end] This drives Aeneas into another murderous rage, and the epic ends as he kills Turnus in revenge for Pallas' death. There is an obvious similarity between the latter killing and Achilles killing Hector in revenge for the death of Patroclus in the "Iliad".

Pallas and Lausus are just two of the many young men who die tragically in the "Aeneid", and they serve as representations of the themes of tragedy of war and failure of youth that run throughout Virgil's epic.

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