According to
Roman mythology, Amata (also called Palanto) was the wife of
Latinus
Latinus ( la, Latinus; Ancient Greek: Λατῖνος, ''Latînos'', or Λατεῖνος, ''Lateînos'') was a figure in both Greek and Roman mythology. He is often associated with the heroes of the Trojan War, namely Odysseus and Aeneas. Alth ...
, king of the
Latins
The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic.
Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ...
, and the mother of their only child,
Lavinia
In Roman mythology, Lavinia ( ; ) is the daughter of Latinus and Amata, and the last wife of Aeneas.
Creation
It has been proposed that the character was in part intended to represent Servilia Isaurica, Emperor Augustus's first fiancée.
Stor ...
. In the
Aeneid of
Virgil, she commits suicide during the conflict between
Aeneas and
Turnus over which of them would marry Lavinia.
When Aeneas asks for Lavinia's hand, Amata objects, because she has already been promised to Turnus, the king of the
Rutulians. Hiding her daughter in the woods, she enlists the other Latin women to instigate a war between the two. Turnus, and his ally
Mezentius, leader of the
Etruscans, are defeated by Aeneas with the assistance of the Pelasgian colonists from Arcadia and
Italic natives of
Pallantium
Pallantium ( grc, Παλλάντιον) was an ancient city near the Tiber river on the Italian peninsula. Roman mythology, as recounted in Virgil's '' Aeneid'' for example, states that the city was founded by Evander of Pallene and other a ...
, led by that city's founder, the
Arcadian
Evander of Pallene. The story of this conflict fills the greater part of the seventh book of
Virgil's ''
Aeneid''. When Amata believes that Turnus had fallen in battle, she hangs herself.
Amata's suicide is also referred to in Canto 17 of ''
Purgatorio'', the second canticle of
Dante Alighieri's ''
Divine Comedy'', to demonstrate dreadful effects of anger. Dante imagines a mournful Lavinia, reproaching her mother, Amata, for the grief which her suicide has inflicted. Parallels have been drawn between Dante and his representation of Amata in ''Purgatorio''. After his exile from Florence and the
Black Guelph takeover, Dante may have experienced that same self-recrimination experienced by Amata, which led to her suicide.
References
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Characters in Roman mythology
Characters in the Aeneid
Mythological queens
Latins (Italic tribe)
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