# Erulus

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{{redirect|Erylus|the beetle genus|Colydiinae}}
In [Vergil](/source/Vergil)'s ''[Aeneid](/source/Aeneid)'', '''Erulus''' is a king of [Praeneste](/source/Praeneste). At birth, he was given three souls (''animae'') by his mother, the goddess [Feronia](/source/Feronia_(mythology)), who also tripled his ability to defend himself by giving him three sets of arms.

Vergil tells his story through the [Arcadia](/source/Arcadia_(ancient_region))n king [Evander](/source/Evander_of_Pallene), founder of [Pallantium](/source/Pallantium), who allies with the [Trojan](/source/Troy) immigrants led by [Aeneas](/source/Aeneas). Evander regrets that the frailty of old age keeps him from fighting at Aeneas's side, and reminisces about the warrior deeds of his youth:

[[File:Herakles Geryon Cdm Paris 202.jpg|thumb|A Southern Italian [amphora](/source/amphora) (6th-century BC) depicting the triple-warrior Geryon, after whom Vergil may have modeled '''Erulus''']]

{{cquote|If only [Jupiter](/source/Jupiter_(mythology)) would give me back<br>The past years and the man I was, when I<br>Cut down the front rank by Praeneste wall<br>And won the fight and burned the piles of shields!<br>I had dispatched to Hell<ref>"Hell" translates [Tartarus](/source/Tartarus).</ref> with this right hand<br>King Erulus, to whom Feronia,<br>His mother, gave three lives at birth—a thing<br>To chill the blood—three sets of arms to fight with,<br>So that he had to be brought down three times.<br>Yet this hand took his lives that day, took all,<br>And each time took his arms …<ref>Vergil, ''Aeneid'' 8.560–567, as translated by [Robert Fitzgerald](/source/Robert_Fitzgerald).</ref>}}

No other literary source mentions Erulus; he may be Vergil's pure invention, based on the mythological figure [Geryon](/source/Geryon),<ref>P.T. Eden, ''A [Commentary](/source/Commentary_(philology)) on Virgil:'' Aeneid'' VII'' (Brill, 1975), p. 155 [https://books.google.com/books?id=B7cfAAAAIAAJ&dq=Erulus+Aeneid+OR+Vergil+OR+Virgil+OR+Evander&pg=PA155 online.]</ref> or given that [his mother's cult](/source/Feronia_(mythology)) is represented only sparsely in literary sources, he may belong to an archaic tradition to which no other reference survives.<ref>Nicholas Horsfall, ''Virgil,'' Aeneid'' 11: A Commentary'' (Brill, 2003), p. 445 [https://books.google.com/books?id=PsHAZ-J4fewC&dq=Erulus&pg=PA445 online.]</ref> Some scholars have seen Erulus as an influence on [Spenser](/source/Edmund_Spenser)'s conception of Triamond's three-fold life in ''[The Faerie Queene](/source/The_Faerie_Queene)''.<ref>Alastair Fowler, ''Spenser and the Numbers of Time'' (Routledge, 1964), p. 28, note 1 [https://books.google.com/books?id=NkgVAAAAIAAJ&dq=Erulus+Aeneid+OR+Vergil+OR+Virgil+OR+Evander&pg=PA28 online.]</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

Category:Kings in Roman mythology
Category:Characters in the Aeneid

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Erulus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erulus) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erulus?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.