Palinurus, in Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...

, is the helmsman of a ship of the Trojan

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

 hero Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

, whose descendants would one day found the city of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. As the price for the safe passage of Aeneas and his people from Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 to Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Palinurus loses his life, one on behalf of many ('unum pro multis dabitur caput' according to Vergil's "Neptune" (Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

 5.815). Somnus causes Palinurus to fall asleep and fall overboard. (Palinurus' own version at Aeneid 6.349 does not blame the god.) He is then stranded on the coast of Lucania

Lucania

Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium...

, in southern Italy, where he is killed by a native tribe, the Lucani

Lucani

Lučani is a town and municipality located in the Dragačevo region within the Moravica District of Serbia . The population of the town is 3,425, while population of the municipality was 20,855....

. When Aeneas and the Sibyl

Sibyl

The word Sibyl comes from the Greek word σίβυλλα sibylla, meaning prophetess. The earliest oracular seeresses known as the sibyls of antiquity, "who admittedly are known only through legend" prophesied at certain holy sites, under the divine influence of a deity, originally— at Delphi and...

 meet Palinurus in the Underworld, the Sibyl promises that the local people will be moved by signs to provide the helmsman's body with a proper burial, at what is now Cape Palinuro

Cape Palinuro

Cape Palinuro is located in southeastern Italy, approximately 40 miles southwest of Salerno, in southern part of Cilento region. It is supposedly named after Palinurus, the helmsman of Aeneas' ship in Virgil's Aeneid. -Geography:Northern side of the cape is the location of Palinuro, a touristic...

.

Palinurus is mentioned in Utopia

Utopia (book)

Utopia is a work of fiction by Thomas More published in 1516...

by Sir Thomas More as a type of careless traveller. "'Then you're not quite right,' he replied, 'for his sailing has not been like that of Palinurus, but more that of Ulysses, or rather of Plato. This man, who is named Raphael.'" This is unfair, as Palinurus conscientiously refused to let the disguised Somnus take the tiller, claiming that although the sea was calm, he could not risk going off duty. Somnus was forced to use magic to make Palinurus sleep.

Palinurus was the pseudonym chosen by Cyril Connolly

Cyril Connolly

Cyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon and wrote Enemies of Promise , which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of...

 for his book The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle, and used to refer disparagingly to him by Alaric Jacob

Alaric Jacob

Harold Alaric Jacob was an English writer and journalist. He was Reuters correspondent in Washington in the 1930s, and a war correspondent during World War II in North Africa, Burma and Moscow.-Early life:...

 in Scenes from a Bourgeois Life

Scenes from a Bourgeois Life

Scenes from a Bourgeois Life is an autobiographical novel by the British author Alaric Jacob, first published in 1949.-Summary:The book is an apologia for the paradoxes and anomalies of the author's own career. Jacob had drifted into journalism and become a Reuter's correspondent, first in London...

.

The singer-songwriter Peter Hammill

Peter Hammill

Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English singer-songwriter, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano...

 recorded a song called "Palinurus (Castaway)" on his 1978 album The Future Now

The Future Now

The Future Now is an album by Peter Hammill, released on Charisma Records in 1978. It was the first solo album Hammill released following the breakup of his band Van der Graaf Generator, although he had released numerous solo albums while VdGG were active...

, with lyrics vaguely invoking Palinurus's sea voyage, including the pun "it's all Greek to me", though Palinurus was Trojan.