Tyrrhe'nus
(
Τυρρηνός or
Τυρσηνός), a son of the Lydian king Atys and Callithea, and a brother of Lydus, is said to have led a Pelasgian colony from Lydia into Italy, into the country of the Umbrians, and to have given to the colonists his name, Tyrrhenians. (
Hdt. 4.94;
Dionys. A. R. 1.27.) Others call Tyrrhenus a son of Heracles by Omphale (
Dionys. A. R. 1.28), or of Telephus and Hiera, and a brother of Tarchon. (Tzetz.
ad Lyc. 1242, 1249.)
The name Tarchon seems to be only another form for Tyrrhenus, and the two names represent a Pelasgian hero founding settlements in the north of Italy. (Comp. Müller,
Die Etrusker, vol. i. p. 72, &c.)
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L.S]